[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 65 (Monday, May 20, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E854]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 AMENDING THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT TO ESTABLISH REQUIREMENTS FOR THE 
               DESIGNATION OF CRITICAL HABITAT IN HAWAII

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                           HON. PATSY T. MINK

                               of hawaii

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 20, 2002

  Mrs. MINK of Hawaii. Mr. Speaker, on May 2, 2002, I introduced H.R. 
4656, which calls on the government to produce scientific support for 
the taking of 99,000 acres of land on the island of Kauai as critical 
habitat for the protection, preservation, and rehabilitation of 
specific endangered species.
  The Endangered Species Act calls for a recovery plan for the 
preservation of each of the endangered species prior to the designation 
of critical habitat. I have read the 1998 so-called recovery plans for 
the endangered species on Kauai and found that the basic plan for all 
were to fence in the areas, keep the pigs, goats, rats, and other 
animals out of the area, keep the alien plants that are encroaching the 
areas under control, and to harbor the seeds, germplasm, and plants at 
the National Tropical Botanical Gardens. I hardly consider this a 
``recovery'' plan. My conclusion is the Fish and Wildlife Service, FWS, 
merely produced a textbook variety plan for all the species and drew 
arbitrary lines around the sites and came up with a compound consisting 
of 99,000 acres, nearly one third of the island of Kauai.
  My bill merely seeks compliance to the Endangered Species Act by 
requesting scientific basis for each designation of the critical 
habitat for each species, endangered or threatened. Further, it asks 
for peer review by the National Academy of Science of both the recovery 
plan as well as the final designation.
  With H.R. 4656, I do not seek an exemption for Hawaii. All I seek is 
fairness.

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