Fighting Back

Those evil ranchers are at it again, at least one in particular. Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Calif.) is the chair of the House committee for environmental policy and is <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A11279-2004Jan12.html">trying to recast the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in one fell swoop.</a> The ESA is in desperate need of reform and if this is the only way to do it, I say go for it.<br />n<!–more–><br />nEnviromentalists have been using the law for years to stop any kind of progress and tie up peoples hands from using their property all to save some "endangered species." The article cited does not list all the things that the evil rancher wants to do, but the one it does list makes sense to me. To demand empirical or peer-reviewed standards for choosing plants and animals to list only makes sense to me. As it stands now I only have to make a claim that a species is endangered and it would have to be considered for inclusion, even if my "science" is made up.<br />n<br />nOne change I would like to see, but is never going to happen, is to somehow reward landowners for having endangered species on their land and maintaining habitat for them. The way it stands now if you see a animal that might be endangered on your land the best thing you can do is be quite about it so that nobody knows about it. If the government finds out about it they will put such restrictions on your land that you might be unable to continue doing business on it. The famous saying shoot, shovel, and shut-up really is the way of business now and to protect endangered species changes need to be made.<br />n<br />n<b>You think Nature is some Disney movie? Nature is a killer. Nature is a bitch. It's feeding time out there 24 hours a day, every step that you take is a gamble with death. If it isn't getting hit with lightning today, it's an earthquake tomorrow or some deer tick carrying Lime disease. Either way, you're ending up on the wrong end of the food chain. Jeff Melvoin</b>