HomeMy WebLinkAbout17-92
RESOLUTION NO.
17-92
A RESOLUTION of the City Council of the
City of Port Angeles, Washington, requesting
federal economic relief from impacts due to
the Endangered Species Act.
WHEREAS, the Endangered Species Act is before the
Congress for reauthorization in 1992; and
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WHEREAS, many people in the Pacific Northwest, the
state of Washington, Clallam county, and the city of Port
Angeles face loss of employment and tax base in catastrophic
proportionsj and
WHEREAS, there is a human need to balance such
devastating economic loss with the threat of species
extinction; and
WHEREAS, many in our community have called for
modifications in the Endangered Species Act, which would
signal a retreat from an affirmative duty to bring these
species back from the brink of extinction; and
WHEREAS, the united states has pledged itself as a
sovereign state in the international community to conserve to
the extent practicable various species of fish or wildlife or
plants facing extinction; and
WHEREAS, the Congress intended protection of
endangered species to be afforded highest of priorities,
giving these species priority over the primary missions of
federal agencies in order to halt and reverse any trend
towards species extinction whatever the costs; and
WHEREAS, the Northern Spotted Owl and the Columbia
River Sockeye Salmon are both in the process of receiving
special protection under the Act resulting in grave economic
consequences to the people of our community due to losses of
employment and use of property, diminution of tax bases, and
increases in BPA public power costs; and
WHEREAS, there is a crying need for the
establishment of a workable, environmentally and economically
balanced, critical habitat area for the spotted owl on the
Olympic Peninsula; and
WHEREAS, it is distinctly unfair for federal
po1icymakers to set a national goal to save species and then
ask that only certain people bear the costs of that goal
through the loss of their employment and private property;
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NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL
OF THE CITY OF PORT ANGELES, as follows:
Section 1. During consideration of reauthorization
of the Endangered Species Act, the Congress and the President
are hereby respectfully requested to recognize in the Act
that:
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A. the entire nation should bear the costs of saving a
species deemed worthy of special protection, not just those
persons or state or local governments which exist nearby; and
B. the affirmative duty to bring protected species back
from the brink so that they may be removed from the threatened
or endangered class should use all methods necessary to the
extent practicable by the federal fisc; and
C. the Secretary should be required upon appeal to
redouble efforts to devise recovery plans that create critical
habitat areas which not only protect the biological needs of
species threatened or endangered with extinction but also
minimize widespread economic dislocation; and
D. the loss of jobs should not be weighed against the
loss of species with the consequence of creating lose-lose
situations, but rather it should be the intention to support
economic recovery as well as special species protection
creating win-win situations; and
E. the success of the Endangered Species policy can
only be assured when the lives and properties of individual
citizens and the communities in which these people live are
not devastated or when such economic hardships can be
redressed for the general welfare.
Section 2. Copies of this Resolution shall be
immediately transmitted to the Honorable George Bush,
President of the United States, to the President of the united
states Senate, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
and to each member of Congress from the state of Washington.
PASSED by the city Council
Angeles at a regular meeting of said
19th day of May 1992.
of Port
on the
ATTEST:
/JO(1~A~ j ~^
Becky J. P n, C ty Clerk
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