Preemptive habitat destruction under the endangered species act: the case of the red-cockaded woodpecker, Working Paper

This paper examines the extent to which landowners have preemptively destroyed habitat for the endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers (RCWs) in the forests of North Carolina in order to avoid potential land-use regulations prescribed under the En-dangered Species Act (ESA). Under the ESA, it is illegal to kill an endangered species and it is also illegal to damage its habitat. By preventing the establishment of an old-growth pine stand, landowners can ensure that RCWs do not inhabit their land and avoid ESA regulations that limit or prohibit timber harvest activity. Data from 1984–90 on over 1,000 individual forest plots are used to test predictions about the probability of harvest and the age of timber when it is harvested. We find that increases in the proximity of a plot to RCWs increases the probability that the plot will be harvested and decreases the age at which the forest is harvested. [T]he highest level of assurance that a property owner will not face an ESA issue is to maintain the property in a condition such that protected species cannot occupy the property.... This is referred to as the “scorched earth ” technique. [National Associa