Kelly:
>Why has so much been made of the culverts? The lots that were sacrificed for
>gopher habitat probably represented a much greater monetary loss.

Thank you so much for your excellent post setting out some of the main
details of this case.

My faith in ESA "horror story" promoters is unshaken - they are universally
full of unendangered male bovine excrement.

It is almost humorous - smiling behind the tears, so to speak - that
this case doesn't even really involve the ESA, and even your state
ESA only indirectly, but arose through the county development permit
system. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the kind of pro-active
treatment we want to encourage? Taking steps to enhance the survival
of candidate species and subspecies before they "hit the list"? Isn't
this the time to try things out experimentally, perhaps before things
get entirely critical?
























- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>