Liberty
Matters News Service
February 17, 2006
Rapanos v United States
The U. S. Supreme Court will hear Rapanos v. United States on February 21, 2006. The United States government has been persecuting John Rapanos for 18 years, accusing him of the heinous crime of moving sand on his own property without a federal permit and demanding he be sentenced to jail. The trial judge refused, three times, to put him in jail, saying the Michigan man is "the kind of person that the Constitution was passed to protect." Mr. Rapanos' property is "20 miles from the nearest waterway that could trigger federal oversight, but the federal government argues, under the banner of protecting wetlands, that it can regulate virtually any water in the nation - despite the clear limits of the law." "Groups representing hundreds of government agencies that provide clean water for tens of millions of Americans are supporting Mr. Rapanos. Supporters include the largest urban water district in the nation, the largest coalition of public water agencies in the nation, and a coalition of water agencies that provide clean water to more than 30 million citizens in six states in the Western United States."
PLF Fights Overreaching Federal
Government in Landmark U.S. Supreme Court Case
Some Federal Lands May Go On Auction Block
The federal government has identified 2,930 parcels of government land in 34 states that could be scheduled for sale to private interests. If the plans go through it could be the largest federal land sale in decades. The parcels include 85,000 acres of Forest Service land in California, 25,000 in Idaho, 21,000 in Colorado and 13,900 acres in Montana. Under Secretary of Agriculture, Mark Rey said that although the proposed sale "is substantially larger than some of our previous proposals for federal land conveyances ... with the active land acquisition program, which has been in existence for 50 years, we're continuing to acquire environmentally sensitive lands." The proposed sale is part of the president's 2007 budget and is expected to raise about $800 million that will go to rural schools that have struggled since the government destroyed the timber industries that funded the schools. Montana's Lewis and Clark County Commissioner Ed Tinsley protested the proposal, saying it "reeks of a privatization attempt." Montana's Democrat Senator, Max Baucus also opposes the plan, saying, "I've co-sponsored legislation (S. 267) along with Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), that would reauthorize and fully fund the Secure Rural Schools program without selling off our public lands."
Bush Administration Seeks Sale of
Forest Service Lands
2007 Budget Seeks Increase for USF&WS
The Bush administration is requesting $2.1
billion for the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service in the on-going mission "to
conserve America's wetlands resources and support for conservation partnerships
in communities across the country." Applauding the request, Interior Secretary
Gale Norton said, "Using the best science available, the Service continues
serving our nation's fish and wildlife needs. The requests include a whopping
$800,000 to develop recovery and management plans for the legendary
ivory-billed woodpecker that the Service "re-discovered" in 2005. New funding
for grant programs for FY2007 Cooperative Conservation programs includes:
A $7.2 million increase
for the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants Fund
$2.2 million more for the
North American Wetlands Conservation Fund.
$2.7 million more the Landowner
Incentive Grants.
$2.1 million for the Private Stewardship Grant program.
$80 million for the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Fund.
$42.7 million for the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program.
$2.0 million
more for the National Fish Habitat Initiative.
$4.3 million more for the
national Wildlife Refuge System's Challenge Cost Share Program.
At the same time, environmentalists are moaning about the administration's cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency's budget for 2007. "This is the most troubling budget we've seen from this White House," said Heather Taylor, deputy legislative director for Natural Resources Defense Council. The FY2007 budget would trim EPA's budget by nearly five percent down to a "paltry" $7.2 billion and the Interior Department's budget by 2.4 percent, to a mere $9.1 billion.
Bush Administration asks Congress to
Fully Fund the Wetland Reserve Program
President Seeks More Than $2 Billion for USFWS
in 2007 Budget
EPA Budget Cuts
Trouble Environment Groups
Ivory-billed Woodpecker: Faith-Based Ornithology?
Noted ornithologist, Jerome A. Jackson, is casting doubt on last year's highly publicized "rediscovery" of the Ivory-billed woodpecker deep in the Arkansas woods. The discovery was proved, said supporters, including Interior Secretary Gale Norton, by a grainy, four-second video that brought to mind the doctored photos of the legendary Sasquatch. When the June 3, 2005 issue of Science published a full report of the discovery featuring a still picture of the bird, Jackson said he then seriously doubted the bird was an Ivory-billed woodpecker. "My opinion is that the bird in the [video] is a normal Pileated Woodpecker," he said. It is interesting to note that the hunt for the Ivory-billed woodpecker was "organized, supported and launched by the Nature Conservancy" which stands to reap the benefits from $10.2 million federal dollars and hundreds of thousands of acres of prime Arkansas bottomland. Incidentally, the FY2007 budget lists $800,000 for recovery and management plans for the probably still-extinct woodpecker.