GINGRICH PAYS VISIT TO ZOO : SPEAKER CRITICIZES FEDERAL SPECIES ACT.

Byline: Dinos Lambropoulos Associated Press 

House Speaker Newt Gingrich toured the Los Angeles Zoo on Sunday, saying the federal law protecting endangered species is too bureaucratic and should be changed to allow more incentives for local communities.

Standing near a pond full of flamingos beside actress and animal-rights activist Betty White, Gingrich told reporters the Endangered Species Act excludes people from the process of protecting animal species.

``I think the Endangered Species Act is too bureaucratic and too confrontational in the way it's being implemented,'' Gingrich said.

``You're not going to have an environment that doesn't have some human impact,'' he said. ``If we can find the right incentive approach - so that local people are out looking for ways to help the environment because it's in their self-interest, not because they're being coerced by Washington bureaucrats - I think that's a lot sounder long-range strategy.''

Gingrich has said he is ``deeply committed'' to overhauling the federal law that protects endangered species and to enacting a new drinking-water protection law. But such laws should focus on ``incentives rather than litigation'' and seek to find cooperative ways to meet their goals, he said.

Gingrich toured the facility with White, City Council President John Ferraro and zoo officials. He arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday to attend fund-raising events for local Republican congressional candidates.

His sister, Candace Gingrich, also was in Southern California on Sunday. She was grand marshal of the Gay and Lesbian Pride Festival in Long Beach, about 30 miles to the south.

As an example of economic incentives to protect endangered species, Gingrich mentioned a ``land-swap model'' being used in Florida, in which federal property in cities like Miami, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale is swapped for environmentally sensitive, privately owned land in the Everglades.

He also mentioned efforts in Africa that have increased the elephant population. There, he said, villages have created photography safaris and other ``eco-tourism'' programs that give local communities an economic interest in maintaining a thriving animal population.

The speaker's tour of the Los Angeles Zoo came amid efforts to rebuild the facility's battered image.

The zoo was harshly criticized last year after a team of visiting zoo directors from Atlanta, Cincinnati and Seattle found the facility to have poorly maintained exhibits that endangered animals, low employee morale and a conflict-ridden relationship with its private fund-raising arm and the city.

But after a follow-up visit last month, the same team praised the zoo for taking bold steps toward correcting the problems.

Gingrich said he was impressed with the zoo and believes it will prosper.