Mike Conaway: “As has been spoken earlier, the Endangered Species Act is broken. What began as a tool to help scientists protect…”

“As has been spoken earlier, the Endangered Species Act is broken. What began as a tool to help scientists protect vulnerable populations of endangered animals and plants has metastasized into an economic straitjacket from which there is no relief. To illustrate my point, I would like to share the stories of two species that make their home in west Texas: the Concho water snake and the dune sagebrush lizard. The Concho water snake was first listed as threatened on September 3, 1986. Since that time, the citizens of Texas have spent millions of dollars complying with Federal mandates, performing surveys, and generally advancing knowledge of the snake's biology far beyond that which existed when the snake was first listed in 1986. Today, there is little question that the snake's population is stable and exists in far greater numbers than during the original listing. Because of this research, the service proposed delisting the snake on July 8, 2008. This delisting should be a victory for the service and the supporters of the Endangered Species Act. Instead, it has collapsed into a maddening, saddening caricature of endless government bureaucracy. During a federally mandated 10-year study of the snake, researchers caught and released 9,000 individual snakes. The data collected was the basis for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission's decision to remove the snake from their threatened species list in August 2000.…”