The Idaho Statesman
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New Idaho agency seeks to quell environment vs. economy fight
Caswell leads Species Conservation Office

By Rocky Barker
January 2, 2001

So the federal government wants to use your land to protect endangered species, and you're not happy.

Who you gonna call? Jim Caswell.

Caswell, 55, heads the new Idaho Office of Species Conservation. As agency director, the retired U.S. Forest Service supervisor has the job of coordinating Idaho's efforts to protect endangered species and its cultural and economic values.

"The objective is to bring about the delisting of species so the Endangered Species Act doesn't just mean listing species," Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said.

The Idaho Legislature established the five-person office last year with a budget of $500,000. Kempthorne hired Caswell to set up shop and begin the difficult task of giving Idaho a single voice on endangered species matters.

"We're trying to end up where we're all rowing the boat together," Caswell said.

The office opens after a raucous decade of debate over the federal Endangered Species Act. That law, which protects rare species -- from snails to grizzly bears -- has touched the lives of every Idahoan.

It has forced loggers to put down their chain saws, ranchers to move their cattle from streams, and electricity consumers to pay more on their light bills. The law has closed trails, brought restrictions on river rafting and reduced water diversions for irrigated farming.

The law gives the federal government control over endangered species habitat and management. It authorized federal agents to reintroduce wolves and kept farmers from drying up springs that support the Bruneau hotsprings snail.

These restrictions have caused a huge backlash, especially from Idaho's rural communities. Yet after a decade of fighting federal control, many resource users are seeking a truce.

"We fought the Endangered Species Act for a long time mainly because of its taking of private property rights," said Greg Garatea, a Murtaugh rancher and feedlot operator. "We've come to a point where we've got to learn to live with the act."

Enter Caswell.

He hopes to funnel federal funds into conservation projects that increase endangered species habitat and water quality on both private and public lands. These projects would be built on partnerships between private landowners, the state, Indian tribes and federal agencies.

"They have to be incentive-based," he said.

His approach follows the idea long promoted by Kempthorne: The carrot works better than the stick in protecting endangered species.

When Kempthorne was in the U.S. Senate, he sponsored legislation to reform the federal Endangered Species Act to encourage private and state conservation initiatives. With Caswell's office, Kempthorne gets a chance to prove his approach can work.

"By marshaling our resources together, I think we can be more effective," Kempthorne said. "We can be pro-active so we don't wait until something gets on the list."

Bringing divergent groups together to tackle controversial land-use issues is not new to Caswell. As Targhee National Forest supervisor in eastern Idaho, he put irrigators and environmentalists in the same room to talk about protecting the Henrys Fork of the Snake River. Out of those talks came the Henrys Fork Watershed Council, a nationally recognized model of consensus.

In his last job, as supervisor of the Clearwater National Forest, he worked with sportsmen, loggers and timber companies to develop the Clearwater Elk Initiative. It is aimed at improving wildlife habitat and was held up as a partnership ideal by Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck.

"We have great hopes he will reduce the polarization by bringing people together," said Jane Gorsuch, Idaho Forest Association vice president.

Environmentalists have been skeptical about the office's mission and the Legislature's intentions. Many see it as an instrument for weakening or sidestepping endangered species protection.

Jack Fisher, of Nampa, president of the Idaho Wildlife Federation, opposed the legislation but is willing to give Caswell the benefit of the doubt.

"We think he has the right sort of skills to make it work if it can work," Fisher said. "We're not going to presuppose anything."

Caswell hopes all sides will give the office a chance to work.

"I think conservation is active management on the ground," Caswell said. "I think the environmental community has missed that whole piece of the puzzle."

His responsibilities include developing state management plans for wolves and grizzly bears. The federal government can't remove them from protection under the Endangered Species Act without a state plan approved by the federal government.

He also hopes to bring together all the latest data on four Snake River snails currently listed as endangered.

"The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agrees it's time to look at the data," Caswell said. "If all or some of the snails are ready to delist, then we'll start to address it."

He also will coordinate the state's efforts to restore salmon habitat in Idaho. That means using federal and regional funds to screen irrigation diversions and to improve water quality.

One of his initiatives is to use Bonneville Power Administration funds to help farmers stop pollution from cattle feedlots along the Salmon and Clearwater rivers and their tributaries.

The unknown challenge is how many complaints and inquiries from disgruntled landowners he and his staff will have to handle. The Legislature set up the office as a one-stop center for Idahoans facing the complexities of endangered-species regulations.

"I do worry about expectations and our ability to handle walk-in business," Caswell said.