Members of the House of Representatives were so convinced that the Endangered Species Act was an onerous law hindering development that last month they voted 229-193 to gut the law. Outside the beltway, where endangered species actually live, reality is contradicting their assumptions. About a third of the state of Maine was recently identified as critical habitat for the Canada lynx, an animal protected by the ESA. This news was met with quiet – not outrage and fury from landowners.

The Senate should remember this and kill the House ESA re-write when it takes up the issue early next year.

Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identified approximately 10,633 square miles of land, including much of Aroostook, Piscataquis and Somerset and small portions of Penobscot and Franklin counties, as critical habitat for Canada lynx. The elusive cats were listed as a threatened species in 2000. Critical habitat was also identified in Minnesota, Montana, Idaho and Washington. Maine had by far the most private land, 9,741 square miles, included in the designation. After public hearings and more review, critical habitat designations are slated to be finalized next November.

So what was the response from private landowners? Muted concern to acceptance. Patrick Strauch, executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council, said his members were concerned about the designation. But, he added, it wouldn’t affect many private landowners because federal oversight only comes into play if a landowner needs a federal permit or receives federal money. In such instances, consultation about endangered species is already part of the review process, with or without critical habitat designation.

Much of the land identified as critical habitat is owned by Plum Creek Timber Co. Luke Muzzy, the company’s senior land asset manager, doubted that the proposed rule will affect the company’s 426,000-acre conservation and development plan, the largest such plan ever proposed for northern Maine. “We’ve designed the plan originally taking into consideration all critical habitat. If there is some lynx habitat on our property, we’ll be sure that our development does not interfere with it,” he said.

In Maine, it helps that lynx like a heavily cut forest, which provides good habitat for their favorite prey, snowshoe hare.

Since 1990, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reviewed more than 1,100 projects in Maine. In only eight cases, a “formal consultation” was warranted in which federal agencies got together to discuss ways to avoid harming a species. In each of these cases, the service found that work could be done without harming the species in question, usually bald eagles, and the projects were allowed to proceed.

Nationally, out of 186,000 projects that the service reviewed, only 600 required changes because of endangered species concerns. Only 100 projects were stopped, with some of them re-started after endangered species problems were addressed.

Still, the House approved a bill that eliminates critical habitat and replaces it with “specific areas that are of special value to the conservation of the species.” These areas are not defined in the bill and industry and commercial interests can decide where they are located.

Rather than re-writing a law that works, albeit sometimes slowly and with too much litigation, senators should turn their attention to real environmental problems, such as climate change and energy use.