mr. speaker , i appreciate the comments of my colleague on the committee on rules , the gentleman from utah , but he uses statistics very selectively . 
let me cite a more important statistic , and that is more than 1 , 800 species currently protected by the act are still with us . 
only nine have been declared extinct . 
that is an astonishing success rate of more than 99 percent . 
so this has been a successful act . 
i will also provide for the record an article that appeared in the salt lake tribune by ben long , who is a contributor to the writers on the range , a service of high country news , who has written a great article about how the endangered species act succeeds with flying colors . 
species act succeeds with flying colors the endangered species act -- which is being reviewed by congress this week -- is a soaring success . 
just look up . 
look skyward for a while and you might spy an american bald eagle . 
hundreds of them live in my home state of montana . 
across the united states , the bald eagle is a living , flying example of what works about the endangered species act . 
rep . 
richard pombo , r-calif. , is spearheading the effort to change the landmark , 30-year old anti-extinction law . 
`` the act is n't working to recover species now , '' pombo said in a recent speech in washington state . 
`` at the same time it has caused a lot of conflicts. '' pombo evidently spends too much time inside his stuffy washington office . 
if he got out in the forests and rivers more , he might know the story of the bald eagle . 
the american symbol was listed as endangered in 1978 . 
that year , surveys turned up only 12 bald eagle nests in all of montana . 
then , environmental laws such as the endangered species act and a federal ban on the pesticide ddt kicked in . 
they protected the birds from chemical poisoning , destruction of habitat and needless , wasteful killing . 
the results were gradual , but dramatic . 
by 2005 , the number of bald eagle nests in montana multiplied to 300 nests -- 25 times the number before the bird was included on the endangered species list . 
that 's just one state . 
eagles were similarly successful in other states as well . 
in 1999 , the bald eagle 's status was upgraded from `` endangered '' to `` threatened. '' if trends continue , they will soon be officially recovered and all america will celebrate . 
today , montana is one of the top 10 eagle-producing states in the united states . 
in a recent winter , i watched more than 30 eagles clean up a carcass in a rancher 's back pasture . 
bald eagle congregations have been tourist attractions at places like canyon ferry and libby dams , where they feed on fish in the winter . 
no matter how many times i see a bald eagle on the wing , i am taken aback by its beauty -- and thankful for the endangered species act . 
conflicts over endangered species make headlines . 
success happens in quiet obscurity . 
but over time , the successes are dramatic indeed . 
gray wolves are another endangered species act success story in the northern rockies . 
wiped out by over-zealous predator control a century ago , wolves began trickling back into montana in the 1980s . 
now , there are hundreds of wolves in western montana , and more in neighboring idaho and wyoming . 
because montana stepped up to the plate and agreed to manage these animals for the future , the federal u.s. fish and wildlife service recently handed wolf management over to the montana department of fish , wildlife and parks . 
this is evidence of the flexibility built into the law . 
while i do n't like to see any animal needlessly wasted , i respect that ranchers need to protect their stock to make a living . 
the endangered species act has allowed wildlife managers to kill problem wolves -- even wipe out entire packs that made a habit of killing livestock . 
we humans now dominate planet earth . 
we share a responsibility not to push species into extinction . 
for 30 years , the endangered species act has helped keep america the rich and beautiful land we love . 
my 17-month-old son loves watching finches and chickadees at the feeder outside our kitchen window . 
he will grow up also watching bald eagles , some perching on a snag close to our backyard . 
what a change . 
when i was a kid , the only eagle i ever saw was on the back of a quarter . 
mr. speaker , i yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from oregon ( mr. defazio ) xz4001000 . 
