[madfly]

The governor-elect has picked Lori Faeth as her environmental policy advisor. Faeth currently serves as the Arizona lobbyist for the Nature Conservancy — one of the top environmental and conservation advocacy groups.

Steve Owens will be the new director of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Owens is an environmental lawyer who served as an aide to Al Gore when he represented Tennessee in the U.S. Senate.

Democratic State Sen. Herb Guenther will lead the state Department of Water Resources. Guenther was re-elected in November, which creates a legislative vacancy that must be filled by a Democrat.

[madfly]

Owl Harassment ping!

[joesnuffy]

A Fish and Wildlife spokesman said locations of the owls are being kept secret to protect the species and private property owners. "We are concerned that it is such a rare species, birders tend to flock to the location to try and get pictures and often times there are cases of harassment of the owls," said Fish and Wildlife spokesman Scott Richardson. Federal officials are also concerned bird-watchers would trespass on private property, and owners would be less likely to cooperate with researchers.

Fish And Game Wardens (aka F.A.G. Wardens) target BIRD WATCHERS....BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Its those evil binoculars that kill birds...and those cameras.....

[madfly]

fyi

[LibertarianInExile]

1.4 Million. Million. 1,400,000 acres.

Awful lot of stuff fits on that kind of space. Lots of people are moving to Arizona. Is this a Republican land developer subsidy? I mean, I know that there are lots of restrictions on what USF&W must do thanks to micromanagement by Congressional legislators, but sheesh, doesn't being in charge of the Executive Branch mean ANYTHING? This is lunacy.

[Carry_Okie]

If this follows the pattern, what this is really about is putting the squeeze on home builders to make sure that only those who pay the political freight to the Slave Party will be allowed to stay in business.

The NAHB needs to not only fight this legally, but politically. If they are only putting up token resistance and don't fight to win, then you'll know that this is really about the big fish having sold out, using government to kill their competition while wrapping themselves in the cloak of environmental righteousness. The NAHB needs to decide whether the construction business is about free markets or musical chairs. Conservatives need to watch this one closely.

[Reo]

Exit 69 on I-19 south of Tucson is an extremely dangerous intersection where traffic from I-19, a busy crossroad (Duval Mine Road) and two frontage roads try to blend heavy traffic without benefit of either traffic signals or modern ramping designed to handle the growth. For several years a plan solving the problem has been on hold as enviros study whether or not new construction would affect the mating habits of these bleeping owls. Someone's going to get killed there while the delays go on. It's an accident waiting to happen.

[Reo]

Exit 69 on I-19 south of Tucson is an extremely dangerous intersection where traffic from I-19, a busy crossroad (Duval Mine Road) and two frontage roads try to blend heavy traffic without benefit of either traffic signals or modern ramping designed to handle the growth. For several years a plan solving the problem has been on hold as enviros study whether or not new construction would affect the mating habits of these bleeping owls. Someone's going to get killed there while the delays go on. It's an accident waiting to happen.

[Don Corleone]

Pima County is 6 million acres in size. The 1.2 million acres would give each owl an average of more than 66,000 acres, according to the 2002 count.

Our problem here is not OWLS it is ILLEGALS! BTW 70 miles south of here they eat the damn things.(The owls that is)

[madfly]

fyi

[TenthAmendmentChampion]

The folks who live in this area keep returning Ed Pastor, a virtual Communist, to the US House of Representatives, and recently elected another guy name Grijalva who is a Pastor clone. Are the illegals and the U of A professors running things down there?

[yoe]

Wasn’t it the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge that was supposed to be the “new Bob White Quail habitat? And didn’t those birds, onceocated to the BANWR simply spread their wings and fly back to Mexico? Then there was the hue and cry over the Red Squirrel and Mt. Graham; the fear was that the 7-12 ounce rodent’s habitat would be ruined forever with the new telescopes at the top of the mountain. Well the Red Squirrel population has doubled since then. And the Spotted Owl lives and thrives through out all of Pima County.

The proposed habitat in Tucson would be nearly as large as the spotted owl's habitat in California, where 1.4 million acres were put off-limits after the bird was declared endangered in 1989. The move devastated the local economy.

I suppose all cats will be next on the list of critters that that pose a problem to the endangered (so they say) pygmy owls. In truth, it is people who are endangered.

[RnMomof7]

Soon ALL the US will be owl country..

[tubebender]

The governor-elect has picked Lori Faeth as her environmental policy advisor. Faeth currently serves as the Arizona lobbyist for the Nature Conservancy — one of the top environmental and conservation advocacy anarchist groups.

If birders (I are one) in this Arz area want to see a P owl they can just step across the border into NM and bird away.

[Critter]

Well, in about a month, our republican president, republican house, and republican senate are going to make all this crap go away, right?

I'm not holding my breath.

[yoe]

federal government wants to set aside 1.2 million acres...

Not normally being a conspiracy theorist, however when it comes to the Federal Government, I waver...is it just possible that the 1.2 million acres will provide a more un-encumbered access for illegal aliens? Since the government will not seal our borders, every swarthy, mid-eastern terrorist can simply cross over unimpeded, and they are! Not just Mexicans looking for work, but drug smugglers and now terrorists dressed as Hispanics.

[lavaroise]

Let the Owl graze your business, it is so good to be ruled by the Owls and the government.

[Red Jones]

in arizona the federal government, state government and 31 indian communities own 87% of the land. Usage of the rest of the land is so highly regulated that the majority of the rest even can't be used for most purposes. A few decades ago some people bought land that had been at the time zoned for development, then the state legislature passed a law that if there is a small slope on your land, then you can't develop it. Land that should be very inexpensive is sky-high instead as a result of all this regulation. Even in the rural areas land prices are artificially very high. Then we wonder why people can't afford housing as the sheeples cheer for yet more regulation of land use.

[gaspar]

If this is what the Libertarians of Arizona wanted, they got in. In spades!

[AAABEST]

What kind of country squanders it's future for an effen 0wl? An owl that's not even endangered.

"How can anyone in the public determine what land is needed to protect a species when the government won't even tell us where the owl lives?"

Bastards. Never mind junk science, that was the good old days. Now they don't even have to show us science anymore. Just come along and wave a bureaucratic finger and millions of acres is "declared" off limits to everything and everybody.

Forget "public comment". Does anyone think that these people give two craps what any stakeholders think? The public comment is strictly for show, your input is totally ignored.

"Endangered" species have become a pestilence worse than any vermin. I'd say #8 shot is about right for this bird.

[Doomonyou]

"The government has never produced any valid science for its decision-making,"

Understatement of the year...