Alternatives to the Endangered Species Act forthcoming?

July 12, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brandon Middleton

Ron Micheli, Republican candidate for the Wyoming governorship, wants states to come up with a better approach to wildlife management:

Micheli said federal influence on wildlife and land management is a "huge issue" and that "no issue affects Wyoming more."

America’s founders intended the states to be "incubators of new
ideas," he said, a role they have failed to fulfill in issues
ranging from health care to wildlife management to energy
development.

"With cap-and-trade, we should be leading the charge," he
said.

Micheli said federal wildlife managers eventually listing the
greater sage grouse as an endangered species "could shut down this
state."

The Endangered Species Act "needs a major overhaul" and Wyoming and
other "states need to offer some alternatives," including promoting
incentives for landowners to protect threatened animals like sage
grouse, Micheli said.

He said the Endangered Species Act has become "about getting us off
the public land and taking away our private property rights. Until
we change that basic premise of the ESA, we are going to be under
its continuing negative influence."