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damnit damnit DAMNIT.

the door cannot possibly hit this man on the ass hard enough on his way out.

my favorite quote from the article: "We believe federal action agencies will err on the side of caution in making these determinations."

SURE they will.
bush to relax protected species rules

Have you ever had your land devalued by the Government.Would you be ok with that if it was your land and one day it is worthless.Life,Liberty and the pursuit of happyness for gopher tortoises.Could you do it could you just walk away from your land.joe6pax speeks* (in press)I'll wait for the hostile reply.

umm, there's no point in my making a hostile reply.

you ask how i would feel, but it doesn't effect me personally because i am not in the business of buying, selling, or developing land that is inhabited by threatened species.

i mentioned gopher tortoises in light of this article because if developers are no longer going to be required to jump through all of the hoops that they previously had to, things in florida will go back to how they were before (live burial, etc.).

Thanks for your non hostile reply.It was the tripple DAMNS that made me think that.But ESA laws did and still cause hardship for Americans.Yep the bulldozing of tortoises was a huge cop out for Fl.Blood money,"you cant destroy the tortoise colonies" unless you pay us.Discusting,Oh,buy the way," keep one for a pet!Out of the question." Here is what can be done.Private people raise lots of money,then compete with the developers to buy and manage the land.Think ,well its just to much money to come up with? Political Elections do it all the time.Hundreds of millions spent for one person at a time,with lots of losers.Its been done by my friend Tim Hoen.He puts on the Mid Atlantic Reptile Expo.The money from the venders and the door goes to buy land out from under the logging companys (out bids them)and gives the land to local people for substained use activities in Costa Rica.So far over 3,000 ac.Now thats git'en er done the American way,with Capitalism! Maybe i'll meet you at the Daytona Expo where we will be raising money for the Gharial.There was a good story in the last Reptile Magazine on all the Conservation efferts made there the last few years.Maybe we can do it for the Gopher Tortoise some day.Vic

Before I begin I love tortoises. In my opinion nothing was really affected by this change (just a political move to make the developers feel good). There is already so much oversight and regulation that this will have very little impact. After a developer is done dealing with all the other local, state, and federal regulations, permits, fees, taxes, then the battle really begins. The public hearings and law suites will still tie a developer’s hands for years. This little “assumed” set back to the ESA is nothing compared to the new regulations that are waiting to fill the void (You ain’t seen nothing yet!). Don’t worry there are armies of attorneys working tirelessly to see that development is halted and property rights are limited and that the regulators do actually “ere on the side of caution”.

Incidentally we are all involved in the development of land (we live in buildings, buy food, clothing, need doctors, schools, entertainment, and the list goes on). Remember the regulations affects a development whether or not there are any endangered or threatened species on his property. We have a developer here who wanted to landscape the property between his business and the highway (20-feet). The cost for permits, reviews, studies, and etc. not to mention the months of delays to the developer were such that he through up his hands and said forget it. We now have a nice patch of weeds to enjoy (it does keep the prison chain gang busy chopping them down).

Just thought I'd chime in here regarding this latest attempt at taking a swipe at the ESA. It certainly would create issues for federally protected species. However, gopher tortoises in Florida do not fall under federal protection they only have the VERY meager protection of the State of Florida. The Florida population likely merits federal protection but doesn't have it.

Take a small persent of the Sea Turtle funds,buy land,leave the Fed/Gov out of it. ebay the nine million doller outer space tracking devise.Vic