Liberty Matters News Service
March 13, 2001
US District Judge
William B. Shubb denied a motion filed by three environmental groups to
halt 220 logging projects approved by the U.S. Forest Service over the
past five and a half years in the Sierra Nevada region.
The Federal Judge stated that the environmental coalition was
“not likely to succeed on the merits of any of their claims.”
The environmentalists, led by the Earth Island Institute, filed a
motion for a preliminary injunction to halt the approved projects
claiming two species, the California spotted owl and Pacific fisher,
were not adequately protected, and that the USFS was relying on outdated
management guidelines. The environmental groups plan to seek an
emergency injunction from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals.
Judge
rejects motion to halt 220 Logging projects
Last November, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a moratorium on new listings of
alleged endangered species claiming their resources were being drained
fighting lawsuits from environmental groups.
The Washington Post reported “the move has inflamed disputes
over tactics within the environmental movement.
It also spotlighted a serious budget quandary for Congress and
the Bush administration, and reopened long-running debates about the
costs and benefits of the Endangered Species Act.”
Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who now oversees USFWS, once
argued in a brief before the Supreme Court that the law is an
unconstitutional infringement of private property rights.
In her new position, Norton says she will enforce the law but
suggested that she will not use the heavy-handed enforcement of past
administration because this alienates landowners.
USFWS claims that much of their budget and time is being spent on
responding to and complying with the barrage of litigation filed by
green groups trying to force the designation of critical habitat for
species, while the USFWS believes it is more important to spend their
resources on ensuring more species are listed. The green groups are suing to overturn the moratorium.
Endangered
List Faces New Peril
Eco-Terrorists Strike Again
The Earth
Liberation Front has promised to step up its activities to free Mother
Earth from the chains of civilization.
The shadowy group says it is responsible for a fire in Tulare
County, California, that burned a warehouse containing large quantities
of genetically engineered cottonseeds. The e-mail message stated, in part, “…this seed will no
longer exist to contaminate the environment, enrich a sick corporation,
or contribute to its warped research programs.”
Local authorities have not yet determined if the group is really
responsible, but ELF spokesmen say the group’s involvement in
terrorist acts is often discounted, and later found to be true.
ELF also announced it has spiked trees in the Umpqua National
Forest’s Judie Timber Sale, near Eugene, Oregon.
Officials have been unable to confirm the boast because crews
have not been able to reach the area, due to heavy snow cover. Tree spiking is a particularly heinous act of terrorism,
because of dangers posed when loggers attempt to cut the trees and
again, in the sawmills where spikes and nails can seriously harm both
workers and equipment. The
FBI continues to investigate the incidents but have yet to make any
arrests.
Eco-terrorism
Group Claims Tulare Attack...
ELF Says It Spiked Trees In
Timber Sale
Drop That Frog
The frog police
always get their man, as John J. Zentner will attest.
Mr. Zentner, a California environmental consultant, pleaded
guilty to relocating 60 red-legged frogs and 500 tadpoles from a
development site to a safe pond, where they are thriving.
The federal department of [In] Justice demanded Mr. Zentner spend
10 days in the cooler and pay a $10,000 personal fine, in addition to
the $65,000 extorted from his company.
A local judge reduced his penalty to 200 hours community service.
The feds charged that Mr. Zentner moved the frogs to save his
clients the huge expenses involved in construction delay.
Zentner’s attorney observed that if his client merely wanted to
expedite construction…“There was obviously a blatantly wrong
alternative, which was to allow the frogs to be bulldozed into
oblivion.” On March 6, 2001, U.S. Fish and Wildlife designated a
staggering 4.1 million acres of the state of California as critical
habitat for the frog made famous from an 1865 short story by Mark Twain
entitled “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”
A new layer of regulations now exist across 4 percent of the
state, including 2.8 million acres of private land even though the frogs
don’t live there – it’s “potential” habitat.
Homebuilders are going to challenge the federal government in
court claiming there is a drastic need for more housing and the habitat
designation will reduce housing construction by 5 percent and take a
$2.2 billion bite out of the Bay Area economy.
Move
a Frog . . . Go Straight To Jail
Bush/Norton:
Provide Carrot, Not Stick
At a recent
speech in Washington, D.C., Interior Secretary Gale Norton offered
another glimpse of President Bush’s environmental policy.
Norton discussed providing landowner incentives for protecting
endangered species as a way to improve environmental laws.
For example, she said landowners who find rare animal species on
their land “face economic devastation.”
She suggested that landowners should receive incentives to
preserve species and habitat through “technical assistance, habitat
enhancement tools and financial reward to foster win-win solutions –
benefiting landowners, endangered species and our national treasures.”
Laws like the Endangered Species Act provide perverse incentives
to landowners who know that if a rare species is found on their property
they must obtain permission from a federal bureaucracy to use their
land, causing landowners to “shoot, shovel and shut-up.”
Under the ESA today, both the landowners and the species lose.
Norton emphasized property rights and consulting with people who
use the land. “It’s local people who see problems with their very
own eyes who often know the best solutions,” she said.
So, look for more “stakeholder” participation from this
administration. Unfortunately, “stakeholder” means environmental groups,
federal government agencies and other non-governmental groups sitting at
the table telling private landowners what they can do with their
property. Norton’s
message may sound refreshing, but laws like the ESA are so strict, it
doesn’t matter what politicians say; it’s all in the interpretation
and enforcement. Until laws
like the ESA are changed, environmental protections will continue to
take property with no compassion or compensation for private landowners.