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De Omnibus Dubitandum - Lux Veritas

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Thirteen Days of ESA

By Rich Kozlovich

These aren’t the only articles that have appeared in the last 13 days; in fact….this is merely a tip of the iceberg. I am listing all of this stuff to make everyone aware as to how pervasive, intrusive and irrational this stuff is, and this is only a few that have appeared in the last 13 days.

I have tried to organize them somewhat based on subject. Also, I have not listed stuff about wolves, blue fin tuna and salmon….which I have linked a lot in the past. I would like to point out some things I have stated in the past. Over 95 percent of all species that have ever lived have gone extinct. Every species alive today will eventually go extinct. Life on this planet apparently does not require that every species survive for life to continue. Habitats and eco-systems are always changing and those species that are so biologically incompetent that they cannot survive except in a very exclusive environment deserve to go extinct. I have no desire to deliberately eliminate any species, but I also don’t wish to place the needs of plants and animals over the needs of humanity.

Here is the crux of the issue. Was the Earth created for mankind or is mankind just another biological organism created by the Earth and merits no special consideration? From my perspective, I don’t care either way….I am pulling for mankind because mankind can explore, mankind can think beyond his own immediate needs, mankind can search out information and plan future endeavors. Mankind can conserve as well as conceive. Mankind has insights that become reality and ideas that make the world a better place to live. Mankind can save the whales, but the whales can’t even save themselves. Do we wish to save the whales….I’m ok with that, but not just because they exist. I am all for conservation for future and continued use. The greenies are for preservation in an attempt to eliminate any use whatsoever. They want pristine! What does that mean? Basically….it means untouched by man. That is irrational. If mankind can’t alter his environment mankind can’t survive….and the greenies know this.

Are there acts of selfishness and unjustifiable cruelty?  Of course!  All of the wars we have fought throughout history is testimony to the level of stupidity mankind is capable of heaping on himself, and the ESA is another one.  The fact of the matter is that mankind can and has acted to the best interests of society and the environment over the long haul, and personal property rights have played an important role because people take care of what is theirs. And to give them their due, in the early years the environmental movement played an important role in this undertaking, at least until they all became socialists attempting to eliminate personal and property rights. The best areas of the world where environmental concern has been translated into action has been the most advanced and developed areas of the world. Why? Because they can afford it! The least developed are too poor to concern themselves with environmental issues because they are just trying to survive.

Striped Newt a Candidate for Listing under the Endangered Species Act
WCTV

These agreements can be developed to provide regulatory certainty for landowners should the species become listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Service will review the progress and status of the species annually, as it does with all ...

Taxpayers Pay People to Sue the US
For example, Lummis says, the Dept. of the Interior must answer petitions to list species as protected wildlife. The Interior Department must respond within 90 days to petitions to list species under the Endangered Species Act. If they don't, ...

More on environmental litigation factories: "Taxpayer-funded job security"
The settlement between the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and WildEarth Guardians could open the flood gates of new listings under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The amount of radical environmental litigation in the United States is staggering ...

My Take - We need to get this! Big Green is Big Business!

Record fine for illegal land clearing
"Scientists evaluating the impact of the clearing have warned a number of threatened or endangered species may have lost key habitat, making them even more vulnerable. "This is exactly why our government introduced tough vegetation management laws - to ...

Habitat Protection to Increase for Nebraska's Vanishing Salt Creek Tiger Beetle
Center for Biological Diversity (press release)
On Oct. 6, 2005, the Fish and Wildlife Service listed the Salt Creek tiger beetle as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Only three small populations of the beetle remain within a single drainage — Little Salt Creek — near Lincoln, Neb. ... “The Salt Creek tiger beetle needs extensive critical habitat protection to survive,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “There’s just no way to recover species like this beetle without protecting their homes.”

Puerto Rican groups work to save the tinglar, the leatherback sea turtle
Do you think that enough is being done around the world to protect endangered species? Yes, there are many effective programs already in place. No, more needs to be done to protect these animals. Four times a week for the past decade, ...

