From: Liberty Matters News Service [mailto:Liberty_Matters_News_Service@mail.vresp.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 8:58 AM

Rodents Not Endangered Species

Extensive studies conducted by researchers at the Denver Museum of Nature and History have shown that the Preble meadow jumping mouse is not a distinct species from other common mice and does not deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act. The scientists concluded, through painstaking DNA trials, that Prebel's (Zapus hudsonius preblei) is genetically indistinguishable from another mouse (Zapus hudsonius camPESTris) that infests wide areas of Wyoming, Montana, the Dakotas and Canada. Immediately upon news of the findings, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal fired off a 110-page petition to the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) to have Preble's removed from the threatened and endangered list. The FWS, however, has refused to remove the mouse from the list, saying the "available science doesn't justify yanking federal protections…" according to Ralph Morgenweck, director of the Service's regional office in Lakewood, CO. Governor Freudenthal said FWS should "direct its scarce resources to an animal that actually needs protection and recovery." In another development, Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle (D-SD), sent a letter to FWS director Steven A. Williams, urging the agency to drop consideration of prairie dogs for protection under the ESA. "The notion that the prairie dog is threatened defies logic," the Senator wrote. [A] multi-state study of prairie dog populations recently concluded that the species was biologically viable and therefore did not meet the definition of an endangered species" he continued.
Preble's Mouse NOT a Subspecies
Jumping Mouse Left on List
Daschle Seeks to End ESA Review of Prairie Dogs

EPA Will Not Relinquish Hold on Wetlands

The Environmental Protection Agency will not remove federal protection from millions of acres of the nation's wetlands, according to new EPA head Mike Leavitt. Leavitt indicated the agency would continue to review current data before rushing to relinquish its jurisdiction in wake of several federal court decisions that rejected similar arguments for withdrawal of protections. Jim Murphy of the National Wildlife Federation said; "It's a win for water resources and wildlife." Chandler Morse, policy analyst for the National Association of Home Builders, said the EPA decision would do nothing to clear up the confusing and contradictory interpretation of current wetlands regulations. "[T]he problems that we're facing, the issues that we'd like to see addressed, are the inconsistency and the unpredictability in the permitting process."
U.S. Won't Narrow Wetlands Protection

Sec. Norton Announces Grazing Rule Proposal

Interior Secretary Gale Norton gave federal lands ranchers an early Christmas present when she announced proposed changes to the current grazing rules in early December. The new rules would overturn the Clinton-Babbitt decision that allowed the federal government to confiscate any out-of-pocket improvements ranchers made in the course of grazing federal lands; including stock tanks, fences and windmills. The proposed regulations would also limit comments from clueless, unqualified, urban environmental activists regarding grazing permits. That provision elicited howls of indignation from the left. John Horning of the Forest Guardians complained; "[T]he purpose here is to give cowboys and the livestock industry free rein over public lands," that will "eliminate safeguards on overgrazing and other environmental damage." "This proposed rule will help public lands ranchers stay on the land," Norton said. "We all know there are people out there who want to end public lands grazing. President Bush is not one of them."
Grazing Administration
Interior's Plan Gives Ranchers Freer Rein

Administration Opens Tongass to Logging

Alaskans cheered the decision of the Bush administration to open 300,000 acres of the Tongass National Forest to logging. "Merry Christmas…this couldn't have come at a better time," said Steve Seley, who just completed a $1.4 million expansion of his Pacific Log and Lumber Company in Ketchikan, one of the few remaining sawmills in Alaska's panhandle. Governor Frank Murkowski said the decision "was a vital step in our plan to rebuild the Southeast timber industry." A decade ago the timber industry employed 5,000 people, but heavy-handed government regulations reduced that number to a mere 650 timber related jobs. The new rules will open only about three percent of the Tongass to logging, but environmental groups would have none of it trotting out their tired old arguments as they rushed to block six timber sales. "The Bush administration is just catering to its friends in the timber industry by adopting this rule today," said Tom Waldo, attorney with Earthjustice.
Southeast Alaska Timber Industry Celebrates Logging Decision

Florida Judge Blasts Agency for Extortion

Coy Koontz, a Florida landowner, sued the St. John's River Water Management District (SJRWMD) for denying him use of his property without paying compensation. A Circuit Court Judge ruled for Koontz and the water district appealed. The SJRWMD was unanimously refused a hearing by Florida's 5th District Court of Appeals and one Judge, Robert J. Pleus, wrote a scathing denunciation of the District's actions. Water district scientist, Elizabeth Johnson, had concluded Koontz's proposed development of three and seven-tenths acres would adversely affect fish and wildlife, even though none were observed on his fourteen acres. As a condition for allowing Koontz to "use" his property, he was required by SJRWMD to perform offsite mitigation for the unseen fish and wildlife five to six miles from his property, an "out-and-out" plan of extortion, according to Judge Pleus. The good judge's opinion exposed the flagrant misuse of power exercised by government agencies that cloak their extortionate actions under the blanket of "Sovereign Immunity."
SJRWMD Rebuffed in Appeals Court

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