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| The only endangered species on this planet are people with common sense. |
Posted on 07/19/2006 7:17:58 AM PDT by oxcart
SEBASTOPOL, Calif.
Did someone in this wine-country town illegally plant an endangered flower to sabotage a proposed housing development? That is the question at the center of a quarrel that some here have dubbed "Foamgate."
Bob Evans, a 72-year-old retired elementary-school principal, said he was walking with his dog last year when he came upon the tiny white flowers of Sebastopol meadowfoam poking from shallow pools of water in a grassy field.
The former bean farm happens to be the site chosen for the 20-acre Laguna Vista housing development.
Evans and other opponents seized on the discovery of meadowfoam, a federally protected species, in hopes that the developer would be required to scale back plans for 145 houses and apartments. "It was the bad luck of the developer that it popped up," Evans said.
But state wildlife officials investigated and concluded that the meadowfoam had been transplanted there. They ordered it dug up.
This year, the flowers returned, and so did the controversy. The dispute has held up final approval of the building project.
Sebastopol, a well-to-do community of about 8,000 people 50 miles north of San Francisco, is known for its environmentally conscious residents and restrictive growth policies.
When the meadowfoam appeared in April 2005 and after the Department of Fish and Game determined that it had been planted, it appeared to be the work of zealous conservationists.
"The people who planted it mistakenly believed that it would be the silver bullet that killed the project," said Scott Schellinger of Schellinger Brothers, the developer behind Laguna Vista.
Known as Limnanthes vinculans, the herb grows up to a foot tall and has small bowl-shape white flowers. They are found only in seasonal wetlands and in pools created by spring rains in this part of Sonoma County.
Threatened by agriculture and urban development, meadowfoam is listed as an endangered species by the state and federal governments. That makes it illegal to harm, remove or transplant it without permission.
Evans and other conservationists said that the $70 million development could damage the nearby Laguna de Santa Rosa, a 240-square-mile basin of wetlands that runs through Sebastopol.
Evans called Phil Northen, a biology professor at Sonoma State University, and the head of the local chapter of the California Native Plant Society. They visited the site and agreed that the plants were native.
But when a Fish and Game team visited the site at Schellinger's invitation a few weeks later, it reached the opposite conclusion.
Eric Larsen, the department's deputy regional manager, said that the flowers had never before been seen at the site, which is at a higher elevation than the typical meadowfoam habitat.
Fish and Game began an investigation into who planted the flowers but never identified any suspects. The department interviewed Evans and Northen, but Larsen said that the case went cold.
The city council tabled final approval of Laguna Vista on May 22. A mediator is overseeing talks between Schellinger Brothers and residents, in hopes of reaching a compromise.
Time for some Round-Up, I'd guess...
BZZZZT! Wrongo! They econuts have a TREATY with decades of Federal case law cooked up by activist attorneys and complicit bureaucrats to back it up.
CITES specifies that there is to be no trading in any endangered species. Period. Ain't it fun?
They way my book cracks that little conundrum is that it proposes people trade in uses of offsetting processes that constitute habitat. Build the right spot and keep it free of weeds and seed is so mobile, you have only to wait.
Am I missing something? Who in their right mind would build in a wetlands?!
Of course, there's a lot to be said for choice homesites in CA [/home falling off cliff in mudslide...]
What these people are calling a "wetland" is a dip in the dirt with a seasonal mud hole.
"Daddy, mommy looks cold."
"Shut up and keep digging."
It is a temporary wetland, like runoff after a storm.
BTW, most of Florida is drained wetlands, and the rest is just ocean
Is the book's paper made from endangered trees? [d&r]
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| The only endangered species on this planet are people with common sense. |
Fixed.
Same story with the Nene(sp) goose of Hawaii. My step dad raised them and sold them here in CONUS(creating more of them)and was hassled non stop by the feds until he just quit doing it, and sold them all to someone else.
Is that a rhetorical question? Hell if I know.
I may be confusing that with the Spotted Owl or the Snail Darter. These manufactured environmental "crises" all melt into one after a while ...
No, this is more analogous to the lynx hair. Preeble's mouse was merely misidentified and it took them a bajillion years to admit it.
Um...not that I ever did that.
Thanks
Come on come clean...baked or broiled?
Gotcha. We have a place in Rockport and because we're only 7 feet above sea level we have to carry FEMA insurance...never try to argue "wind driven rain" with a gubmint man...
"Stopping construction of a major development on private property ought to be prohibited unless fair compensation is paid by the government."
But make sure the government uses its own money, not mine. /sarc
This is a tactic that environmentalists have been using for decades, usually it is a fish or frog. In our local OHV area it was an indian artifact. The archeological tactic is only temporary until they get a grant and do a five year study
Sushi.
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