LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Farm Bureau praised a proposal cosponsored by United State Senators Mark Pryor and John Boozman, the Private Landowner Protection Act, which would amend the Endangered Species Act and require government agencies to perform a thorough economic analysis of any proposed species and critical habitat designation. This issue goes beyond Arkansas’ borders and has the potential to impact property owners nationwide.

The Pryor-Boozman bill closely matches HR 4319, the Common Sense in Species Protection Act of 2014, which was proposed earlier in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman Rick Crawford of Jonesboro.

“It’s important to note that we have every member of the Arkansas delegation signed on as sponsor or co-sponsor of one of these bills,” said Randy Veach, president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau. “This bi-partisan effort adds transparency to the process and attempts to get control of what is an out-of-control issue with the Endangered Species Act, where government agencies are acting beyond the scope of reason.

“We recognize that the Endangered Species Act is necessary for the protection of legitimately threatened and endangered species; however, its implementation through critical habitat designation should not go without considering the true economic impacts to the human species, in other words our lives and livelihoods.” Veach says he is happy to see the Arkansas Congressional delegation’s efforts to get control of the Endangered Species Act.

“In my view, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is going over and beyond the intent Congress had when putting in place the Endangered Species Act,” Veach said. “The men and women of Congress passed the ESA and they are the ones who need to fix this. Our farmers, ranchers and landowners are often overloaded with unnecessary and burdensome regulations. Passage of these proposals will bring some common sense to what has become a gross overreach by the federal government.”  Arkansas Farm Bureau is a nonprofit, private advocacy organization of more than 190,000 families throughout the state working to improve farm and rural life.