WILD BILL
Pombo, Green Anger and the Endangered Species Act
By Bill Schneider, 11-16-06
The Endangered Species Act is like a wolf, one of the species it strives to save. Wherever the Act goes, controversy follows. In fact, is there an environmental law on the books more controversial? I doubt it. Now, even before the January changing of the guard, the Blue Congress is sending out positive signs that the approach to the ESA will change -- and change for the good.
During the Red Congress recently sent home to lick its wounds, enviros barely fought back many attempts to “revise” or “modernize” the ESA. But no more. Now, Congress will concentrate on overseeing the law to make sure agencies implement it as intended by its authors.
Losing your main ball carrier always hurts a game plan, which is what happened to property rights groups pushing for a kinder and gentler ESA. Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA), powerful chair of the House Resources Committee and main proponent of weakening the ESA, lost his bid for re-election.
Actually, the stunning defeat of Pombo, a deeply dug in incumbent running for his eighth term, by political newcomer Jerry McNerney, a wind energy advocate, gave us perhaps the best example of the depth of Green Anger among voters. Called an “eco-thug” by environmental groups targeting him for defeat, Pombo nonetheless seemed unbeatable--until the news came in and he’d lost by a substantial margin, 53-47 percent, to a democrat with minimal experience or name recognition.
(As an interesting aside, McNerney credited his win to President George W. Bush, who flew Air Force One out to Stockton, California to stump for Pombo five weeks before the election. After the presidential visit, McKerney said, “I knew I was going to win.”)
Even though I agree with the pundits that dissention over the Trillion Dollar War topped the list of reasons for the Blue Wave, Green Anger obviously played a powerful role in the final vote count. The current administration’s multi-pronged attacks on public lands, wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation has not played well with the majority. For the most part, republicans supported this unpopular causes and the dems sided with the large majority of people who opposed them.
This means we shouldn’t be too surprised by the election results.
With Pombo gone and democrats taking over key committees in both the House and Senate, lobbyists on both sides of the aisle have lost appetite for continuing the fight over re-writing the ESA. Allison A. Freeman writing for the E&E Daily reporter quotes several corporate lobbyists saying Congress will shift its emphasis to oversight from efforts to change ESA. A top priority will be reversing the current trend where appointed bureaucrats overrule scientific data in ESA decisions to please large landowners and developers.
Pombo’s defeat might seem like a long way from home, but it affects outdoor issues in the New West in many ways, chief among them a plethora of endangered species issues ranging from the Preble's meadow jumping mouse (the Mouse that Roared) and Gunnison sage grouse in Colorado, preserving salmon runs in Idaho, and way up the food chain to the most charismatic megafauna of them all, the wolf and grizzly bear, both facing delisting from the protection of the ESA.
Hopefully, the Blues will also make the budgets of federal agencies charged with implementing the ESA a priority. Starving efforts to recover endangered species minimizes any chance of success and encourages agencies to work out iffy “mitigation” agreements with private developers, which result in a short-term influx of needed funding but long-term damage to efforts to recover species on threatened and endangered species lists. In fact, I’d like to see the oversight shine some light on these mitigation agreements because in the light of day, I doubt they could be considered beneficial to the recovery of the species.
Where do we get the money? Well, that’s easy. We can find all the money we need for endangered species recovery without raising taxes by simply stopping the manufacture of anti-personnel bombs, redirecting the funds formerly used to kill innocent people to saving innocent animals.
Properly implemented, the ESA depends on the best available science to guide decisions and not unreasonably restrict development on private land. Better oversight devoid of politics would get us back on track. Let’s hope the Blues can make this happen.
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Pombo had a very big target on his back put there by enviro groups who were afraid ordinary people might gain some control over their lives.
There is Green Anger alright, but it is against those who juggle DNA, species designations and anything else to take over control of people's homes and property.
"Not quite that way" without "the rest of the story" serves no one. There is enough junk-science and aplenty self-serving bureaucrats seeking job security first and foremost in The Big Picture to choke a goat. And there is no shortage of waste in anything gov.org touches.
Those who forget that a politician is a politician IS a politician ~ whatever so-called-"color" you decide to attach to them ~ must be a second cousin to Rip Van Winkle.
Be very careful what you wish for ... or so it seems to me.
