Protecting Endangered Species on Private Land

"More and more these days, ingenious new legal approaches are helping reconcile the economic needs of private landowners with the habitat needs of endangered species, increasingly making what seemed intractable conflicts a thing of the past. In the last 12 years an innovative legal tool has been applied to almost 60 listed species, providing and enhancing millions of acres of habitat on private lands."

"But this is a new millennium and the Means, the Millers, and 12 other ranching families are pioneering a new approach. They’ve signed special contracts sanctioned by the federal government under the Endangered Species Act. These so-called safe harbor agreements are specifically designed to encourage conservation on any non-federal land —state, county, or private. By signing one of these agreements, a landowner commits to maintaining or improving habitat for a specific protected species. As its end of the bargain, the Fish and Wildlife Service guarantees the landowner will incur no additional land-use restrictions down the road if and when that species moves onto a property or begins breeding there."

"It’s an agreement born of pragmatism. Without the cooperation of private landowners like the Means and the Millers, many conservationists have come to believe, most endangered species don’t stand a chance. The data are startling: Almost three-quarters of the contiguous 48 states is privately owned property. Half the endangered species in the United States don’t even occur on federal land. Here in Texas less than two percent of land is federally owned. The safe harbor agreements recognize that."