Washington, D.C. – Senators are moving forward to give the Endangered Species Act a new year make over with legislation introduced today to reform the 32-year-old Act, according to U.S. Senator Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.

“This bill should bring a little Christmas cheer to Wyoming farmers and ranchers who have been working with us for years to break ground and modernize the act. We have a bill that will both help recover species and preserve landowner livelihood,” said Enzi.

The bipartisan bill would simplify the procedure through which landowners who work to recover species on their property can gain property rights protections. The bill would also create conservation credits landowners can earn and sell to other landowners. Landowners would also be able to take advantage of tax credits in proportion to the economic value lost due to species recovery actions. These credits could be sold to other landowners or organizations.

“This bill creates economic advantages for landowners who preserve habitat. The system we have now discourages landowners from helping with recovery. I worked specifically on the landowner’s incentives portion of the bill. Hundreds of common sense ideas from Wyoming citizens that I’ve heard through the years were the bedrock for my recommendations and negotiations on that piece of the bill,” said Enzi. “People that are closest to the species know the most about the problem and I regarded their input highly while forming this bill. I look forward to working on this legislation during the new year.”

The bill would also provide the states with an option of entering into a cooperative agreement with the Fish and Wildlife Service to allow landowners to enroll in voluntary state programs approved by the Secretary of the Interior. The bill would establish a priority system for species based on factors that include: the immediate risk of extinction, the likelihood of achieving recovery, the quality and quantity of available information, the degree to which recovering the species will help with the recovery of other species, and the degree to which recovering the species will resolve conflicts with other species or with people. Funding will be directed to as many top priority species as possible.

Enzi congratulated fellow members of the ESA Working Group including Senators Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., for their hard work on the bill. The House passed its version of an ESA reform bill on Sept. 29 by a vote of 229 - 193.

Enzi is a member of the Endangered Species Working Group and has been actively involved in working to update the ESA.

Enzi’s past efforts include the introduction of his Endangered Species Funding Act last Congress, S. 1178, which would amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to require the federal government to assume all costs relating to implementation of and compliance with that Act. It would include covering all costs related to the establishment of a state management plan, monitoring, consultation and administration, surveys, conservation agreements, land acquisitions, losses from predation, losses in value to real or personal property or any other cost imposed for mitigating management of a species covered by the ESA.