That's the bug. I'd squish if it landed on me.
Posted on 06/28/2005 1:23:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
GROVE POINT - Jim Twohy's waterfront home might soon tumble into the Chesapeake Bay from atop a 60-foot cliff. He wants to build a wall to save the house, but some meddlesome neighbors are standing in the way.
The neighbors are puritan tiger beetles, a threatened species half an inch long. To protect the bugs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is trying to stop construction of a rock barrier that Twohy and his civic association say is necessary to prevent a half-dozen houses from toppling into the water.
Although Twohy had never heard of the beetle until he applied for a permit last year, it turns out the puritans have highly rigid breeding rituals that happen to clash not only with development but also with many people's ideas of environmental protection.
The drab little insect demands the continued breakdown of cliffs along the Chesapeake Bay - active erosion - so its larvae can tunnel into crumbling clay beside the water. The rock wall that Twohy wants to build would stop the erosion and, thus, could illegally prevent the beetles from reproducing.
"We've heard a lot of support for the puritan tiger beetle from the federal government," said Twohy, 65, a retired computer consulting executive. "But what about the concerns of citizens, their lives and homes, and keeping the Chesapeake Bay clear of muddy runoff and siltation, which is killing marine life?"
Several clashes like this one across the country - over development plans complicated by the Delhi sands flower-loving fly in California or the eyeless Kretschmarr cave mold beetle in Texas - have persuaded some congressional Republicans to push for overhauling the Endangered Species Act.
(Excerpt) Read more at baltimoresun.com ...
Are the Puritan Tiger Beetles religious?
If you can convince the ACLU that the beetles are Christian, I'm sure you can argue that Federal protection of a religious species would be a violation of the so-called Separation between Church and State.... /humor
***....."This species is already highly vulnerable," Wolflin said. "My job is to do what Congress has charged me to do, which is to not jeopardize the continued existence of a species." ....***
SSS.
When you have a property anywhere near some "ecosystem," you have to keep your mouth shut. And spray, spray, spray.
Bugs, plants, everything.
Just don't talk about it.
***.......Rep. Richard W. Pombo of California, Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and others in Congress are demanding more input from landowners into decisions by the federal government on endangered species.
"The Endangered Species Act is the most rigid law on the books, and there is very little room for public input," said Pombo spokesman Brian Kennedy. "It's had an abysmal record of success, with only 10 species recovered out of 1,300 species that have been listed over the last three decades." .....***
Amen to that.
Amen to that.
How do environmentalists (anti-capitalist, anti-private ownership whiners) come up with "endangered" lists?
Diazanon!
I wonder if this beetle would make good bait?? You could sell it to fishermen.
Find another suitable place for the Bugs Life to continue and fix up the erosion problem.
The bugs will be happy in their new habitat, I'm sure, and the homeowners will have some peace of mind regarding their houses.
***........"What are they worth? Some people need to put a price tag on everything, I guess," Knisely said. "They are natural wonders, you could say. Maybe not as much of a natural wonder as a grizzly bear. But if they disappear, that means their whole beach habitat has disappeared. And so part of their significance is using these beetles to protect these natural cliffs."
Atop the cliffs at Grove Point, Twohy for the past six years has enjoyed living in retirement with his wife in a 60-year-old white ranch-style house with a broad porch and stunning views of the northern bay. He said he doesn't know how much respect to give the puritans that breed on his property.
"Frankly, I don't think they're very good parents, if they're going to put their children into a collapsing cliff," Twohy said, as he strolled past fallen trees along the 10-foot-wide beach at the base of his bluff.
He pointed to an electric utility pole at the top of the cliff, near his back door. It could topple any day, blacking out the whole neighborhood, tumbling down with his house and septic system into the water, he said.
Last year, a 15-foot-wide, 25-foot-deep chunk of his back yard, weighing an estimated 31,000 tons, thundered down all at once.
"I'm in favor of protecting the environment," he said, "but somebody's going to get killed here soon if we don't build something to stabilize this cliff." ...........***
And if someone does get killed they'll prosecute him for endangering the public...
Couldn't the beetles be aborted to use their tissue for stem cell research? [irony, sarcasm, dark black humor]
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