If you don’t think our culture cares more about some animal than it does human life, look no further than California. That “drought” they’re having?? Man made crisis to protect a fish which serves absolutely no purpose, but some liberal tree-hugging putz found one in a stream one time which warranted a federal judge and the EPA to force the dumping millions of gallons of freshwater into the ocean instead of into farms which produce a very LARGE portion of America’s fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as livestock… And what do we get out of all this? The fish is going to go extinct anyway and we’ll be stuck with higher cost for groceries. Nice job government.
In 2007, U.S. district judge Oliver Wanger ruled that the pumping that annually sent about 6 million acre-feet of water to Kern County and beyond was threatening the delta smelt’s existence by disrupting water flows for the fall spawning season. Citing the protections accorded by the Endangered Species Act, he ordered pumping for agricultural uses curtailed by one-third until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could evaluate the situation. After studying the issue for more than a year, the USFWS determined last December that pumping by the SWP and CVP “was likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the delta smelt and adversely modify its critical habitat.” The agency issued plans to keep Judge Wanger’s restrictions in place. According to Tulare County supervisor Allen Ishida, “California was forced to let 660,000 acrefeet of its freshwater supplies run out to the ocean. That was enough water to supply the entire Silicon Valley for two years.”
…The result of these irrigation pump shutdowns is that hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland are being forced out of production. Kern County authorities estimated that 145,000 of the 850,000 acres that are typically irrigated were idled or under-irrigated last year. The loss was pegged at $100 million in the county alone. A study by UC-Davis estimated San Joaquin Valley farm revenue losses to range from $482 million to $647 million. Total California agricultural economic losses could hit $3 billion this year…
[i]But while the bald eagle and the grizzly are the poster children of ESA protection, they are the exception and not the rule. Most species for whose preservation the power of government has been harnessed are ones whose loss few would mourn, or even notice. How many tears, for instance, would be shed if the rock gnome lichen disappeared, not to mention the dwarf wedgemussel or the Comal Springs dryopid beetle? Or the delta smelt? And yet court decisions and other regulatory moves are being made on behalf of these and other creatures in ways that present significant hardship for landowners. Whether depriving Central Valley farmers of contractually entitled water or placing restrictions on landowners’ use of their own properties, endangered species regulations end up hamstringing humans for the benefit of certain plants, fish, and animals that few have heard of and even fewer care about.
Sometimes such hamstringing is merely a costly irritant. Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler has noted, “Under the ESA, individual Americans have been prevented from building homes, plowing fields, cutting trees, clearing brush, and repairing fences—all on private land.”[/i]
Trophy hunting may be disgusting to some, and I honestly can understand that. I found this article fairly well balanced.