When science goes to Washington, it becomes political, and the scientists whores. When science is judged as good or bad science, by non-scientists, it has no value except to advance political goals. There is private science to advance a profit goal, and there is university science that has not directed purpose, but has to be funded by a dole. It is university science that has driven the ESA. That and litigators for the NGOs, who select the science that furthers their political, social and biological goals. Science and the ESA has become oxymoronic. Like military intellegence. Unless it is your ox the wolves ate. Or your property made useless for your purposes. Then it is no joke. Those kinds of issues will cross party lines in a heartbeat, and Bush baiting, hating, and all the emotion goes out the door and the ESA eating your food, picking your pocket, becomes the new emotional issue. We cannot forget, for one moment, that the ESA issues did not go backwards. They stayed the same. if the perceived mandate is to move to more stringent applications and enforcement, the Democrats will have opened a yellow jacket nest that will for sure get some stung. bear bait.
We not only face enemies from without, we face them from within, and it is very scary.
I have to wonder how many people know and/or understand that once Congress did their dance in the public square and turned over the details of enactment to the Department of Interior, in-the-field indiscretions and implementations done by the arm-thereof AKA the US Fish and Wildlife Service, that Congress no longer is even granted the courtesy of a mandatory response from those gov.org employees when a member of Congress makes such a request. If you doubt my words, ask your Senator ... as I did mine when I asked for a tally of funds spent when, after their *3rd* trespass on my land behind locked gates and after the USFWS had been reprimanded for BREAKING THE LAW *two* times prior I filed criminal trespass charges against them.
The Department of Interior attorney turned the case over to the Department of Justice in Denver (yep ... that is the group who prosecuted the Oklahoma bombers) in order to avoid acknowledging guilt (witnessed) and paying the maximum fine of *$50* as they attempted to use the local County Court as a conduit to prove that gov.org could trespass on private property as and when they so wished in the State of Colorado.
The Department of Justice assigned *3* attorneys to this piddley-assed case, who all worked on it for over ONE YEAR in their attempt to research CO law and find a loophole that would allow gov.org to trespass on private property ~ prior to showing up at the local DA's office to plead "No Contest" and pay what then amounted to several hundred dollars in fines and court costs ONE YEAR after the fact.
If you are tallying the financial clip just remember that this adventure by the USFWS, Department of Interior, Department of Justice = YOUR taxpayer money ~ from stem to stern.
Outraged as I was, I asked my Senator to get a full accounting of this waste of money. My Senator's first request for accountability from the Department of Interior went totally unanswered and the single/only response to his second request for financial accountability said ONLY "business as usual" ~ no accounting of funds spent did he ever receive.
I felt that to insult me was one thing; to insult my Senator quite another! But when I pressed his office to heat the water in the boiling pot I was told that the Department of Interior HAS NO OBLIGATION TO EVEN RESPOND TO ANY SENATOR, MUCH LESS GIVE OUT INFORMATION THAT A CONGRESSPERSON MIGHT REQUEST FROM THEM.
So when you say, Marion, that "...we face (enemies) from within, and it is very scary" you have voiced an understatement of the CENTURY!
A good many years ago a man much older and wiser than I told me that it is not the politicians we have to fear ~ it is the bureaucrats.
I have always remembered his words and the more I learn about the structure and implementation of such things as the ESA I have come to respect those words and understand the truth of them to a greater extent each year of my life.
The USFWS was ready, willing and able to breach my locked gates and BREAK THE LAW in their attempt to find an endangered species on my private property *3* times with absolutely NO respect or regard for reprimands they'd received from a US Senator the first *2* times around. Had I not been willing to file criminal trespass charges against them when they came back the *3rd* time they'd still be here!
And, grab this: THEY FOUND NOT A ONE ENDANGERED SPECIES ON MY PERSONAL PRIVATE PROPERTY!!! And they had not even ONE reason to think they would beyond the fact that I do own some of that dandy "open space" too many covet "for the public good".
Can you even imagine the dues I'd have had to pay if they had? ~ and how little anyone would have cared whether or not they broke the law to find them?
Has anyone been paying attention to the FACT that they listed the Preble Mouse without even one lick of SCIENCE behind them BEFORE that misadventure began? Now those of us without "the mouse" can watch our City, County, State and Federal funds (to say nothing about all the private costs of it all!!!) pour out the window to the tune of MILLIONS of dollars while *after the fact* they struggle to bribe some so-called-scientist somewhere to justify their dastardly deeds. In the meantime our pocket books are opened wide and will continue to be drained even if the War is won by those so extremely damaged since it will take multi-many months or years to even get The Rules changed, should they ever be changed.
