If this story doesn't **** you off enough to do something about reforming the Endangered Species Act, I give up! Read it, then write your representatives and tell them to reform the Endangered Species Act H.R. 4840:
http://www.crowley-offroad.com/Snitz...p?TOPIC_ID=857

You can easily find your representatives at www.congress.org

More articles on ESA reform:
http://www.crowley-offroad.com/Snitz...p?TOPIC_ID=850
http://www.crowley-offroad.com/Snitz...p?TOPIC_ID=846

Jon
www.crowley-offroad.com
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Officials being inundated with environmental mandates
FLOODING: Imitating nature to help plants and animals has meant people have had to sacrifice.

07/14/2002

By JENNIFER BOWLES
THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE


Water isn't just for drinking and growing crops anymore.

Across the arid West, farmers and cities are having to leave more water in rivers to allow wildlife and habitat to survive.

For example, the U.S. Interior Department last year held back water during a drought from farmers in the Klamath Basin on the California-Oregon border to help endangered fish.

And federal and state officials are trying to figure out how to get water to the Salton Sea and its endangered species because the Inland desert lake is in danger of losing some water running off from nearby crops to a proposed water transfer to San Diego taps.

And federal wildlife officials are negotiating to get a portion of water from the Santa Ana River to help nourish the habitat of the San Bernardino kangaroo rat and two other endangered species that live below the Seven Oaks Dam near Highland. The 9-inch-long kangaroo rat, once common in the San Bernardino and San Jacinto valleys, has lost 95 percent of its habitat to agricultural, urban and industrial development, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It was listed as endangered in 1998.

"Those three species need flooding to maintain their habitat, and flooding requires water," said Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed a lawsuit against the dam's builder, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to make sure that happens.

But the amount of water needed to mimic natural flooding directly below the dam -- as much as 70,000 acre-feet a year, according to one estimate -- is also enough for Inland water agencies to serve the needs of 140,000 families annually.

"They could take all of our conserved water for the benefit of the rat," said Don Harriger, general manager of Western Municipal Water District, which primarily imports water to agencies serving 500,000 people from Jurupa to Temecula.

But the Army Corps can't do anything to harm the species because they are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act, said Joseph L. Sax, a UC Berkeley School of Law professor and one of the nation's leading experts on water and endangered species issues.

"The usual rule is that if the water is needed to avoid jeopardizing the species, then they would have the first call on the water," Sax said.

Jane Hendron, spokeswoman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said her agency has not determined how much water would be needed for the flood flows. But, she said, the flows will be needed during storms, because before the dam existed that's when the wildlife habitat below the dam would have been naturally inundated.

The flows would help clear out the habitat -- alluvial sage scrub -- that is home to the kangaroo rat and two plants, the purple-flowered Santa Ana River woolly-star and the tiny slender-horned spineflower, both listed as endangered in 1987.

"They have adapted to the natural ebb and flow of water," she said.

But, she stressed, the Army Corps hasn't discussed the environmental impacts of adding another purpose -- saving water -- to the dam built to prevent major flooding of Orange County.

"That's something that hasn't even been brought up," she said.

Reach Jennifer Bowles at (909) 368-9548 or jbowles@pe.com
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/...re1.a1082.html

 

Wy would any type of rat be put on the endangered species list? They are disease spreading rodents. Remember the Bubonic Plague in Europe? Yeah that was spread by rats and killed 1/3 of Europes population.If I had rats near my house I would poisin the hell out of them even if they are endangered.

 

The K rats have been a real problem around here!! I know people who are not even allowed to CLEAR A FIRE BREAK around their house because it is "K rat habitat". And, heaven help you if you are a farmer and they find a K rat anywhere on your property!! They will just close you down.

The Seven Oaks dam is just for flood control. It's not like there are 70,000 acre feet of water behind it for anyone to release????