Date: Fri, 8 Jul 1994 19:45:37 -0400 (EDT) From: Competitive Enterprise Institute Subject: CEI LIST - CYNICAL MANIPULATION OF PATRIOTISM AND REVERENCE FOR OUR NATIONAL BIRD To: Recipients of the CEI List CYNICAL MANIPULATION OF PATRIOTISM AND REVERENCE FOR OUR NATIONAL BIRD by Brian Seasholes, CEI environmental research associate appeared in the *Houston Chronicle*, 7/3/94 With the Fourth of July upon us, the government is engaged in a cynical attempt to link the "success" of the Endangered Species Act with the celebration of this nation's independence. The alleged success story is the bald eagle, whose status will be upgraded from "endangered" to "threatened." "Without the act in place, we might have lost our national symbol along with many lesser known species," claims Mollie Beattie, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Not to be left out in the attempt to jump on the bald-eagle bandwagon, environmentalists are also claiming success. "The eagle's resurgence provides powerful evidence that the Endangered Species Act can and does work," says Melinda Pierce of the Sierra Club. However, the act is not the main reason the bald eagle has rebounded. In 1940, the Eagle Protection Act was passed, which made it a crime to harm live bald eagles or to remove any part of a dead eagle or an eagle's nest. In 1962, protection was extended to golden eagles because immature bald eagles were sometimes shot when mistaken for golden eagles. Then in 1972, Congress amended the act by increasing the fines and prison sentences that offenders could be assessed. "But the greatest threat to the bald eagle's existence arose with the widespread use of DDT and other pesticides after World War II," proclaims a Fish and Wildlife Service fact sheet. "Bald eagles... told us we were poisoning the Earth with DDT. We stopped and birds are back," wrote Mark Shaffer of the Wilderness Society. This may be so, but DDT was banned in 1972, one year prior to the passage of the Endangered Species Act. Therefore no relationship exists between the banning of DDT and the ESA. Yet proponents of the act largely ignore this in their eagerness to proclaim the bald eagle as an ESA "success." "The Endangered Species Act is the most innovative, wide-reaching and successful environmental law that has been passed in the past quarter-century," says Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. "I can cite case after case... the fact that the skies are once again graced by many bald eagles." But what is truly galling about some of these claims is the linking of the eagle's "success" under the Endangered Species Act with the celebration of this nation's anniversary. "The recovery of this species is a great success story. This Independence Day we will have additional reason to celebrate with the return of the bird that symbolizes our country's freedom and fierce pride," trumpets Beattie. "This is an especially glorious Fourth of July. America's eagle is back in the skies in force," adds Babbitt. But linking the Fourth of July with this specious and largely phony claim of an ESA "success" is a cynical manipulation of American patriotism and reverence for our national symbol. This holiday should be a celebration of the ideals of liberty, hard work and honesty on which this country was founded, not false claims of success. There are plenty of reasons to celebrate our day of independence and the bald eagle's return, but the Endangered Species Act is not one of them. _______ __________ ___________ / | / | | | |__________ | | | | \ | | \ _______ |__________ ___________ COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE 1001 Connecticut Ave. NW #1250 Washington, DC 20036 202-331-1010, fax 202-331-0640 Permission to copy granted as long as these lines are left intact. To subscribe to the cei list, send a message to cei@digex.com. "The Virtual Hand: CEI's free-market guide to the information superhighway" is available for $5. CEI's monthly newsletter, "CEI UpDate," is free to contributors of $25.