Gunnison Sage Grouse: Environmental Hero

[4est_4est_Gump]

Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the Gunnison sage grouse a threatened species.

...

The Gunnison sage grouse, a smaller variant of the “greater sage grouse,” was designated as a separate species only in 2000. The range of the Gunnison grouse is limited to an area south of the Colorado River in Colorado and Utah. There are about 5,000 breeding Gunnison sage grouse in existence. Ironically, it is the efforts of states and business owners that have helped preserve this species.

...

The listing of the Gunnison sage grouse as a threatened species is especially pernicious. The Gunnison grouse are few in number, but, as FWS points out, they “require large, contiguous areas of sagebrush across the landscape for long-term survival.” At present, the species occupies almost a million acres, 41% of which is held by private owners.

Which means, of course, that they now no longer "own" the land.

Designation of the Gunnison grouse as a threatened species is entirely unnecessary. Even FWS admits that states, local governments, businesses, and private landowners have taken “extraordinary” steps to preserve the bird.

...

Perhaps it is just that Fish and Wildlife, along with Obama’s other environmental agencies, have made regulation their default setting. Instead of calculating the economic cost and working cooperatively with business interests, Obama’s agencies appear to regulate with little if any concern for the human costs.

...

As bad as the “threatened” designation for the Gunnison sage grouse is, there’s much worse to come. FWS is “required” by the courts – not that it would take must nudging – to decide by the end of 2015 on designation of the “greater” sage grouse as an endangered species. Given the “regulate first, ask questions later” attitude of Obama’s regulators, is there any doubt as to what the decision will be?

By designating the much more widespread “greater” sage grouse an endangered species, FWS would extend federal control of most of the private lands in a large section of the western U.S. Why is it that Obama’s environmental agencies are so fascinated by the sage grouse? By moving aggressively on the sage grouse – when hundreds of other species are candidates for designation – FWS appears to have tipped its hand. Is it really the sage grouse that Obama’s regulators are so concerned with, or the potential for further oil and gas development that just happens to coincide with the sage grouse’s habitat?

Jeffrey Folks

http://www.americanthinker.com/arti..._first_ask_questions_later.html#ixzz3JyY6CfpS

Soon to be know as the Keystone Bird.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Keep in mind how much of that that land the Federal Government already "owns" out-right...



Now, it seeks to extend its control to land it does not own and in doing so, makes itself the landlord to whom rent must be paid in the form of lower productivity and bankruptcy.

 

[Que Va]

I just had a plot bunny for a revenge plot. If your foe owns acreage, get a lab to genetically alter any indigenousness species. Doesn't matter what the variant is, just something identifiable as "different" since once you set up a breeding population on the foe's land it will be the only place such are found, you can block his use of the land.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Like the newly-minted undocumented citizen?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

President to EPA:

"Damnit! we stopped drilling on our property and energy prices went down thanks the the vast, right-wing conspiracy of the private sector!



"How do we make their land 'our' land?"

 

[Ishmael]

As if the NFS and FWS have proven themselves to be good stewards of the lands already under their control, which they haven't.

Virtually all western species have been under stress for the past several years, and the primary cause of that stress is drought. So what's their plan for dealing with the drought?

Ishmael

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

As if the NFS and FWS have proven themselves to be good stewards of the lands already under their control, which they haven't.

Virtually all western species have been under stress for the past several years, and the primary cause of that stress is drought. So what's their plan for dealing with the drought?

Ishmael

$7.00 a gallon gas, even if we have to impose a $4.00 per gallon tax to beef up NFS, FWS and EPA wetland and desert habitat protection.

 

[Ishmael]

$7.00 a gallon gas, even if we have to impose a $4.00 per gallon tax to beef up NFS, FWS and EPA wetland and desert habitat protection.

And how much of those monies are actually going to flow to those agencies as opposed to, oh, say, "ShuchNJiveCare" subsidies to individuals and the insurance companies?

Ishmael

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

And how much of those monies are actually going to flow to those agencies as opposed to, oh, say, "ShuchNJiveCare" subsidies to individuals and the insurance companies?

Ishmael

It's going to go into a "lockbox."

:nods:

It might also go to our investments in the future, the Dreamers and the undocumented citizens attached to them at the hip...

 

[Que Va]

As if the NFS and FWS have proven themselves to be good stewards of the lands already under their control, which they haven't.

Virtually all western species have been under stress for the past several years, and the primary cause of that stress is drought. So what's their plan for dealing with the drought?

Ishmael

Have you seen the reclamation of desert in Africa by driving HUGE herds across it? With more grassland, less desert you have more ground-cover, lower surface temperatures and more precipitation.

 

[Ishmael]

Have you seen the reclamation of desert in Africa by driving HUGE herds across it? With more grassland, less desert you have more ground-cover, lower surface temperatures and more precipitation.

Can't happen here, it's all about the methane.

Ishmael

 

[Saint Peter]

$7.00 a gallon gas, even if we have to impose a $4.00 per gallon tax to beef up NFS, FWS and EPA wetland and desert habitat protection.

