Owls and Indigo Bushes vs Humans
Fri September 19th, 2003 14:27 MSTEdward at Zonitics noticed the enviro-whackos trying to block an improvement to the power grid by using the Gentry Indigo Bush. Apparently the bushes grow only in the path along which the transmission line will go, so building it will wipe them out. Or something like that…
But never fear, the same Tucsonian idiots are trying to block-off a much wider area, stopping not only power lines but most everything else. They want to set aside 64 SQUARE MILES of prime land PER OWL (a total of 1920 square miles!) to protect a pygmy owl - although they can only find 18 of the critters. Even the left-wing moonbat 9th Circuit court found that too much to swallow, and sent it back for review (i.e. make an argument that sounds better so we can approve this land grab without being lynched).
Haven’t they ever heard of Darwin and the fitness of species? One might suspect that the rarity of these owls is due to natural The birds are probably so rare because they can’t find each other in all that land!
Go figure…
Good job, John.
Actually, the problem in northwest Tucson is even worse than that. The county is the worst problem, and it is currently working on a plan to kill development in the area, even though the only known female in that isolated population has died of natural causes. The county government is staffed by extreme environmentalists, and they are dead set on dictating where development can occur. They are currently trying to get development into less suitable infill and southern Tucson.
Also, the grassroots support the county people (and the Feds) rely on comes from current northwest Tucson homeowners, who gain considerably. Fish and Wildlife Service usually requires 5:1 mitigation, which means for every acre developed, 5 acres must remain suitable habitat for the endangered species. Thus, new home developments in northwest Tucson must be located on huge parcels. This keeps working-class people, and especially minorities out. Since existing homeowners’ property values skyrocket, they are understandably pushing hard and giving Kieren Suckling’s lawyers all the donations they could ask for.
The Ninth circuit recognized that in deciding whether the Tucson owls should be “listed” as an endangered species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service improperly ignored the fact that there are thousands of these owls in Mexico and Arizona is the extreme northern fringe of their range. Basically, now that the owl’s “listing” is no longer valid, Fish and wildlife Service must go through a notice-and-comment rulemaking to relist it before it does anything to limit development on land in northwest Tucson.
Of course, this is all pending the Arizona district court issuing an order to remand the rule as it was instructed to do by the Ninth Circuit.
Ryan
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