Pumps' fish slaughter alarms conservationists
The killings are also renewing calls to relist the splittail - a native California species in the minnow family - as officially threatened under the Endangered Species Act. In addition to the splittail, the pumps have killed tens of thousands of ..

Snow, rain and regulatory drought
Most of the regulatory restrictions are part of a misguided federal scheme to help fish on the Endangered Species Act list. Cutbacks in water pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California were based on ...

California water wars: DOI's pumping cutbacks prompt lawsuit
But that species has not been listed under the Endangered Species Act. And other federal fisheries experts have repeatedly pointed out that the recent increase in the number of fish taken at the pumps simply reflect a large, healthy increase in fish ..

Fresh Water Snails Get More Critical Habitat
The Roswell springsnail, the Koster's springsnail, Noel's amphipod and the Pecos assiminea were listed under the Endangered Species Act by the agency in August 2005. The four species now have 521 acres designated a critical habitat in Chaves County, ...

30 bird species from state fly into endangered list
Experts are worried that almost a whooping 1253 bird species that amounts to nearly 13% of the total number are threatened. "It is an indication that we need to act now, before they become extinct," said Jathar. The IUCN Red List evaluation considers ...

Biologists Use the Web to Save Amphibians
The mountain yellow-legged frog is just one species among many that has teetered on the brink of extinction. An amphibian local to the southland, it is listed on the Federal Endangered Species Act. Once abundant in southern California streams, ...

Deschutes reintroduced steelhead could get special designation
The reintroduction of juvenile sea-run rainbow trout to the upper Deschutes River is an effort to help recover middle Columbia River steelhead, which since 1999 have been listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act throughout the ...

Endangered Wild Mint Will Become Two Separate Species
The willowy monardella will retain the endangered status granted to the species under the Endangered Species Act in 1973, while the new species will not be protected under the act because it is more widespread than previously thought. ...

Judge rules that US Fish and Wildlife acted "capriciously" in claiming threats ...
Yesterday, US District Court judge Walker D. Miller sided with conservation groups and ordered the US Interior Department to reconsider a decision denying Endangered Species Act protection to a wildflower found only in parts of Utah and ...

REGION: SB County solar project gets go-ahead
The company is capturing all tortoises found at the site for relocation, but critics of allowing the work to proceed say the Endangered Species Act is not being used as it should. Last year, using the company' surveys, the wildlife service estimated

Sturgeon: Should they be listed under the Endangered Species Act?
Conservation groups want the fish listed under the Endangered Species Act. But researchers and multiple state agencies oppose the effort. They favor a less strict designation, which

Federal legislation pits environment vs. security
It lists nearly three dozen laws that would be waived along the border, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Wilderness Act. It would also allow the federal government to waive those laws within a ...

Feds considering comments on proposed E. Idaho phosphate mine
Officials with the US Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management say they need to make sure their final decision complies with the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and the Groundwater Protection Rule. Monsanto Co. officials tell the Idaho ...

"Catastrophic Wildfires? Thank the Greenies and Forest Service":
Excessive Forest Service regulation , Endangered Species Act regulations, clean water regulations and more, prevent the salvaging of dead trees and cleanup of excess dead vegetation. This has resulted in a dangerous and large build up of extremely dry ..

Reptile Roils Oil Patch
Politicians suggest dire consequences if the lizard is subject to the Endangered Species Act. In New Mexico, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez warned Fish and Wildlife officials in a May letter that "the future of our state's economy and livelihood of so ...

USFWS: Small Wyoming plant needs protection
Recently the US Fish and Wildlife Service recommended the plant as a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Little is known about the plant native to Fremont County, said Genevieve Skora, a biologist with Fish and Wildlife. ...A judge found that the Bush administration’s ruling that this plant didn’t need protection “arbitrary and capricious”. Imagine that….a judge that finally finds a judgment arbitrary and capricious. What does that mean anyway, and by whom to whom?

Prairie chicken status changing -6/17/2011, 9:41 AM
Last week, he offered an amendment on a bill -- the Economic Development Revitalization Act of 2011 -- that would prohibit adding the lesser prairie chicken to the endangered species list. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, offered a similar amendment ...