Or maybe use the tax money to fix a few thousand bridges.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Build them to nowhere?

An America that reflects his dream?



Or, at least, the Dreams of his Father who hated us as "Colonials."

 

[Ishmael]

Or maybe use the tax money to fix a few thousand bridges.

Wasn't that already done with the "shovel ready" jobs monies?

Ishmael

 

[Saint Peter]

Build them to nowhere?

An America that reflects his dream?



Or, at least, the Dreams of his Father who hated us as "Colonials."

Deflect! You pussy.

I am talking about fixing what is in place. Fixing what is unsafe that millions of citizens use everyday to get to work and school. The bridges that allow your beloved WalMart trucks to bring America cheesy crap.

Those bridges.

 

[Que Va]

Or maybe use the tax money to fix a few thousand bridges.

Fixing a bridge is a worthless activity...it is not a permanent job, dammit. As soon as the bridge is built the workers have to do something else!!! After the bridge is refurbished only a skeleton crew will be needed to paint it every so often.

Only "permanent" jobs can be looked to for economic impact, dammit!

See also keystone.

 

[Saint Peter]

Wasn't that already done with the "shovel ready" jobs monies?

Ishmael

No, it was not. More boo hooey crap from the RWCJ. I expect no more from you and your buddies.


What has been done has been to put bandages on major wounds. Deflect. Point over there. Do all of that. American infrastructure is ass. We have not done the upgrades. We have not done maintenance. Our time and luck is running out.

 

[Saint Peter]

Fixing a bridge is a worthless activity...

More bullshit.

Do you ever change the oil in your car? Is that a worthless activity?


I doubt that you fuckers are this stupid. It is only a doubt. A small one at that.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Petey, we don't have the money.

We can't build a fence and those people walking happily through the border have to be fed, housed, clothed and educated if they are to be proper investments in our future.

Bridges, these people simply do not seem to need.

They are adept at wading...



Oftentimes carrying heavily-filled backpacks.

Now, they cannot fix our roads because that requires minority contractors paying union wages. We cannot pay them Union wages which is why we let them cross with impunity. We have, however, and thankfully, used our infrastructure monies to build crossings for the turtles who seem to be too fucking stupid to survive in a post-industrialized society.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

More bullshit.

Do you ever change the oil in your car? Is that a worthless activity?


I doubt that you fuckers are this stupid. It is only a doubt. A small one at that.

That is a private sector activity and as such is relegated by the laws of economic efficiency, not the public sector effort which builds green energy plants that either fry the little birdies or chop them up...



Why aren't you guys fixing your own fucking roads from that tax windfall you got for legalizing those backpacks hauled across the border? That shit seems to have no problem navigating our crumbling apia way.

 

[Ishmael]

No, it was not. More boo hooey crap from the RWCJ. I expect no more from you and your buddies.


What has been done has been to put bandages on major wounds. Deflect. Point over there. Do all of that. American infrastructure is ass. We have not done the upgrades. We have not done maintenance. Our time and luck is running out.

Really? I heard that from the presidents mouth himself. I didn't know he had joined the club.

I don't dispute that the infrastructure is coming apart at the seams, but don't go blowing that 'right wing' smoke up my ass. Very little of that 1 trillion went to "shovel ready" jobs. Actually very little went to creating any jobs at all.

Further, do you realize how much the EPA adds to the cost of any infrastructure project, new or repair? The very act of replacing a corrugated pipe culvert project has the environmental whacko lawyers out in force suing to end, or stall, the project by any means possible. Lawyers funded by equally bat shit crazy whackos who mostly live in coastal urban centers and don't have a fucking clue as to what's going on in fly-over country, and could care even less.

Ishmael

 

[Que Va]

More bullshit.

Do you ever change the oil in your car? Is that a worthless activity?


I doubt that you fuckers are this stupid. It is only a doubt. A small one at that.

Tell that to the people that say building the pipeline is worthless, economically, because it is a not a permanent job.

Building million dollar tomahawks to fire at mud huts in Afghanistan and abandoned aspiring factories in the Sudan is a permanent job.

 

[Saint Peter]

Petey, we don't have the money.

This is true. The fed gas tax has not been raised in decades. It does not reflect the actual cost of keeping the system functional. Washington knows this. Both sides. Neither wants to act on it because of the backlash.

Failing bridges do no go away when you hide under your blanky. This one is going to bite us all in the ass.

Mark my words.

 

[Saint Peter]

I don't dispute that the infrastructure is coming apart at the seams,







Ishmael

Good. That is a start.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Who cares?

It is not causal, it is symptomatic. The disease is the good intentions of the Democrat Party to offer everyone assistance and programs in one form or another and the money has to come from somewhere or out of something and the mob has made its choice, it will forego travel for security.

Happily. The hands out for handouts keep winning elections.

Those who know how to build and maintain are told to shut the fuck up and pay for it lest they be branded as racist, misogynist, homophobic, xenophobic, haters, granny-starvers, healthcare deniers, global destroyers, I mean this is a list that probably has no end of the things the productive class has become even as the benefit class has become that which is good, noble and desired in this country, like it is in France.