Liberty
Matters News Service
April 22, 2005
468 Tons of Dirt Moved by Hand
Officials of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and the U. S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (FWS) have come to an agreement regarding the presence of the
so-called endangered fairy shrimp on the airport's property. The shrimp were
discovered at LAX in 1998, and ever since FWS has tried to force airport
officials to maintain water in the area as critical habitat for the tiny
one-half to one inch creatures. But the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
rules require water or vegetation that might attract birds be removed from
airport premises. "Because of the concerns for passenger safety, the FAA does
not want standing water in that area, so the shrimp had not been able to
complete their life cycle," said Jane Hendron, a FWS spokeswoman. (The little
shrimp cysts hatch in mud puddles after a rain). As a result, the FWS agreed to
allow Los Angeles City to move the critters to either Torrance or the closed El
Toro Marine Corps Air Station in Orange County where a preserve must by created
for them at city expense. Airport officials will begin moving the things as
soon as the puddles dry, hopefully by September. The area in question is about
1.3 acres in size and contains about 468 tons of dirt and will have to be
collected using hand trowels. Only the government using the hammer of the
Endangered Species Act could have created such a ridiculous waste of time,
money and resources.
City to Move Endangered Shrimp
Trying to Clean Up Their Act
In a move to avoid losing
their cushy tax exempt status, The Land Trust Alliance announced it is
launching a $3 million program to improve the image of America's 1,500 land
trust organizations. Following the now-famous Washington Post exposé of
the questionable deals concocted by The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Congress
began to look into whether TNC and the other land trusts were following proper
IRS procedures. A report by the Joint Committee on Taxation, subsequently
recommended removing tax breaks for conservation easements and historic facade
easements, a move that has the land trusts a bit concerned. Recently, IRS
Commissioner Mark W. Everson reported to the Senate Finance Committee that the
IRS has found problems with virtually every type of land-use, tax-exempt
organization and is conducting an extensive audit of the Nature Conservancy.
"We are currently examining 48 easement donors and also are reviewing
deductions taken for nearly 400 open space easements to be followed with a
review of over 700 facade easements. We will use all civil and criminal tools
at our disposal to combat abuses," Everson said.
Alliance Starts
Plan to Improve Land Trusts
Wal-Mart Buckles to Extortion
Bowing to criticism from the greens
regarding its contributing role to "urban sprawl" and its evil twin capitalism,
Wal-Mart has agreed to partner with and pay the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation to take more private property off the market. The giant retail firm
has pledged to provide $35 million over the next ten years to buy at least
138,000 acres of land, equal to the amount of land occupied by all of its
stores and other facilities. Interior Secretary praised the move during a
ceremony at the infamous invasive species/global warming advocate National
Geographic Society on Tuesday. "'Acres for America' demonstrates the power of
cooperative conservation and partnership," Norton said. "[Wal-Mart] is setting
a standard of corporate stewardship that I hope other companies will emulate."
Acreage acquired under the program already exceeds the target as the Foundation
has agreed to purchase 6,000 acres to expand the Catahoula National Wildlife
Refuge in Louisiana and a permanent conservation easement on more than 312,000
acres in Maine. Other projects for "Acres for America" include: acquisition of
two ranches encompassing 850,000 acres on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon;
1,226 acres of habitat for the "endangered" Indiana bat in Arkansas; and a
1,120 acre conservation easement on a ranch in
Oregon.
Wal-Mart, NFWF Partner for Conservation
Let Them Eat Cake
The consequences of making laws dictating
where and if people can build their homes is becoming painfully clear in
California. Most of the county of San Mateo is off-limits to home building and
the existing homes continue to rise in value, as much as $2,000 a day. The
average cost of a single-family home in the county, last month reached
$896,000, way out of reach for the average family. As a result, young people
are leaving the area in droves and schools are closing for lack of students.
Dr. Thomas Sowell writes that rich people trying to find a purpose for their
existence have pushed for legislation to prevent their surroundings from being
gobbled up by "sprawl" in the name of protecting the environment. Now the poor,
the children, and minorities the "limousine liberals" claim to care about are
being driven into the interior valleys far from their work places. "The same
wealthy busybodies" are pursuing them into the interior valleys, "where
environmental foundations and movements are trying to get the same housing
restrictions imposed." Dr. Sowell says, "[P]olitically, this selfishness poses
as idealism... These are green activists buying an artificial significance for
themselves that they would never have had as mere inheritors of fortunes earned
by others."
Easy
Money in California