Tit for Habitat

Habitat conservation plans poorly monitored, sporadically effective

Today, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer kicks off a big three-day series on the increasingly ubiquitous but nonetheless poorly understood and poorly monitored phenomenon of habitat conservation plans (HCPs). Congress authorized the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to administer such plans in 1982, but it wasn't until the late '90s that they started catching on, as disgruntled landowners in Southern California threatened to sue the feds when the Endangered Species Act kept them from developing their property. HCPs, in exchange for some protection of species and habitat, offer landowners and developers permanent immunity from ESA lawsuits and authorization to off some endangered animals. There are now almost 400 HCPs in the U.S., covering some 37 million acres, and federal officials say current applications could raise that number to around 100 million acres. But the P-I's investigation found that while there's no evidence species have gone extinct under HCPs, no one knows if they're being protected, the process is being abused by local and state governments, there's little public input, and even land that is set aside as habitat is often poorly protected.