Endangered weeds

Las Vegas Review Journal/ Klamath Bucket Brigade ^ | November 6th, 2004 | Editorial

[Issaquahking]

EDITORIAL: Endangered weeds

Insignificant plants shouldn't halt auction

The absurdity of the biodiversity movement was never more evident than Wednesday, when Las Vegas officials learned the federal government is moving to protect some 8,000 acres from development because of the presence of weeds.

Much of the land, which extends across the far northern valley from North Las Vegas west into Las Vegas, was slated for auction to home builders in February. However, botanists found the Las Vegas bearpoppy, a scrub protected under state law, and a previously unknown form of the kindling known as the Las Vegas buckwheat.

"It's a brand new variety based on the genetics of the plant," U.S. Bureau of Land Management environmental protection specialist Jeff Steinmetz said of the buckwheat.

And under the Endangered Species Act, the government can move to preserve every subspecies and sub-subspecies of plant and wildlife because of differences detectable only at the genetic level. A rural squirrel with a fleck of red in its tail becomes "endangered," while its plentiful, nearly identical cousins beg for nuts in the city park and spawn future generations of road kill.

A squirrel, fleck of red or not, is still a squirrel. And a weed -- buckwheat, bearpoppy or other -- is still a weed.

The federal government already controls about 90 percent of the land in Nevada. Municipal leaders, dealing with limited room to grow, are justifiably concerned that "protection" of the acreage could further drive up the cost of land and send the price of valley housing even higher.

Local leaders should challenge the protection of the land and work to ensure next year's auction goes forward.

 

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[Issaquahking]

I love the environment, but I hate stupidity! This is way past stupid!

[Issaquahking]

Property rights, and land theft ping.

[Issaquahking]

ping

[SpaceBar]

I can tell you exactly what's happening here. Migrant environmental lawyers fleeing the high cost of living in the greater Los Angeles metropolis, and San Francisco Bay Area are moving to places like Las Vegas where only mobsters and jackrabbits once reigned. There they find fresh pickings for various "environmental" lawsuits as the urban sprawl works its way out into the creosote and sage.

[VOA]

I'm all for biodiversity...today's model plant for molecular biology (Arabidopsis
thaliana) is considered a weed).
But when the lawyers and guvmint gets in the mix (and Democrats are involved)
"bar the door"!!!

[dufekin]

Hey, bureaucrats. You escaped from the power-crazed bureaucrat asylum reserve. Go back to California.

Oh, yeah, and you, Congress. Write some laws to restrict "endangered species" to actual species, not sub-sub-species or individual genes. I guess that pretty soon we'll be funding programs to assist the reproduction of genetic diseases among scrub. C'mon, get real; the American people could care less. Really.

And if you looked at every single plant in all of Nevada, we'd probably discover that these "genetic varieties" are far more common than you now suspect.

So let's get building.

And perhaps we should restore the Homestead Act to relieve the Bureau of Land Management of most of its land to manage, as well as the Department of Forestry and the various other government agencies that own most of the West. Let the Government keep 10-20% of the land--no more.

[coconutt2000]

Time to buy land and houses in the area...

Housing costs will jump on this when it looks like new homes may not come on the market on schedule.

[samtheman]

Lawyers are necessary, but when they run amuck they become a scourge on the body politic. When I read stories like this I say to myself: Thank God George Bush is President.

(And I'm an agnostic.)

[El Oviedo]

These rascals are ruining our lives and in my book they are similar to terrorists who are pushing their agenda to us. The liberals created this law and we should call the attention of the next congress and senate to do something about it. It all boils down to money flowing down from "charitable" institutions which have been affecting our politicians as well as these crazy environmentalists. If we develop a campaign ala Stop Specter we shouild be able to see these guys put in their proper places. When we value more of the future of a weed to the future of our livelihood then we all deserve to be in the nut house.

[JustAnotherSavage]

Yes, it's way past stupid. You would think the governments resources would be better spent on the environmental damage the illegalborder invasion is causing. National park habitat being destroyed by pot fields being guarded by illegals, desert habitat being destroyed with garbage, traffic.

[HairOfTheDog]

I love the environment, but I hate stupidity!

I'm with you, and I think we have chatted this subject before. There is an intrinsic value to preservation of wild spaces, but we cannot, and should not, pretend that the number and type of species that thrive or die out has ever been static, or should. In fact, subspecies have continually come and gone since the beginning of time. I believe in preserving places for wild things to thrive. Singling out and changing the environment for those subspecies who fail to adapt and thrive without our help is not only not 'nature', it is not ever gonna work.

The federal government already controls about 90 percent of the land in Nevada.

I take issue with the implication here... The fed govmt controls most of the land in Nevada, because like much of the western desert or high mountainous area, no one ever homesteaded or bought it. They owned it initially by default, not by design.

[farmfriend]

Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.

[JennysCool]

When the Administration is through ridding the CIA of its socialist Clinton-era moles, work needs to start on the Forest Service and other land agencies, rife as they are with totalitarian bureaucrats of mediocre intelligence.

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!!

[jrushing]

Buckwheat...................................Bearpoppy

[eagle11]

Land theft is right! Otherwise concerned scientists would just plant these specimens on a special farm. More evidence of liberal junk-science to propogate their agenda.

[AuntB]

"start on the Forest Service and other land agencies, rife as they are with totalitarian bureaucrats of mediocre intelligence."

You are correct, as I see it. From the few government employees I've chatted with on this forum, they are simply outnumbered by leftie, overeducated, under experienced "public servants". The biggest mistake Pres. Bush has made is to not get rid of most of the management of these agencies.....Richard Clarke, etc.etc. and their do nothing underlings with union power. SO many forest service employees belong to radical environmental groups.

[nightdriver]

This is almost as stupid as the one a few years ago where the gub'mint put the kabosh on cleaning up some sewage-choked river on the California-Mexico border because there MAY BE some rare, endangered forms of bacteria in it.

This environazism is a real Trojan Horse within our gates, folks!

[Fiddlstix]

The inmates are running the asylum.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

And if you looked at every single plant in all of Nevada, we'd probably discover that these "genetic varieties" are far more common than you now suspect.

In fact every plant is genetically different from every other plant even in the same sub-sub-sub species. People really need to get a grip.