The Endangered Species Act deserves extinction

By Alan Caruba
web posted January 12, 2004

I often wonder why people can't just put two-and-two together
to come up with four. Take, for example, a recent decision by a
New Jersey appellate court regarding alleged "endangered
species." Rejecting a plea from the New Jersey Builders
Association, the court ruled, in essence, that it was more
important to "save" the Pine Barrens tree frog or the bog turtle,
than to provide housing for those who live in the most densely
populated State in the Union. Population per square mile: 1,
158.2!

This decision in late December came around the same time that
the State permitted, for the first time in three decades, a hunt to
reduce its bear population, estimated to number up to 3,000.
Bears! New Jersey is also home to an estimated 170,000 deer.
An estimated federally protected 97,000 Canadian geese also
find the Garden State a lovely habitat. I doubt anyone knows
how many opossum, raccoons, wild turkeys and even coyotes,
share the State with its human species. In short, New Jersey
does not lack are wildlife species of every description. What it
lacks is adequate housing for its growing population (as of 2002)
of 8,590,000 humans.

Naturally, the largest daily newspaper in the State headlined the
story, "A legal victory for endangered species." No, it was a
legal defeat for every man, woman and child living in New
Jersey. It was, in fact, a legal victory for every environmental
group that has dedicated itself to destroying the foundation of our
society and our economy, private property rights. How
important are they? President John Adams said, "The moment
the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as
the laws of God…(then) anarchy and tyranny commence.
Property must be secured or liberty cannot exist."

Private property was so important to the Founding Fathers that
its protection was written into the Bill of Rights. No doubt, were
he alive today, Adams would have been criticized for referring to
God.

So, what does this have to do with "endangered species"?
Everything! What the Endangered Species Act (ESA) does is
transfer ownership or control of private property over to the
government. I am indebted to Dr., Allyn McDowell, M.D., of
San Diego, California, for sharing his research into the ESA with
me. In a carefully researched 29-page analysis, Dr. McDowell
notes that, "in 25 years, ESA has ‘saved' few, if any, creatures at
all, but has nevertheless grandly succeeded in placing under
temporary or quasi-permanent government control some 25
million acres." This is the land area equivalent of Massachusetts,
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Connecticut combined! When
you add in the landmass of so-called government designated
"wetlands", it's another 100 million acres, equivalent to Ohio,
Indiana, and Illinois combined! Land that is bone dry for 350
days a year can and has been designated a "wetland" if a handful
of migratory birds lands upon it after a single rainstorm.

It seems almost foolish to point out that, only under communism,
does land belong to the government or is controlled by it. In
effect, the ESA and wetlands legislation cedes control to the
federal government. In the USA, it owns in excess of forty
percent of the landmass of this nation. In effect, it controls all of it
through the powers granted under the ESA.

For example, 400,000 acres in southern California is protected
for the California gnatcatcher which Dr. McDowell notes "is not
a species, but merely a hardly distinguishable variety of
innumerable thousands of other gnatcatchers ranging throughout
most of the western States and on into Mexico." Likewise, the
Spotted Owl is "only a subspecies of innumerable barred owls
whose range extends through British Columbia, our Pacific
Northwest, California, and into Texas, and even into Mexico."
This, of course, is of no help to the once thriving northwest
communities that were turned into ghost towns or the millions in
lost timber revenues that resulted from the hoax perpetrated to
"save" them.

Just recently, researchers at the Denver Museum of Nature and
History determined that the Preble meadow jumping mouse is
not a distinct species from other common mice and should not be
protected by the ESA. Good science counts for nothing among
those who use the ESA to extend their control over millions of
acres said to be the habitat of such species, even when they are
not a separate species. Wyoming Governor, Dave Freudenthal
sent a 110-page petition to the US Fish & Wildlife Service to
have this mouse removed from their list and the USFWS pretty
much told him to take a leap. Sen. Tom Daschle of South
Dakota urged them to drop consideration of prairie dogs for
ESA protection saying, "The notion that a prairie dog is threaten
defies logic." This isn't about logic. It isn't about science. It's
about property rights and who gets to call the shots on its
ownership and use.

