Endangered Species Act is threatened

Editor -- On Thursday, the House passed U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo's frightening legislation that would undermine the Endangered Species Act for the benefit of greedy developers, oil companies and other special interests ("House votes major changes to Endangered Species Act," Sept. 30).

Pombo, a Republican from Tracy, claims that there is no proof that the ESA has worked, but a recent study by conservation biologists reported that just 22 of the 1,370 species listed since 1964 have gone extinct. That's a 98.4 percent success rate! Pombo's legislation would put an end to that astonishing record of success.

For more than 30 years, the Endangered Species Act has worked to save the rarest members of America's wildlife heritage, including helping to rescue the gray whale from extinction. Twenty-five endangered and threatened species live within the borders of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary just off our shore—including endangered blue and humpback whales, marine mammals, sea turtles and fisheries that are protected under the ESA.

The Endangered Species Act is the nation's most important wildlife protection law. Let's hope the U.S. Senate stops this legislation in its tracks.

LINDA HUNTER, executive director
Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association
San Francisco