So if you wish to sit at home,
Illusions of the beasts that roam
Are now protected from mankind,
You've failed to open eyes and find
REALITY of what's become
A bureaucratic race that's run.
If ANY species lives to tell
A story saving them from hell,
"Coincidence" will tell a story
Second to two-legged glory.
Count "transplanted" ones now dead
Who have sacrificed their head.
If you choose to ride a cloud,
Plug your ears to message, loud,
Then you're apt to buy The Acts
Without regard for what it lacks.
Just go find a bushel, large,
Or spit and whittle on your barge.
That is the easy path to tread
When you get out of your bed
Every morning ~ buy The Line,
Hook and sinker on the twine.
But I will HOPE you'll watch and read
To see the changes that we NEED!!!
... or so it seems to me ... Rose Mary
Dear Fellow SCI Member:
Of all the close races in this tumultuous election cycle, there is one that is uniquely important to all members of SCI -- one race that we simply cannot afford to lose.
House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo -- a fellow member of SCI -- has been targeted for defeat by a cabal of extremist environmental groups. They are pouring millions of dollars and dozens of staffers into his district, with the sole mission of defeating Chairman Pombo.
As your President and as Chairman of your Political Action Committee, we are taking the unprecedented step of writing you directly. Chairman Pombo's work has helped SCI members for years. Now we need to help him -- and help fend off the focused attacks of our political opponents.
This race has become a referendum on hunting and conservation. The extremist groups are outraged that Chairman Pombo is working to reform archaic laws that render more harm than benefit to wildlife and conservation. Their cold political calculus is very simple: defeat Richard Pombo, and kill reform of laws like the Endangered Species Act.
Don’t take our word for it, here’s what they say about the race: “If the Humane Society Legislative Fund could be granted one wish during this election season, it would be that U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo be defeated.”
If Pombo is defeated, years of hard work will go down the drain. SCI-PAC has given Richard all the direct assistance we legally can. SCI-PAC is "maxed out" under campaign law. But every American SCI member is eligible to make donations directly to his campaign.
This situation is dire, and your assistance is urgently needed. Funding is desperately needed to stave off the millions of dollars of scurrilous ads from our opponents. We MUST help our friend and supporter Richard Pombo.
If every SCI member donated as little as $100, it would make a huge difference in Richard's outlook for re-election. When you think about what you spend every year on trips, outfitters, gear and trophies, $100 is a minuscule amount to protect your right to hunt. But it’s the best investment you can make in this election.
We implore you to clink the link below right now. It will take you directly to the secure, online contribution page for the Pombo campaign. Please consider giving at least $100, or more if you can. The limit on contributions is $2,100. But whatever you are able to give, please do it now, today, so your donation can be put to immediate use.
Click here to make a secure, online donation to help our fellow SCI member, friend and supporter Richard Pombo.
Don't let someone else decide whether our rights will be protected. The future of hunting -- and the political credibility of SCI -- is in your hands. Richard is counting on us -- and we are counting on you.
Sincerely,
It would allow the Interior Department to sell tens of millions of acres of public lands in the American West -- including more than 2 million acres inside or within a few miles of national parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas -- to international mining companies, oil and gas prospectors, real-estate developers, and, well, anyone else who's interested. The stated aim is to generate an estimated $158 million in revenue over the next five years to help curb the monstrous federal deficit.
Pombo's agenda has been to overturn the Endangered Species Act, restart commercial whaling, sell off our public lands to mining companies, see intensive logging of our national forests, gut the Clear Air and Clean Water acts and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and offshore regions, prevent any increase in fuel efficiency standards, overturn bans on highly toxic pesticides, and take no action regarding global warming. He wasn't terribly effective getting laws all the way through (usually the Senate put the cabash on the more extreme concepts), but he did manage to enrich friends, family, and cronies through corrupt campaign financing practices.
He also voted twice to protect MTBE manufacturers from being sued for environmental damage. MTBE helps engines burn cleaner, but has also been found to contaminate water supplies in California, necessitating huge clean-up costs. That was an apparent favor to his buddy Tom Delay, whose district includes several MTBE manufacturers.
