PHOENIX (AP) - Biologists looking for endangered species on private property would be required to keep much of what they find secret under a proposal poised for quick approval by the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature.
Minority Democrats have unsuccessfully argued that if the new policy becomes law it will hinder public monitoring of recovery plans for endangered plants and animals. Republicans say the shield is needed to protect private property rights.
The measure passed the House Wednesday on a 31-29 party-line vote, and the Senate gave it initial approval after debate Thursday afternoon with Democrats objecting. A formal Senate vote expected next week could send the measure to Republican Gov. Doug Ducey’s desk.
The measure applies to information collected by state agencies, and violations would carry a $25,000 fine.
Republican Rep. Gail Griffin sponsored the House measure and said during a committee hearing that the proposal would actually encourage private property owners to let surveyors onto their property. The opposite is true now because of fears any discovery could lead to land use restrictions.
“We want to entice property owners to assist in counting any specific species that might be on their property,” Griffin said. “Currently … if I thought endangered species were on my property I’d have a ‘no trespassing’ sign on my property. So this is an enticement.”
The Sierra Club’s Arizona chapter director, Sandy Bahr, testified earlier this month that information collected by public agencies doing surveys should always be public. She said making it secret would prevent any public monitoring of species recovery efforts.
“If this kind of information is kept confidential and is not available, how would we know if a conservation plan that’s in place is working or not?” Bahr asked. “How would we know that management provisions or practices are being effective?
“Sunshine provides the best public policy and this goes the opposite direction,” Bahr added.
Brian Seasholes, executive director of the newly created Southwestern Communities Coalition, testified that landowners have serious concerns about the potential costs of endangered species protections, so enticing them to cooperate in surveys that may locate wider populations would be helpful. The group pushes private property rights, conservation and sustainable growth.
“What we want to do is generate more data so federal agencies can make good decisions,” Seasholes said.
Democratic Rep. Kirsten Engel said property owners already have the absolute right to bar anyone from their property, so she worries the bill has more nefarious purposes.
The bill makes information that is or could be possessed by a state agency a secret if that information “somehow associated a species with a particular parcel,” Engel said. “Making that information confidential will really hamper the ability of our state agencies to protect species, to effectuate management plans that we put in place, that maybe they have put in place.”
She noted that the bill’s language was very broad, and would hamstring agencies charged with overseeing the recovery of endangered species.
But Rep. David Cook, a Globe rancher who holds a grazing permit for federal lands, said there are good reasons for protecting the location of species discovered during surveys. For one, it prevents the creation of “treasure maps” that would draw adventurers or sightseers to an area.
“What this bill does is it encourages private landowners and gives them the same protections that we give to the federal land protection agencies,” Cook said. “This bill helps those species in the recovery process.”
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