Liberty
Matters News Service
January 21, 2005
Enviros Told to Quit Litigating
In
the wake of the U. S Department of Interior announcement last week that it will
not list the Greater Sage grouse as an endangered or threatened species, Diane
Hoppe, Colorado state representative urged environmental groups to quit
litigating and start conserving. "What are some of these so-called
environmental groups bringing to the conservation table?" Ms. Hoppe asked.
"Little beyond a never-ending stream of destructive and costly lawsuits." Jim
Simms, Executive Vice President of Partnership for the West concurred and
declared it an "extraordinary win for the West." "The sad news is that those
who pushed this listing petition forced the wasteful spending of millions of
taxpayers' dollars at the federal and state levels that could otherwise have
been spent helping sage grouse and preserving their habitat." Another positive
ruling was handed down in Oregon this week when federal district Judge Michael
Hogan, once again, ruled that the federal government violated the ESA by
refusing to recognize that hatchery-raised coho salmon are genetically
identical to wild coho salmon. By using the narrow definition of wild coho, the
government justified its decision to cut off irrigation water to Klamath Basin
farmers. "Our rivers and streams are teeming with salmon, yet the Klamath
community was practically destroyed because of environmental politics run
amok," said Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) attorney, Russ Brooks.
Klamath River Salmon Protection Ruled Illegal
Sage Grouse Coalition Reacts to Sage
Grouse Decision
ESA Reform or Reauthorization?
Congress may attempt to
reform and in so doing reauthorize the Endangered Species Act with a couple of
proposals that are gaining support among House members. One would change how
"critical habitat" is designated and the other would require the "best"
scientific proof that a species is actually endangered or threatened before it
can be listed. "Ninety percent of the species in the United States have habitat
on private land. So, if we do not improve the law so that we embrace the
private landowner to engage in recovery efforts, we're going to have a very
hard time improving that less that 1 percent recovery rate over the past 30
years," said Brian Kennedy, U. S. House Resource Committee Communication
Director. While environmentalists warn reform efforts will "gut" the Act, that
is highly unlikely as both its supporters and detractors well know. The Western
Governors' Association, at its meeting in San Diego in December, called for
changes to allow landowners to help recover species without the specter of
lawsuits and loss of property rights as their reward. Colorado Governor Bill
Owens, chairman of the Governors' Association, said the Act has been a dismal
failure during its thirty-year existence. "More than 1,000 species have been
listed under the Act but less than 1 percent has been successfully recovered,"
he said. Setting a very dangerous precedent, Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA)
and Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) have advised a group of property rights advocates
to "tone down" their language and replace words such as "property rights" with
"conservation and recovery." This is necessary they claim to win the two fixes
they propose while forgetting property rights are landowners only
protection.
Blue Planet: Congress May Act on ESA
Efforts Underway to Rewrite Federal
Endangered Species Law
ESA
Reality Check
Property Rights' Measures Being Tested
Oregon's Measure 37, approved by 61 percent
of the voters last November, is still in the news. The Measure provides relief
to property owners who have been unable to use or develop their property for
the last 30 years due to Oregon's strict land use regulatory policies. But now,
several county Farm Bureau organizations and the 1,000 Friends of Oregon have
filed suit to block property owners' wishes. The groups claim Measure 37
violates Oregon's constitution because it "creates inequality and unfairness,"
in the words of Bob Stacey, executive directory of "Friends." Stacey fears
landowners will exercise their rights to build casinos and homes on their land
although he does favor "some form of compensation," to those whose land has
been devalued due to regulatory restrictions. Larry Wells, president of the
Marion County Farm Bureau, revealed his astute grasp of the situation when he
explained the worst part of Measure 37 was it allows landowners "to go back and
do with that land what they could've done when they bought it." Rural
Washington state property owners are hoping to get similar measures enacted in
their own state after King County Commissioners voted to force rural residents
to preserve up to 65 percent of their property, the 65/10 Rule. The Citizens'
Alliance for Property Rights collected 17,000 signatures to place three
measures overturning the restrictive land-use policies on the March 8 ballot.
Their petition was denied, however, by King County Superior Court Judge Palmer
Robinson, who said the ballot measures were "beyond the scope of the referendum
power." Rod McFarland, president of the Citizens group, said his group will
take its case to the state Supreme Court. Gary Tripp, organizer of Bainbridge
Citizens United, another organization that opposes critical areas regulations
said; "We've been fighting an uphill battle against what I view as illegal
regulatory taking - taxing people by taking their property to create public
resources." "[I]t's just not what government was intended to do."
Judge Rules out
Ballot Fight on Land-Use Rules
Lawsuit Challenges Constitutionality of
Property Rights Measure
Property
Rights Fight