Cooperative Conservation Tour Comes to Boise, Idaho

10/6/2006 10:18:00 AM

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To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor

Contact: Tom Randall of the Save Our Species Alliance, 773-857-5086 or trandall@winningreen.com

News Advisory:

U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne will bring the Bush administration's "cooperative conservation" listening tour to Boise, October 9, in a public meeting to be held at 10 a.m. at Boise State University's Student Union Building, Hatch Ballroom, 1700 University Drive.

The tour is designed to gather input from local residents regarding efforts they feel would improve conservation efforts and make them friendlier to property owners.

A particular area of concern is modernization of the 32-year- old Endangered Species Act. To date, nearly 1300 species have been listed as threatened or endangered but only 10 have recovered sufficiently to be taken off the lists while over three times that number have been found to be extinct.

Most of those that have recovered have done so through efforts outside the provision of the current law. The recovered peregrine falcon, for example, recovered due to a privately- financed captive breeding program and the discontinuation of the use of DDT which, when used improperly, caused the birds' eggs to become brittle and crack.

Replacing the current law's arbitrary critical habitat mandates with provisions that allow more fully for cooperative conservation efforts between federal and local governments and landowners would be a giant step toward improving species' recovery while respecting property rights.

More on this subject is available at http://www.saveourspeciesalliance.org

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