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. State Conservation Agreements under the Endangered Species Act Oana? their communities retain control over their destiny instead of the courts, while conservation is elevated in public discourse and made a clear state priority. 8. Federal district court decisions in Texas and Oregon and legal challenges westwide are beginning to undermine the benefits of state conservation plans. One recent U.S. Federal District Court decision narrowed the interpretation of what can be considered by a Secretary in determining whether to list a species under the ESA. This interpretation sends a chilling message as to whether and to what extent state conservation efforts have any meaning under the Act. The decision in Oregon Natural Resources Council v. Daley, holds that the requirement under the ESA for federal agencies to consider state conservation plans means almost nothing, and that conservation efforts by individuals count only if they are mandated as part of a federal agency's regulatory requirements and are already in place. The decision renders state and local regulatory actions meaningless unless they are backed by legal assurances that they will remain in place into the future. All government is premised upon decisions today that can be changed by later decision makers. The decision appears to trivialize this important fact of democracy. The decision also disregards actions stipulated in such agreements if the tasks require time to be fully implemented. Yet, no recovery plan can be instantly developed and implemented, and species take multiple life cycles to recover. 9. In short, under the decision's current narrow interpretation, the obj ectives of ESA can only be met through federal regulation and federal enforcement. This creates an enormous contradiction with the purpose of the Act - especially for species that are heavily dependent upon private land. B. GOVERNORS' POLICY STATEMENT I. Preventative conservation on both public and private lands is essential. Western states are actively developing conservation plans to restore declining species before they need the protections of the Act. Most declining species can be restored to health only through a federal-state partnership that involves private landowners and interested parties in decision making and that provides them with technical assistance, guidance, and resources to support their efforts. 2. The purposes ofthe ESA are undermined if,the Act must be so narrowly interpreted that, in order to defend its application against legal challenge, the very species the Act was enacted to protect are disadvantaged. If decisions like the one in Oregon stands, the Western Governors believe there is a problem with the Act itself requiring amendment or regulatory clarification. This problem is not about whether listings can be deferred to states or not, but rather the loss of important state and local government tools and our ability as a society to save and restore declining species and the habitat upon which they depend. 3. The Western Governors believe that the courts, and the Congress, when writing the reauthorization of the ESA, should reaffirm the Secretary's ability to defer the listing of a species when the actions of a state conservation agreement eliminates the need to list a species. The courts and Congress should also clarify that voluntary actions that the Secretary finds will help restore a declining species and which have performance standards, implementation plans, and monitoring and reporting provisions, and are properly financed, are valid conservation tools. C. GOVERNORS' MANAGEMENT DIRECTIVE I. WGA should convey this resolution to the President, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Commerce, and the appropriate congressional committees. 2. WGA should help identify other states that are interested in appealing the Oregon Federal District Court's decision. 3. WGA should continue to emphasize reauthorization of the Endangered Species Act in the Congress, with particular emphasis on language that would reaffirm and clarify the role of state conservation plans and of appropriate voluntary efforts to recover species.