"Al-Qaida only had to fly airplanes into buildings once," John Youngberg told the annual meeting of the Montana Wood Products Association. "After that, they only have to anonymously threaten to do so to put the United States on high alert.
"Likewise, environmental activists only had to have one success - the spotted owl - to put industry into a tailspin."
Farmers and ranchers are no different; they've spent millions of dollars trying to ward off the listing of prairie dogs and sage grouse, he said.
The result: Environmental groups now only need to ask the federal government to protect a species "and industry starts doing everything it can to prevent it," according to Youngberg. "Many times, we impose regulations on ourselves that are nearly as onerous as the listing itself."
The solution, Youngberg and others said during a panel discussion, is a comprehensive reform of the Endangered Species Act - reform that "allows species protection efforts to be compatible with landowner rights" and that compensates individuals for any lost use of their land.
Wood Products Association members devoted much of their morning to a look at the act and its impact on industry. Over lunch, they reminisced with Montana Gov. Judy Martz, making her last appearance before the group as the state's chief executive.
"This is a place that I will miss coming to every year," Martz said. "I feel at home; I feel like you are my friends."
The governor said she will continue working on timber industry issues after she leaves office in January, in part because her work over the past four years has been so successful.
As chair of the Western Governors' Association, Martz led the call for the Healthy Forests Restoration Act passed by Congress last year. It was proof, she said, "that one person with one group behind them can make a difference."
"You can't do it alone; every Olympian will tell you," said Martz, herself once an Olympic speed skater. "It's the people in the stands and the people back home, too."
The timber industry is stronger and healthier than it was four years ago, she said. Still, industry leaders must continue "beating on the door of those in Congress."
In fact, the Wood Products Association identified two legislative priorities at Friday's meeting: reform of the Endangered Species Act and the Equal Access to Justice Act.
The equal access law is a problem, MWPA president Steve Marks said, because it has given environmental groups a way to sue the federal government and stop timber sales at no cost to themselves.
Under the act, groups that are successful in challenging a federal action can recoup their legal expenses from the government.
Of highest priority, though, association members said, is revision of the Endangered Species Act.
"It's not working," Youngberg said. "Since its passage in 1973, more than 1,300 species have been listed. But depending on whose numbers you use, only seven to 12 species have been removed from the list."
The Montana farmers and ranchers who make up his group's membership are affected by endangered species every day, he said.
They're hundreds of millions of dollars poorer because of it, too, Youngberg said.
The poster species, he said, was the Prebles Meadow jumping mouse, which was listed for six years until scientists decided it was actually the same species as the abundant Bear Lodge Meadow jumping mouse.
In the interim, farmers, ranchers and others spent $100 million trying to protect the mouse and its habitat in Colorado and Wyoming, according to Youngberg.
That's why the Montana Farm Bureau wants to see the Endangered Species Act revised to eliminate listings based on sub-species, distinct populations or isolated populations of species that are plentiful in other areas of the United States or abroad, he said.
"We need changes in this law, and so do you," Youngberg told the timber workers. "And we can make it happen if we work together."
Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com
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