ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 12, 1990                   TAG: 9005120122
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

'ENDANGERED' LAW ASSAILED

Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. said in a newspaper interview published Friday that the nation's primary law protecting endangered animals and plants should be amended and questioned the need to "save every subspecies."

In an interview Thursday with the Denver Post, Lujan expressed concern that the 17-year-old Endangered Species Act is threatening jobs and economic development. He cited the example of a Colorado reservoir project that threatens the endangered Colorado squawfish and suggested in that case he might seek an exemption to the law.

"It's just too tough an act, I think," Lujan was quoted as saying. "We've got to change it."

The remarks by the nation's top conservation official found a sympathetic audience among some conservative western lawmakers and industry representatives, but touched off a furor among environmentalists and their congressional allies at a time of growing concern over the accelerating loss of species to human activities worldwide.

They also revived criticism that the former New Mexico congressmen is insensitive to environmental concerns and out of step with President Bush's pledge to be "the environmental president."

White House spokesman Stephen Hart said Lujan was "representing his personal opinion" and that the administration is not considering a proposal to amend the Endangered Species Act when it is reconsidered by Congress in 1993.

Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for enforcing the Endangered Species Act, which thus far has been applied to 1,073 plants, animals and fish, according to a Fish and Wildlife spokesman. The law requires Fish and Wildlife to protect species listed as endangered from any activity that would jeopardize their existence.

Lujan cited the case of the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel, which is holding up a planned astrophysical complex atop Mount Graham, Arizona.

"Do we have to save every subspecies?" Lujan asked. "Do we have to save [an endangered species] in every locality where it exists?" 


 by CNB