And therein lies the essential evil of the Endangered Species Act.
It is based on a totally false assertion that species can or even
should be saved. Worse, it states that, in saving designated
"endangered" species, no economic considerations will be
allowed. A 1978 Supreme Court upheld this. No matter the
harm done to various economic enterprises from timber to
ranching to farming to the building of homes, the "saving" of an
endangered species takes precedence. What a wonderful
formula for the destruction, piece of by piece, of our economy!

The abject failure of the ESA is a simple fact. Another fact is that
95 per cent of all species that ever lived on the earth have gone
extinct. Darwin was right. Indeed, the history of biologic
evolution is not one of equilibrium, but rather the result of every
kind of natural calamity you can name. Does anyone really
believe Nature is concerned for various species in the process of
producing ice ages, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or floods?
In Iran, in late December, an estimated 20,000 humans lost their
lives to an earthquake and untold numbers of wildlife from
cockroaches to large mammals.

In November of last year, a senior official of the US Interior
Department, Craig Manson, had the courage to criticize the
critical-habitat provision of the law. He said that such
designations, which limit development, aren't necessary for the
perpetuation of many plants and animals. Manson oversees the
US Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency responsible for
enforcing the ESA. He said the 30-year-old law is "broken" and
should no longer be used to give endangered plants and animals
priority over human needs.

Now here's something that will surprise you. Originally adopted
in 1973, the ESA expired October 1, 1992! It continues only
because Congress continues to fund it. There is not one single
reason to fund a law that, during its lifetime, has "delisted" or
removed from its "endangered" list only 25 species. Seven were
removed due to extinction and twelve because the data
suggesting they were endangered was proved to be "faulty", i.e.,
false. At last count, 1,853 species are listed as endangered or
threatened. More 4,000 species are designated "Species of
Concern." With such a dismal record, one wonders why the
ESA is permitted to continue.

Millions of dollars that could have otherwise improved the lives
of Americans have been diverted to the bizarre notion that
species can be "saved" by government intervention. Billions in tax
revenues have been lost because development of every
description was stopped because of the ESA.

Right now there are a number of pieces of legislation that would
further aggravate the damage done. HR 199 would institute "The
Invasive Species Act". If this were enacted it would create a
huge, new Green bureaucracy and regulate everything include the
grass on your lawn. There are no protections for private
property in this legislation. Another proposed legislation, HR
652, would make the Wildlands Project official government
policy. In essence, this subversive Green plan would put more
than half of all of the US landmass off-limits to any human
habitation or use. HR 2036 is called the "Open Space
Preservation and Conservation Act, and would allocate $25
billion to be used for permanent conservation easements, giving
the Nature Conservancy and other Land Trusts, along with
government agencies co-ownership of millions of acres of land.

The government already owns more than 40 per cent of the
landmass. Why would anyone want to allow it to have any
more? The answer is that there are elected representatives who
are dedicated socialists/communists who will do everything in
their power to destroy the property rights of Americans and,
with them, the essential element of our economy and our
freedoms.
 
The effort to add more thousands of creatures, from bugs to
birds, to anything else that crawls, walks, swims or flies,
continues today. It must STOP! The funding of the ESA must
STOP! The Invasive Species Act must be DEFEATED. The
funding of legislation to take still more land away from American
citizens must be DEFEATED.

This is the new American Revolution that must be fought because
the endless lies that flow from the environmental movement here
and around the world would impose socialist control over every
square inch of the United States. This is a plan to destroy
America acre by acre.

Alan Caruba writes "Warning Signs", a weekly commentary,
posted on www.anxietycenter.com, the Internet site of The
National Anxiety Center. © Alan Caruba 2004

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