Crucial safeguards at risk

The Kansas City Star: The government's plan to take the bald eagle off the Endangered Species Act's protected list illustrates why the 1973 law needs to be kept strong.
The bald eagle, the nation's symbol, is among the most popular of hundreds of wildlife species that owe their survival to the law. Others include the grizzly bear, the gray wolf and the red wolf, and the Florida panther.
The law sets strict rules and penalties against killing threatened species and protects their habitats and feeding areas. And it's working.
Other federal laws will continue to protect the bald eagle. And it could be relisted as threatened or endangered if its numbers start to dwindle again. Wildlife officials should continue to monitor this magnificent bird's progress.
But for 1,300 other species, the Endangered Species Act remains the best protection from decimation. Forty-one percent of the act's listed species have stabilized or even improved their numbers.
Yet the act is under attack by lawmakers who resent its restrictions on property use and development.
Political appointees
The House has passed legislation that would eliminate habitat protections that hamper development. The proposal would let political appointees rather than scientists make decisions about species protection.
The changes would gut the most important parts of the law. The bald eagle, for instance, was nearing extinction in the mid-1960s because of DDT. Yet the new legislation would eliminate the requirement that the Environmental Protection Agency consult with wildlife agencies before approving pesticide use.