Wednesday, August 29, 2001
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Wednesday, August 29, 2001 |
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Overzealous endangered species act now puts human lives at risk The federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), which has caused significant economic pain to private landowners, ranchers, and farmers, may have recently claimed the lives of four gallant firefighters in Washington State. The law prohibits helicopters from dipping into a river for water to put out a forest fire due to the presence of an endangered fish. This situation resulted in an 8-to-9-hour delay in providing water to the area in which the overcome firefighters were working, according to an Aug. 1 Seattle Times article by Chris Solomon. An additional firefighter was hospitalized in critical condition as a result. Fourteen firefighters were trapped by the Thirty Mile Fire July 10 along the Chewuch River in Washington State's Okanagan County. One trapped firefighter believes that the delay in the delivery of the water was critical. "If we'd had the water when we'd asked for it, none of this would have happened," Solomon quoted the firefighter as saying. This is the dropping of the final shoe. We have so distorted our view of animals that they can not only render us impoverished, but now take our lives. One can possibly blame Walt Disney and the "Bambi's Mother Syndrome" for starting all of this romanticizing about animals, including the unfounded transfer of human qualities to them, but our imaginations probably have a lot to do with it. We can also blame the tendency of liberal politicians, who have traditionally used their majorities to champion trendy and intellectually pleasing programs as a means of advancing the notion of an ever more sensitive and powerful federal government. One of their utopian notions, "rewilding" means the introduction of additional predators (grizzly, cougars and wolves) onto lands where humans are but one representative from the available food chain. Environmental law has resulted in some remarkable situations: A farmer was arrested for running over an endangered kangaroo rat while tilling his own land. His tractor was seized and held for over four months, and he faced a year in jail and a $200,000 fine. Irrigation water was cut off to 1,500 families in the Klamath Basin along the Oregon-California border to save the sucker fish. This case, recently resolved by the Bush Administration to allow the water to be turned back on, is a hopeful sign. But the farmers' bills can drive them to bankruptcy while the legal bills of the environmentalists are paid through the "citizen lawsuit" provisions of the ESA. Seventy percent of the 4.1 million acres of designated critical habitat for the red-legged frog are on private property. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen that will profit only the lawyers. What you might consider a mud puddle has been designated "vernal pools" and the habitat for fairy shrimp in some California locales. The presence of "vernal pools" in Fresno County cost taxpayers $250,000 in construction delays. The Bush Administration now has a rare opportunity to strike a blow for common sense. They can start by calling on Congress to change the "citizen lawsuit" provision to favor the property owner instead of the suit's instigator. They can also utilize the focus provided by the unfortunate deaths of the four brave firefighters to issue a mandate that, in effect, will insure that wherever lives are at risk whether through forest fires, animal attack (on other animals as well as humans), or accident wherein animal lifesaving and human lifesaving are at odds the humans will be given priority. The fact that this has to be proposed at all speaks volumes about the maturity of our ethical reasoning in the year 2001. Regardless, this might very well be one of the most popular mandates issued during the Bush presidency at least to us who value all life but, especially, human life. William Fielder Peachtree City
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