One might assume that the person in charge of implementing the Endangered Species Act would have some instinctive sympathy for the objectives of that incredibly important law.

One might be wrong.

Craig Manson -- a lawyer, ex-Air Force officer, and ex-judge -- is the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Parks. In that job, he is responsible for the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

What then to make of this? Last month, Mr. Manson attended an endangered species conference in Santa Barbara. Here are a few excerpts from a Los Angeles Times report published the next day:

"A senior official of the U.S. Interior Department, in a wide-ranging critique of the Endangered Species Act, said Thursday that the needs of an expanding population, agriculture interests and burgeoning development in the West should be given equal consideration with endangered plants and animals. . . .

"In an interview before his speech here, Manson said the 30-year-old environmental law is 'broken' and should no longer be used to give endangered plants and animals priority over human needs. . . .

"[He said] the interests of developers and private property owners in some cases should prevail over endangered species. . . ." And my favorite,

"If we decide we are going to spend $100 million to save a species we've imperiled, why are we doing that? . . .If we are saying that the loss of species in and of itself is inherently bad -- I don't think we know enough about how the world works to say that."

Oh really. How comforting to know that the most important person in the whole world -- if you're a coho salmon, say, or a St. Andrew beach mouse -- isn't sure whether "the loss of species in and of itself is inherently bad." Shocking is too mild a word. [In the spirit of full disclosure, I might add that I once wrote an article for the San Francisco Bay Guardian in which Mr. Manson -- then general counsel of the California Department of Fish and Game -- made a brief appearance. After the piece appeared, Mr. Manson characterized it as libelous, inflammatory, inaccurate, false, and misleading. I plead not guilty.]

Alas, this comes as no surprise. The Bush administration is positively riddled with people who are the sworn enemies of the laws they are supposed to enforce. It's a major scandal, and the mainstream media are, for the most part, all but ignoring it.

Tom Turner, Senior Editor
yourturn@earthjustice.org