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Just days after George W. Bush took the oath of President, Lynn Scarlett (President of the Libertarian "Reason Foundation" think-tank) had this to say on the nomination of Gale Norton to the post of Secretary of Interior:
"There are two world views on improving the environment — the old, and the new. The old vision is top-down, regulatory, punishment-driven. The new vision is bottom-up, technological, market-driven. New Environmentalism — of the kind practiced by President Bush's Interior nominee Gale Norton — makes the forces of green punishment and prescription uncomfortable."
-Lynn Scarlett on the "New Environmentalism" (U.S. Newswire, January 24, 2001)
Norton is long gone and disgraced but Norton's Deputy Secretary, Lynn Scarlett, remains. Today Scarlett is perhaps the most powerful person in America when it comes to dictating public-lands policy.
 I am no fan of market-driven New Environmentalism though a growing number of my peers within the conservation community are embracing this ideology. I suspect many of them will support Lynn Scarlett's latest proposal, that of Endangered Species Offsets. It was described last month by the US Fish and Wildlife Service as:
"...an innovative new program designed to help federal agencies conserve imperiled species on non-federal lands. The recovery crediting system gives federal agencies flexibility to offset the impact of their actions on threatened and endangered species found on federal lands by undertaking conservation actions on non-federal lands, as long as the affected species receive a net conservation benefit."
Appended is an Environmental News Service article describing the latest, proposed, addition to the growing stable of "New Environmental" innovations. Public Comments are being taken and additional details can be read in the Federal Register Notice, available at at this link.
Scott
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New Species Recovery Credits Intended to Offset Harm
WASHINGTON, DC, November 15, 2007 (ENS) - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service is seeking public comment on a new program designed to help
federal agencies conserve imperiled species on non-federal lands while
allowing them to suffer harm on federal lands.
The recovery crediting system gives federal agencies flexibility to
offset the impact of their actions on threatened and endangered species
on federal lands by undertaking conservation actions on non-federal
lands, as long as the affected species receive a net conservation
benefit.
The program is modeled on a pilot program developed at 339 square mile
Fort Hood in Texas, which the Army calls the "largest military post in
the free world." The program involved the Fish and Wildlife Service,
the Department of Defense, the Texas State Department of Agriculture
and other agencies.
Using the pilot recovery crediting system, the U.S. Army has been able
to fund habitat conservation and restoration projects with willing
local landowners on more than seven thousand acres of private land
surrounding the military base to benefit the endangered golden-cheeked
warbler.
Fort Hood provides training areas for troops deploying to Iraq and is
also inhabited by the largest known population of golden-cheeked
warblers in the endangered bird's breeding range.
Golden-cheeked warblers nest only in central Texas mixed Ashe-juniper
and oak woodlands in ravines and canyons. They come to Texas in March
to nest and raise their young, and leave in July to spend the winter in
Mexico and Central America. Of the nearly 360 bird species that breed
in Texas, the Golden-cheeked warbler is the only one that nests
exclusively in Texas.
The credits earned through off-base conservation efforts ensure that
the Army can conduct training at Fort Hood that damages the land, while
continuing to benefit the warbler elsewhere in its breeding range.
Kathy Wythe of the Texas Water Resources Institute, TWRI, says that
tanks with the two armored divisions at Fort Hood have seriously
damaged some of the training area, eroding and compacting the soil and
stripping the land of its most desirable plants.
She suggests that restoration of these lands would provide quality
training lands for military personnel and improve the natural resource.
In fact, more than 20 other scientists and land managers have
established over 500 acres of research and demonstration sites as part
of the Fort Hood Range Revegetation Pilot Project.
While restoration is taking place on the base, Fort Hood has also been
able to build partnerships off the base through the pilot program that
are expected to benefit the golden-cheeked warbler and other imperiled
species into the future.
"So many of our nation's imperiled species live on non-federal land,"
said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall. “This system will
make it easier for other federal agencies to reach out to the American
people and work with other landowners to do what we can’t do alone.”
President George W. Bush announced the new recovery crediting system
during his October 20 visit to Patuxent Research Refuge to discuss
preserving habitat for migratory birds and imperiled species.
The recovery crediting system provides incentives for private
landowners to conserve endangered species and foster environmental
stewardship of natural resources.
"Conservation success resides in nurturing a nation of citizen
stewards," said Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett. "The
recovery crediting system creates incentives for federal agencies to
join with local communities to conserve federally protected species and
give them a helping hand on the road to recovery."
Credits must be used to benefit the same species for which they were
earned. Hall says the Service will review each recovery crediting
system to ensure the net conservation benefits outweigh any potential
impacts that could occur during project implementation. Each proposal
will be evaluated on its own merit, and some activities related to
particular listed species may not be appropriate for the new credit
system.
This announcement on the recovery crediting system is draft guidance,
and the Service will be soliciting public comments on it until December
3. The draft guidance is online at:
http://www.fws.gov/endangered/policy/oct.2007.html.
Comments may also be faxed to 703/358-2175 or emailed to
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- Privatization 
