Posted on 06/09/2012 10:42:26 AM PDT by inkling
Tombstone, Arizona (CNN) -- The six Forest Service rangers suddenly crouched, whispering, on their way up the rocky mountain trail. It was early Friday afternoon, the first day of the Tombstone Shovel Brigade, and the rangers were out in force, hiking to the spot where dozens of volunteers worked with picks and shovels to move and bury Tombstone's makeshift water line.
Shhh! Look! Do you see it?
The rangers stopped in their tracks. Binoculars emerged from pockets, and fingers pointed to a stand of trees.
And there it was, a Mexican spotted owl, perched high in a pine tree. It was a male, the rangers said, with his back turned to the intruders. He scratched and preened. But mostly, the owl seemed to be watching the nest in a nearby sycamore tree where his mate tended to an owlet.
The owl is a threatened species, and until a few days ago its presence in fire-scorched Miller Canyon was a matter of speculation. But now that it has surfaced, the owl could be a game-changer in the water war between the U.S. Forest Service and the Wild West city made famous by the 30-second gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Tombstone is trying to repair a 26-mile pipeline that has brought mountain spring water into the city since 1881. It was damaged during last summer's Monument Fire and monsoon rains that brought mud, water and boulders crashing down the denuded slopes...
With the conservative Goldwater Institute taking on Tombstone's legal work, the court battle has blossomed into a full-blown states rights dispute. Tombstone is getting the attention of activists from Utah, New Mexico and other Western states who say the federal government has gone too far. It has become ground zero in a rekindled Sagebrush Rebellion.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Shovel brigade tackles Miller Canyon
According to an article by a wildlife biologist published in the San Franpsycho Commiecle in the late "gay" nineties, the New York barred owls left the New York bars and flew west to seduce the meeker northwestern spotted owls who enjoyed the same food source and bread them out of existence.
The GovernMental EnvironMental Communutty where constantly trying to cover up the sex scandal by blaming it on the politically weak timber industry.
With the Lame-Stream media's eager help, they have kept from us all these bitter years that those northwesten and CA spotted owls never had their habitat destroyed by clear cutting old growth, but were instead screwed to death by their rowdy, sex-starved NY cousins!!!
I didn't mean to rain on you reply by correcting it like this, but I just couldn't let history be re-written even one more time!!! (grin)
They fixed it by listing the barred owl as endangered as well.
Tastes just like Northern Spotted Owl...
So if a leftist aka progressive animal lovers spots an owl around the hoover dam. Will that dam be torn down?
I have it on good authority that both barred owls and spotted owls are very tasty, especially when you eat only the breast and throw away the rest.
Bald Eagles eat the throw aways, so it’s a net gain for the endangered ones.
That really took guts to say that, BOB!!! (snort, giggle, titter)
I am an animal lover. I believe that we, as the dominant species, should be kind to our fellow travelers in life. I have had many pets, most of whom were pampered, the rest, well cared for.
But
1) Why does does the spotted owl care about what humans do for water?
2) We are the dominate species!! How the heck does restoring water to Tombstone really bother the owls??? It’s time to reassess our priorities here, people.
The law of unintended puns (throwing away guts)
You da man
No way!!! Yooooooou da NAILERMAN!!! (great big smiles)
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