"According to Josh Baldi of the Washington Environmental Council,
Tuesday's
vote confirms what poll after poll has shown nationally and locally:
"People
continue to strongly favor protecting their quality of life and
environment.""

This is the first time in a long time that I have been happy the morning
after. I'm very glad that 48 was defeated because I know that a lot of other
states were watching it. I am a little hesitant to claim that people voted it
down because of a strong committment to the environment. I think that a lot
of people care very much about private rights compared to environmental
rights. Word got out that this was a poorly written law. Impossible to
enforce. Many corporations were distancing themselves from it. I think a lot
of people voted against it because it was a bad law.

One instance really has concerned me. I heard a 48 supporter claim that a
farmer was forced to build tunnels for his endangered pocket gophers. I
thought the guy was just confused. Pocket gophers are not endangered! Then I
saw on TV (ch 5) a newscast showing the tunnels. The guy had to spend $6000
to build the tunnels which of course the gophers don't use. It seems theres
an endangered subspecies of pocket gopher living on his farm. I cannot
believe that some offical made this guy do this. Does anybody know the
lowdown on this, or know who I can find out from? We have very real
problems out there. We don't need to have people build tunnels for pocket
gophers. Or did I miss something?

Jim Rosso
Issaquah
206-392-8440