Liberty
Matters News Service
November 18, 2005
DOI Announces Plan to De-list Grizzly
The Department of Interior announced plans Tuesday to de-list the grizzly bear. Populations of the huge carnivore have exploded to at least 1,200, up from and estimated 200 in 1975. The bears were never really endangered; many have thrived in Alaska and Canada for years, but environmentalists would not rest until the forests of the lower forty-eight were infested with them too. "It is now time to give back regulatory authority of wildlife to the states, in this case; Wyoming, Idaho and Montana," said Tom France, director of National Wildlife Federation (NFW) Northern Rockies Natural Resource Center. Under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan, six million acres of land will be designated as "Primary Conservation Area" where the grizzly will be king and an additional six million acres outside the primary area will be designated as a "Recovery Zone" to allow for additional grizzly occupancy. Let's see; six million for the "core" and six million for the "buffer zone." Looks like the Wildlands project is right on schedule. Louise Wilcox, director of the natural Resources Defense Council's Wild Bears Project is against de-listing. "The grizzly habitat we're talking about is one highly vulnerable to development - particularly in the oil, drilling, and gas industries," she said. Leading, she warned, to increased "human-grizzly interaction," which will likely result in more human fatalities.
Grizzly Bear to be Removed from
Endangered Species List
Commissioners Condemn Land for Park
Ron Kohr Jr. has been trying to sell his late parents' farm to pay debts incurred because of bankruptcy. Lauxmont Farms was established as a horse-breeding farm and shares were sold to investors who were led to believe the project was a sure-fire moneymaker. It wasn't. The owners declared bankruptcy in 1989, and now the heirs are attempting to pay off the investors by selling the property. The Kohr family sold 79 acres to developer Peter Alecxith Jr. who planned to build homes on it. That was until York County Commissioners in Pennsylvania decided to condemn Alecxith's land along with 500 acres of the original Lauxmont Farms property for a proposed Susquehanna Riverlands Preservation Project. Alecxith has decided not to appeal the condemnation, but has taken issue with the county's low-ball appraisal of $2.2 million for the property. It is worth $17 million, says Alecxith, based on contracts he had written before the county took over. The original bankruptcy agreement called for the land to be sold for housing and Leon Haller, a lawyer who is trying to sell the farm and pay creditors says the county has fouled the works because now no one wants to buy property that may be taken under eminent domain. And further, the county refuses to pay what Haller and the Kohrs say the land is worth. The county has borrowed $11 million to acquire the land with hopes of paying off the loan when "grants" roll in for the project. The value of the land will be decided by an independent board, said Haller. "And even if it turns out to be far more than county officials originally intended to pay, they'll be locked in at that point," he said. "I think the county's taking a huge chance to do something that's totally unnecessary and unwanted," he continued.
County Votes to Borrow $11M
Developer Gives up Condemnation
Fight
What Will Be Next for
Lauxmont?
UN Plans to Protect Oceans
The Oil-for Food folks at the United Nations are cooking up another scheme to control people's access to and use of oceans. "In the face of big challenges such as habitat loss, pollution of coastal zones and species loss, and the high seas' collapse of fish stocks, the whole marine realm is becoming rapidly more important," said Achim Steiner, director-general of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Steiner said a conservation plan for the unregulated high seas - part of a U.N backed plan - would be produced by 2008 and adoption by world governments by 2012. The situation in oceans around the world is deteriorating, and at an escalating pace," Steiner claimed during the world's first conference on marine protected areas in Australia, where 700 scientists from 70 countries gathered to discuss the problem. (Taking time off from their global warming mongering, no doubt). The scientists warned that as much as 20 percent of the earth's coral reefs have been destroyed, caused, in part by sediment run-off from farms.
Scientists Draft Blueprint to Protect World Oceans
Grazing Fees Under Fire … Again
Leader of the far-left wing of radical environmentalists, the Center for Biological Diversity, (CBD) has petitioned the secretaries of Interior and Agriculture to raise grazing fees for federal land users. The group apparently got the idea after reading the Government Accountability Office report that stated the cost to manage Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service grazing allotments was $144 million and grazing receipts were only $21 million. The groups say grazing fees should be raised to $13.00 per animal unit instead of the current $1.79 per AUM. That would bring it more in line with private pasture rent. Western Livestock Journal editor Pete Crow writes: "[c]omparing a private lease and a federal lease is like comparing apples and oranges. It just can't be done. The worst thing is these far left environmental activist groups still just don't get the multiple use concept or understand the mandate of the Taylor Grazing Act. The government is required by law to lease these lands for grazing," Crow said.
Home on the Range
Conservationists Petition for Increased
Livestock Grazing Fee