LA Weekly

I have no doubt that the seemingly trivial names of these creatures -- the unarmored stickleback fish, the red-legged frog and the infamous spotted owl -- have allowed a man like Richard Pombo, Republican Congressman of Tracy, to stir up enough bi-partisan support to pass a House bill gutting the Endangered Species Act Thursday.

The future of supporting legislation in the Senate is uncertain, as our earth-lover in the Republican camp, Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, oversees the Senate Resources Committee. But if it happens, it will because environmental groups failed to make the argument that we protect endangered species not just because we have deep affection for red-legged frogs, but because we species die off it means we're next. I'm not saying they didn't try. I'm saying we all failed.

The wetlands of the Gulf Coast and the mangroves of Thailand are just two examples. Had these habitats been protected for the sake of seabirds and marine life, as they should have been, the storm surge of Katrina and the blast of the tsunami would both have been slowed by their presence.

--------

Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Gristmill has already blogged this well, but I'm repeating it all here to keept track of it:

Arnold Schwarznegger, in the wake of a Katrina -- and despite a cry for help from several California legislators for money to shore up California's crumbling levee system -- has booted all the reasonable people off the board that oversees such matters, and replaced them with industry-friendly folk. Once again: All the independent thinkers on the Reclamation Board, who had recently announced a moratorium on new development in central California's floodplains, have been fired. In their place are people who won't say no to new buildings, because they can make money off them.

Yes, even in the Los Angeles Times story, which I read out loud to the man I live with because neither of could believe it, it's that simple. Even Carl Pope can't believe it.

One of the board members, Jeffrey Mount, was recently interviewed in Salon about New Orleans -- which leads just about everyone these days to the perilous geology of the California Delta. Said Mount:

I laugh, only in a gallows humor sort of way, when people in California go: "How stupid are those people to build a whole city down there in a subsiding bowl." Huh? Been to Stockton?

Another, former Sacramento City Manager Bill Edgar, told the Sacramento Bee recently that he was concerned about the compatibility of housing developments with a levee system designed only to protect farmland. Said Edgar:

I believe if you're going to urbanize the land you've got to urbanize the levees. That's the bottom line.

Another, Betsy Marchand, questioned Yuba County's policy of allowing development in flood-prone areas to generate income for levee improvement.

We're not trying to give you a hard time.

she said in a meeting a whole year ago,

You've got a project that's a real doozy. It's one that gives a lot of people a lot of concern."

Marchand, Edgar and Mount are out, as are their four other former fellow board members. In their places are:

Rose Burroughs, the owner of a livestock company Benjamin Carter, a farmer and former Apple Computer executive Maureen Doherty, a farmer Emma Suarez, an attorney who works for the California Farm Bureau, who defended the farmers against environmentalists in the battle over the spotted owl; Teri Rie, a civil engineer; Francis "Butch" Hodgkins, formerly executive director of the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency (not so bad -- he's has gone on record fearing the demise of the levees and the flooding of his own town); and Cheryl Bly-Chester, a civil engineer who ran for governor in the 2003 election as a Republican.

At there's one guy in there who seems to know what's up. Maybe there's two -- hard to tell.

As Drudge says, developing . . .

--------

Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just received word from Garry George of the Los Angeles Audubon Society that Condor AC2, one of the original Santa Barbara pair captured in 1986 and just re-released at the Bittercreek Refuge this summer, has been found dead. I'll post more details when Fish & Wildlife issues an official release. A month ago I went out with a group from Audubon and a Fish & Wildlife biologist to track the bird. We were thrilled when we finally spotted him soaring above our heads. As Garry put it this morning, it makes the loss of an endangered species a little less abstract and a lot more painful.

--------

Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)