8. GAO DETAILS PROBLEMS WITH AGENCY CONSULTATIONS IN NW
Posted on Friday, April 02, 2004 (PST)

Red tape and short staffing are causing the government to miss deadlines for Endangered Species Act "consultations" 40 percent of the time in the Northwest, a new report from the General Accounting Office concludes.

The report, requested by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, examines three years of reviews carried out by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries in Montana, Oregon, Idaho and Washington.

Out of 1,550 reviews, the two services went past deadlines for nearly 40 percent of them, the report says.

When the Forest Service and other "action agencies" propose management projects, it often involves a lengthy environmental analysis that must be reviewed by the two oversight agencies to determine if there are potential impacts to endangered or threatened species. There is a 30-day period for informal consultations and 135 days to carry out formal consultations.

Baucus said the GAO report shows that the two services are struggling with required paperwork and a lack of staffing as the number of consultations have increased in recent years.

"While we wait for these federal agencies to wade through red tape, good projects are being delayed and other measures that could help protect species are not moving forward," Baucus said in a press release. "That is cause for concern and shows more must be done."

Crapo added that the consultation process is "out of balance," with federal agencies spending more time and resources on paperwork rather than actual measures to recover threatened and endangered species.

He said he and Baucus "agree that moving quickly to aid species is a goal for which we can all strive. We need to do this paperwork well so we don't set recovery back, and we need to do the paperwork efficiently so we have time and money to push recovery forward."

An increased workload has come with the listing of 25 additional species in the Northwest since 1998.

The report found that Fish and Wildlife Service staffing increased 58 percent from 24 to 38 people in its Spokane, Portland and Klamath Falls offices. And NOAA Fisheries reports that its Northwest regional staff grew 80 percent, from 48 full-time positions to 86 between 1999 and 2002. But in the same period, the Fish and Wildlife Service reports the number of consultations assigned to each biologist increased by 90 percent, and with NOAA Fisheries, the workload doubled.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's Montana field office in Helena stood out in a survey of federal officials conducted by the GAO.

"Almost all action agency officials we interviewed in Montana said that FWS resources in the state were woefully inadequate given the service's consultation workload," the report says.

More time has been spent in recent years with "pre-consultation," a period in which Fish and Wildlife Service, for instance, will confer and offer technical advice to the Forest Service on a particular project.

The report says that the services' consultation records did not account for the staff time and resources that go into pre-consultation over the last three years. But recent record-keeping improvements will reflect the overall amount of time the services dedicate to a certain project.

The report says there is disagreement among "action agencies" like the Forest Service, and the oversight agencies on just how much consultation is necessary in certain cases.

"Some action agency officials said they feel pressures by the services -- and by fear of litigation -- to seek consultation, regardless of the likely effects of an activity on a listed species, including in situations where they feel consultation is unnecessary," the report says.

The action agency officials said they are sometimes required to provide extensive documentation to justify that an activity won't have an impact on a species, and as a result consultation takes longer than it should.

Efforts have been made to expedite reviews, most notably through a "streamlined" consultation process that's supposed to be complete within 60 days rather than 135 days. But the GAO report found that the Fish and Wildlife Service missed the 60-day deadline 46 percent of the time, and the NOAA Fisheries missed it 62 percent of the time.

The report recommends general improvements in management of the consultation process.

Baucus spokesman Barrett Kaiser said the senator wants to see administrative changes that will bring about more efficiencies in consultation, and he continues to push for increased staffing in the Fish and Wildlife Service's Montana offices.