EBUCK
Posted on 11/26/2002 5:57:04 AM PST by Bodacious
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Health & Science: Grazing temporarily blocked on endangered owl lands
Copyright © 2002 AP Online
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By ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN, Associated Press
TUCSON, Ariz. (November 25, 2002 10:42 p.m. EST) - A federal judge has issued an injunction that could temporarily ban cattle grazing on huge swaths of national forest land identified as nesting and foraging sites for the endangered Mexican spotted owl.
U.S. District Judge Raner Collins' order blocking grazing in areas of Arizona and New Mexico was signed Thursday in response to a lawsuit by environmental groups who want to remove cattle from spotted owl habitat.
The injunction is set to kick in Jan. 22. But it won't go into effect if the Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service complete a new biological review before then, Collins said.
The last such review, which resulted in amended grazing standards set by the Forest Service in 1996, took a couple of years to complete, said Jim Angell, an attorney for Earthjustice, a nonprofit public interest law firm and a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
Those standards were designed to protect owl habitat and ensure its survival. Grazing threatens the owl by reducing its favorite prey, degrading streamside vegetation and slowing the growth of habitat favorable to the bird, environmentalists contend.
"Frankly, they may try to hurry this through so the time grazing is enjoined is shortened," Angell said Monday of the biological review. "My fear is they will try to rush this thing out as quickly as possible and, as a result, their analysis will be shoddy."
Collins didn't specify how many acres were included in the injunction, but Angell put the number at at least 200,000. Attorneys representing the Justice Department and the Arizona Cattle Growers Association didn't return calls seeking comment Monday.
Collins' injunction is the latest step in a long-running lawsuit over the owl habitat. Last month, he found that the Forest Service violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to prevent overgrazing on millions of acres of national forest in the two states.
The government or the Arizona Cattle Growers Association could appeal Collins' order. Art Morrison, a spokesman for the Forest Service's regional headquarters in Albuquerque, N.M., said officials haven't consulted with the Justice Department on the ruling yet.
On a serious side firefighters were killed. The disgusting element is the fact that the wackos prevented them from doing their job and the story, like all others, gets brushed aside.
If a conservative organization had done the same it would have been another Trent Lott.
EBUCK
This always galls me when I recall the following..
Art. 1 Sec. 8 Clause 17....
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, byCession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;
EBUCK
Because "I" don't really own the land. The land is all owned by the gubment and I'm just a tenent. See what happens when I stop paying rent.....
EBUCK
EBUCK
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