The Endangered Species Act has been used to stop logging, to reduce the production of farm produce, to stop building a dam, to interfere with the construction of hospitals and other buildings, has added significant costs to road construction and has prevented people from control and use of their own property.
The Endangered Species Act is administered by the Environmental protection Agency. As the reader finds out the ―stupid ― things that the EPA has done concerning endangered species there will be a question of ―why‖. There is a cult of Mother Earth worshippers (strongly supported by the United Nations) that really believes that the problem we have with our environment and plants and animals is because of man and they place a higher value on the plants, animals, birds and bugs. They look on man as a predator and have no concern over taking actions that will cause man to be unemployed, harmed and in case of some ―lower forms of man‖ to not even object to their numbers being reduced. Thus, fewer humans would make it possible to save, promote and increase plants, animals and bugs. As ridiculous as that sounds there is no other logical explanation as we will see as we look at endangered species. (we could attribute insanity to them)
One of the laws enacted by our Congress was the Endangered Species Act.
The law was enacted in the 1960‘s by authorizing the identification of fish and wildlife threatened with extinction and the purchase of habitat for their protection. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was amended in 1973 to ―require that species be listed ‗without reference to possible economic or other impacts‘ ‖and was going to preserve species that would be lost due to various factors – mostly people who did not care about such things. The result has been disastrous to land owners and businesses but has not done much for the critters it was supposed to help preserve. The environmentalists and Mother Earth lovers have seized on this act and have used it for their purposes. Supported by liberal judges they have effectively prevented the logging of timber, the clearing of forests, the irrigation of farm land, and mining and exploring for oil and minerals
In 2002, Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull flatly blamed ―greenies‖ for obstructing work to clean up national forests which led to burning half a million acres of Arizona forests. The Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society blasted her statement claiming that reports showed that their legal actions had not interfered with clearing and led to only 1% of the destruction. However, the National Forest Service corrected them and indicated that , in Arizona, nearly half of the Services plans for getting rid of hazardous fuels had been legally opposed by those groups. Why would anyone object to cleaning up our forests? In other areas the legal actions of those clubs were even greater.
In California, the ESA prevented private landowners from clearing firebreaks on their own land because they might disturb the habitat of the Stephens‘ kangaroo rat. In the fire that resulted since the land had not been cleared, several homes burned as well as the habitat of the kangaroo rat. Why is a rat more important that preventing fires? A Taiwanese immigrant farmer was arrested for running over a kangaroo rat while tilling his own land and fined $200,000. Why should killing a rat on his own property lead to a huge fine?
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In December of 1995 a storm destroyed much of the forest in the Six Rivers National Forest in California leaving dead trees across 35,000 acres. Environmental groups opposed the cleaning up by the Forest Service and in 1995 the fires roared over that forest as well as 90,000 more acres. Then there was the 135,000 acres fire close to Denver. The Fish and Wildlife Service has over 18 million privately owned acres covered by ―habitat conservation plans‖ that restrict what an owner can do on his land.
The environmental groups coupled with liberal judges using the Endangered Species Act have prevented the cleanup of our forest land which has led to the destruction of much of our forests by fire.
There are over 1300 endangered species on the list to be protected by the ESA and less than 47 have been protected to the point where they can be removed from the list which leads to the conclusion that the act is not effective in protecting those species.
There have been numerous mistakes made such as one identifying the snail darter which interfered with the construction of the Tellico Dam. Construction of the dam could have conserved water as well as generating electrical power. Later there were numerous numbers of the little creatures found far away from the Dam. The ESA bureaucrats identified gnatcatchers who occupy some 54,000 acres which must be protected but the ESA did not identify the areas where they reside. The fact that they did not identify the areas where they live just shows that the ESA is only interested in raising our costs and leading them to have authority to interfere in the future.
Estimates are that the cost for protecting them will be around $6 billion.
Predictions were that the listing of the Preble‘s meadow jumping mouse would lead landowners to destroy the habitat they might live in and thus avoid the problems that occur if a mouse would be found on their property. The Animal Conservation journal has now concluded that the Preble‘s mouse ―is not a valid subspecies based on physical features and genetics‖.
The California red- legged frog has been designated as an endangered species as well as 4.1 million acres for its habitat and 70% of that land is private property that the land owners no longer can control. Whatever happened to the idea that private property was under the control of the owner? Are red-legged frogs really more valuable than people? If you are a Mother Earth worshipper then you probably think so.
