Posted on 11/21/2001 8:44:13 AM PST by enraged
Contact: Duane Desiderio, NAHB Director of Legal Services & Litigation 202-266-8146 OR Beth Bauer, OBIA Executive Vice-President 503-378-9066, EXT. 3 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NMFS OFFICIAL ADMITS CRITICAL HABITAT DESIGNATIONS FOR SALMON AND STEELHEAD ARE BASELESS
NMFS official remarks "We just designate everything as critical, without an analysis of how much habitat a [species] needs"
Salem, OR. (November 16, 2001) - The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) has uncovered a document in which a high-ranking National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) official admits that NMFS' critical habitat designations for west coast salmonids are baseless.
The Endangered Species Act limits critical habitat designations to only those areas that are "essential to the conservation of the species," and it requires NMFS to weigh the economic impacts of critical habitat protection before it is designated.
In an intra-agency memorandum, Donna Darm, who was NMFS acting Regional Administrator for the Northwest until October 1, said: "When we make critical habitat designations we just designate everything as critical, without an analysis of how much habitat an ESU needs . . . ." Darm added that no analysis of habitat need was performed "because we lack information."
NMFS has designated "everything" as critical habitat in over 150 watersheds blanketing California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. The designations have enormous regulatory impacts on the use of land and water because the Endangered Species Act prohibits any federal project, permit, or federally funded action from "adversely modifying" critical habitat. Federal critical habitat is also a key trigger for many state and local land use restrictions.
The regulatory demands of critical habitat are applied through a process called "consultation" under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act. The document uncovered by NAHB includes comments by Ms. Darm on NMFS' development of a habitat approach to consultation. She summarized NMFS' habitat approach, now used in all consultations, as follows: "We just say we need it all."
In a reference to the recent Alsea Valley Alliance court ruling invalidating NMFS' listing of Oregon coastal coho salmon as a threatened species, NAHB spokesman Duane Desiderio called Darm's statements "an example of NMFS' careless approach to ESA enforcement that has called all of its species listing decisions into question." Desiderio added, "critical habitat designations will be the next bricks to fall out of NMFS' regulatory wall."
In court papers filed in September with a federal district court in California, NMFS conceded that it failed to consider the economic impacts of critical habitat designations for salmon and steelhead, but argued that designations should remain in effect while NMFS conducts a review limited to economic issues.
The plaintiffs in the California lawsuit, and the NAHB, which has filed a similar lawsuit in Washington, D.C., maintain that NMFS' failure to consider economics, alone, is reason to invalidate its critical habitat designations. However, the documents recently uncovered by NAHB confirm that NMFS' critical habitat designations also lack any scientific foundation.
The NAHB leads a coalition of eight trade associations, including the Oregon Building Industry Association, and eight counties from four states who are challenging NMFS' critical habitat designations in a federal lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. The Oregon Building Industry Association filed comments during the open comment period on critical habitat designation in 1998 and is one of the original plaintiffs in the litigation. The lawsuit also challenges NMFS' designation of "essential fish habitat" for Pacific salmon on similar grounds. NMFS consults with federal agencies on essential fish habitat effects pursuant to the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation Management Act.
Documents and court papers referred to in this release are available on the internet at www.obia.net
Click on Domma Darms comments
See Page 2 of 6, Paragraph 3, under "General Comments"
Then go to hell "jimkress" you flamer!
Well, this is just the same way the Oregon Wildlife employee decided what level to set Klamath Lake at. His decision had no basis in science or fact but it was a great level of water for his deep hulled boat because the normal level of the lake wasn't deep enough!
This information needs to get out now!
This should take you there. But you need Adobe Acrobat to read the file.
www.stopfedlandgrab.org, GrandmaC's fine site, for more information on Land Grabs.
Thanks for the heads up AuntB. I've been in meetings for the last seven days straight. Carry_Okie spoke to our watershed group last night, he was great. I'm still cautiously optimistic on these developements. Gotta go..Happy Thanksgiving!!!
It's great to hear from You AuntB, I think about You and Arthur all the time. Along with all the Families there at Klamath Falls.
Hopefully this means things will be right this year. It was obvious to so many of us.
I'm still watching, Your Fight is my Fight.......
Peace AuntB
Happy Thanksgiving to you and my favorite pipe fitter.
Listen for the echo of your bonging...
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