Pombo losing that election warmed my heart and encouraged my spirit.
As for paying for an emboldened ESA enforcement of current law etc. - We don't even have to look at the military (though I certainly appreciate the point Bill). Our public lands agencies (BLM, FS, F&G;- or equivalent, states, etc.) are hemorrhaging millions - if not billion(s) - subsidizing the very industries responsible for the endangered species' decline. The agencies blade and maintain roads for logging & grazing corporations, construct fencing & water developments, clean up the bio-pollution (aerial herbicide for weeds -biopollutants- which proliferate as a result of soil disturbances) re-seed - re-plant and that's just a start. If the government didn't pick these costs up for free (welfare), there is a much larger likelihood that these companies would have to play fair and the expenses associated with production on OUR lands would render OUR lands not worth the cost of exploiting.
These costs which are picked up by you and me (taxpayer) don't just hurt us, they hurt the free-market by unduly deflating the production costs of corporations - which makes it harder to compete for those companies unfortunate enough not to have the artificially low production costs.
That's a start - then set the permits (for whatever use - logging, grazing, oil, coal, whatever) at market value minus 5% - what the hell, the 5% discount for s&g;. After all, market value of the (OUR Public) assets on OUR public land is what these companies are using as collateral (not the fees they pay, they use market value) on multi-million if not billion (aggregate) dollar loans - which is another artificial inflation of competitiveness.
The money is there to fulfill the legally established will of the people - hell, there may be enough left over for whatever WE decide - it's just the cronies have had there hands in OUR cookie jar this whole time.
It's time to shake it up - but if history is any indication, the big Ds will need to be on the hind end of a whip to get motivated - the conservation community needs to be willing to take hold.
When Pombo tried to push through a bill to pay private property owners for the use of their property to protect the poopsie woopsie, a snail, or whatever else they could think of, including the infamous rat, that was his downfall. Enviros knew if everyday people found out how much specific folks are actually paying for the protections and the bills were transferred into higher taxes for themselves things would have a lid put on it.
There are 2 "threatened" species of plants listed in Wyoming that are not even found in the Audubon book of western flowers. I think these guys go out and come up with fabricated stuff just to get money and of course control of private property.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/budget07/agencies.html
Please note that Interior, at some $10 billion, is quite small compared to biggies like Defense or Health.
Of that, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which manages endangered species, gets $2.1 billion. That sounds like alot, yet all ESA line items add up to only $141 million in Bush's proposed budget. That's far less than the $195 million spent per day on the war in Iraq. $141 million is pocket change in the federal budget.
As for the two threatened species of Wyoming plants you mentioned, I know biologists who could take you out and show you these plants, which didn't show up in Audubon books, not because there's some conspiracy afoot, but because they are "rare."
The mineral rights and the mining act are there to make sure the whole country has raw material. The mining act is what made this country independent from European bankers. It gave the US specie on which to build a home banking system. The mining laws might be the keystone of our countries economic greatness. And why should the government make all the money off any financial venture? That experiment failed in Russia.
If you really think someone is profiting from using a USFS road you are nuts. They pay, by log measurement unit, for every mile of road used, for every load down that road. And the collected money does not go to blade the road. USFS does no road maintenance these days. The money goes to clean up the garbage dumps, the meth labs, and the destroyed outhouses, the grateful public's gift to America. The greatest act of conservation in America is the long life of grader blades on USFS motor patrols. Pristine. Never been in the rock.
The ass that the public is, is why all the large private timberlands are being closed to the public. Big, tank trap, steel, hidden lock gates. And they are doing it because they don't want to have the road closed while the crime scene where the dead whore was dumped is examined. They don't want any more equipment sabotaged. They don't want any more plastic bags of garbage and dumped meth labs or piss stained mattresses, dog poop rugs, old sofas, bullet holes in signs and grader windows. Those people can go do their deeds on the public domain, on their own lands as you are wont to call them. Remember, you share those lands not only with the timber barons, but the swill and swine that is your fellow man. There were less than 50 Republicans turned out of Congress. There are that many illegal aliens growing dope on your public forest land in the county I live in. The real resource rape that is ongoing this time of the year is the commercial 'shroomers who shoot at each other over "their" special picking spots. They are taking the deer and elk food, the tree root feeders, and leaving behind all the slurpee cups and styrofoam food containers you can imagine. Keep drinking the Jonestown cocktails..