WIND FARMS MUST BE PROSECUTED FOR KILLING ENDANGERED SPECIES
The Federal Bald and Gold Eagle Protection Act. The bald eagle will continue to be protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act even though it has been delisted under the Endangered Species Act. This law, originally passed in 1940, ...

My take – So why should we listen to these people? Once again. It isn’t long before some greenie organizations starts protesting their own ideas. All that it takes is for some idiotic businessman to attempt to put their ideas into effect. The greenies are only good at finding fault; they are clueless when it comes to finding solutions….especially when they are to non-problems, such a adequate energy. One of the reasons is that they have never done anything except be activists. Congressman Weiner is an excellent example. He never did anything except government and yet presented himself as an expert on economic and social issues.

Flying squirrel protections restored
CHARLESTON, W.Va., June 17 (UPI) -- The US Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final order that reinstated protection for the Virginia northern flying squirrel under the Endangered Species Act. The final rule complies with a court order that reinstated ...

Technique protested in sheep recovery efforts
The move is required by the US Endangered Species Act as part of the plan to revive the species, they said. The historic ranges include two regions in the southern part of Sequoia called Laurel Creek and Big Arroyo, where the sheep have not been seen ...

Fed may remove honu from "threatened" list
The Hawaiian Green Turtle, or Honu, has recovered so well since being classified as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act in 1978 that its federal protection may be removed. ...

In Oregon's Willamette Valley, the race to save the endangered Fender's blue butterfly
Other species don't really depend on the butterfly to survive, as its population size is too low, says Schultz, an associate professor at WSU. When the butterfly was listed in 2000 under the US Endangered Species Act, it became a target species for the ...

No Federal Help for a Species of One
The Wild Equity Institute and other groups that year filed an emergency petition for listing under the Endangered Species Act. But the US Fish and Wildlife Service, a creature of the Interior Department, said there was no emergency, despite the fact ...
My Take - All of this fuss over a plant. This is madness.

Sucker listing up for review
Laurie Sada, Klamath Falls field supervisor for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, said Endangered Species Act reviews are required every five years. The public is invited to submit new information produced since 2007. “We get a lot of comments, ...

Wind-power project for Merricourt area stalls 
Whooping cranes and piping plovers are classified as endangered species and covered by the Endangered Species Act. Towner said enXco is in the process of developing a habitat conservation plan. The plan is prepared and funded by the project developer ...

Fuel Fix » Cornyn amendment would halt Permian Basin lizard listing
John Cornyn, R-Texas, filed an amendment to the Economic Development Administration reauthorization bill that would exempt the lizard from the Endangered Species Act. Industry leaders are concerned that such a listing could greatly ...

Inhofe Introduces Amendments to Help Protect Jobs
“I have also introduced an amendment that would protect jobs and economic development in Oklahoma by preventing the listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken under the Endangered Species Act. Instead of restricting the rights of private property owners and ..

Final Thougts - Needless to say, this action is being opposed by the activists. All of these amendments are fine, except it doesn’t deal with the real issue. The ESA needs repealed as it currently exists, and I have misgivings as to whether it could be replaced with anything sane because sooner or later some group will go into court and demand that it be applied in some way that Congress never anticipated.

If you look closely you will find that the EPA, the Wildlife Service and almost all government agencies has gained enormous legislative authority through the courts that Congress never anticipated they would get nor intended for them to have. The goal of the ESA is now, and has always been, to eliminate property rights, although members of Congress never did get that in the beginning, and now that they do they are afraid of the greenies, especially since they specifically defeated a member of Congress from California over this issue.

Please take a look at my three part series on this subject starting with ESA Outrages, Part I. This is an issue that I wished I had spent more time on because there is so much more that most aren’t aware of, including the arbitrariness of the Wildlife Service’s determination of constitutes a different “species”.

 As an example; let’s suppose we find a prairie dog colony has black spots on it that other prairie dogs don’t have; does that justify classifying it separately? This would be considered a sub-species and could receive special protection in an area filled with other prairie dogs that they would be more than capable of interbreeding with. There is so much information that one could write extensively every week on the ESA.

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