The fairy shrimp is another species that has been designated and led to a construction delay costing $250,000.
Eight Delhi Sands flies on the endangered list were discovered near the construction site of a hospital in Colton ,CA and forced the hospital to move the construction about 300 feet at a cost of $300 million and a fly preserve was established at a cost of $4.5 million.
The marbled murrelet is a diving seabird that has sued the Pacific Lumber and the 9th Circuit Court decided that the lumber company had to stop logging on 65 acres and also had to pay the legal expenses of $1.1 million for opposing the murrelet. Is it really possible that a company can be sued by a diving seabird and found guilty? It is also time for us to consider the impeachment and removal of court judges.
The ESA provides for funds for those wishing to file legal suits to enforce the Act.
The identification of the spotted owl in Oregon has led to the protection of the forests and the loss of 30,000 logging jobs in that state.
Now, there are indications that the spotted owl was not really endangered. They are quite capable of flying and even if not the loss of 30,000 logging jobs is more important than some owls. Or that loss is more important to normal people that do not share the beliefs of some Mother Earth Worshippers. The Klamath Basin is a real tragedy. Farmers in the area depend on irrigation for farming and have long been allocated water for that purpose. However, it has been decided that the Lost River sucker, the short nosed sucker and the Coho salmon were more important than 1500 farmers and so their irrigation allocation was cut off.
There is no scientific ―consensus‘ that the ―endangered‖ sucker fish are truly endangered and the warm waters used from Lake Klamath are not beneficial to Coho salmon who prefer cold water.
Projects have been cancelled due to listing the delhi sands flower loving fly. There are 400,000 acres just outside of Las Vegas that have been placed off limits in order to protect the desert tortoise. The plant, Johnston‘s frankenia, was listed but then they discovered 9 million more. There are now 283 species available for listing and it is estimated that the costs for adding those will be $150 million.
Obscure life forms such as the Stock Island tree snail, the Banbury Springs limpet and the triple-ribbed milkvetch as well as 1348
other animals and plants are covered by this act. Is it possible to add some sense into the process? Could Congress amend the act to place more value on people and their land and jobs than on insects, critters, bugs and stuff?
Is it likely that the bureaucrats involved in these actions would turn reasonable? Consider the case of the Canadian lynx. The lynx is more prevalent in Canada but has been found in the US. In order to have it listed as an endangered species six Forest Service biologists planted samples of lynx hair on rubbing posts in three forests to show that the lynx inhabited those forests. Thanks to a retiring ―whistle blower‖ this was exposed and the six biologists were reassigned to other work – not fired. Obviously, their transgression was not considered very bad and essentially was approved. What kind of people do we have running the Forest Service?
Agents drove 15 miles on to Richard Smith‘s ranch, accused him of poisoning eagles and seized his pick up truck. They presented no evidence for that accusation and returned his truck nine months later.
It is especially disgusting to see the politicians disregard the ESA when their own welfare is affected. Construction of the new Woodrow Wilson Bridge which would ease traffic flow around the Washington beltway could have endangered several species (including the bald eagle) but the ESA bureaucrats granted permission for the project.
The latest action is to declare the polar bear as an endangered specie in spite of their substantial increase in population over the past 20
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years. The state of Alaska has instituted a law suit to have this action overturned. The fear is that the environmentalists will use this as another reason to stop drilling for oil in Alaska.
Under existing law all federal agencies must consult the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration before undertaking any actions that could affect an endangered species. There is no requirement placed on these agencies to reply in a set time period and so that request can take months or years. The Bush administration (July 2008) is proposing to reduce the environmental reviews that are required and the environmentalists are objecting. While that indicates that the Bush administration recognizes some of the problems with the act their solution is wholly inadequate.
Based on the past practices and actions of bureaucrats and on the actions of federal judges the only real solution to this is to rescind the law. Declare it and all of its past actions ―null and void‖. People are of greater importance than endangered species and we need to remove our federal bureaucrats from imposing their concerns about bugs, critters and insects on us. Our forests will be all burned up if we don‘t stop this bunch. Our businesses are much more able to take care of our land and forests and water resources and we need to remove the laws that enable these environmental groups to be paid to sue and interfere with private property while claiming to be protecting the environment. The protection of plants and animals should be left up to the states who can evaluate the effect on citizens of the state and protect people first and critters, bugs, plants and animals in proper order rather than have some pointy – headed loony bureaucrat in Washington DC who worships Mother Earth make these decisions.