Below, for anyone interested, is part of a new posting from an Off-Highway-Vehicle forum about the Endangered Species Act. Those who want to gut the Act are working hard. And it's clear that Pombo's bill is just their first step. Cindy *** Call Your Congressman Monday and Tuesday // Help Fix The ESA Don’t fail to do your part. House Resources Committee To Vote On ESA Wednesday September 21st. You can make a difference -- Help Fix The Endangered Species Act *****You’ll love the new bill. It is greatly improved over the first June draft. *****Call Your Congressman Monday and Tuesday, Sept. 19-20 You May Call Any Congressman At (202) 225-3121 Here Are Some Suggestions For What You Might Say: -----1. I support and want you to pass the Pombo ESA Update bill. Here are some additional reasons: -----2. Landowners, ranchers and businesses who lose property rights under the Endangered Species Act should be properly compensated. -----3. Recreation advocates, hunters, fishermen and off-highway vehicle users should not have their access cut off by the Endangered Species Act. There should be no net loss of recreation access. -----4. I don't want to lose all property rights improvements in the Pombo ESA bill by insisting on fixing everything wrong with the ESA in one bill. -----5. The future of conservation lies in establishing an entirely new foundation for the conservation of endangered species - one based on the truism that if you want more of something you reward people for it, not punish them. Incentives work better than penalties. -----6. Voluntary incentives should be available to landowners and businesses to encourage and compensate them for maintaining habitat for endangered or threatened species. -----7. I support an effort in Congress that will fix the ESA. I understand it may take several steps with more than one bill over a year or two to reach this objective. It makes sense that all the necessary changes are not likely to pass in one piece of legislation. -----8. I want to support property rights advocates in Congress to get the best deal we can get for farmers, business and landowners. I do not support an all or nothing approach that could save no landowners. -----9. The Act must require a plan to recover species before the species is listed. The ESA doesn’t require such a plan. Listing species just hurts landowners unless there is plan in place to actually recover species and protect landowners. ----10. The updated ESA should reaffirm the "takings clause" of the Constitution that ensures citizens just compensation for the taking of private property. ----11. Species should be managed using "best available scientific information", habitat should be designated after a recovery plan is in place and there should be extensive coordination with local and state governments before listing a species. ----12. Economic impacts and benefits should be considered before the designation of critical habitat so we do a better job of recovering species without endangering the livelihoods of American families. ----13. Protecting habitat should require an economic impact statement that accounts for the impact on landowners and communities. *** Cindy Hildebrand [log in to unmask] Ames, IA 50010 "The river bottoms are extencive rich and Covered with tall large timber, and the hollows of the reveins may be Said to be covered with timber Such as Oake ash Elm and Some walnut & hickory." (William Clark)