🚀 go-pugleaf

 
    Gov Wilson suspends ESA
 
 * Xposted:

    about:   Re: Development, not salamander, to blame:

 Alan McGowen writes concerning postings regarding the Pajaro floods:
 
 >Assuming the facts are as Farrell gives them, it would seem on the
 >face of it that CA Fish and Game was doing its job in delaying alteration
 >of "potential" habitat of an endangered species. "Potential" habitat
 >-- habitat that is used only infrequently or only after a disturbance --
 >can be quite important for the survival of an endangered metapopulation.
 >When the metapopulation dynamics are poorly understood (as is usually
 >the case), it is best to err on the side of caution.

 If this were the only aspect of a situation, of course,agreed. But F &
 G like any of us does not work in a vacuum.  If we do expect trouble.


 Let me try to summarize my approach to the environmental/human dilemma
 that is playing out in the Pajaro area.  I am trying to put all the
 threads into a sustainable development context. There are innumerable
 forces at work.  Here are some:

 State Fish and Game and Santa Cruz County exerting authority;
 Army Corps of Engineers savior to some impediment to others;
 sources of funding for riverbed maintenance;
 heavy human settlement, including large Latino areas, on river
 lowlands; an area (esp Santa Cruz) in which environmentalism is very
 active; overuse of water by farming subject to environmental criticism;
 over emphasis on salamander  perceived by farmers;
 urban critics appear to oversee/monitor rural environmental managers;
 economic risk taken mainly by farmers,businesses and homeowners
 environmental risks seen by farmers; salinization, drought,lack of
 water,floods; intensive farming in a subhumid area subject to high
 intensity precipitation; real fear of flooding felt by City of
 Watsonville laid low by earthquake 1989; conservative farm community
 actively changing, showing much innovation; an area of unbelievable
 productivity essential to the feeding of the US/Canada; farmers feeling
 they are little understood or appreciated esp by urban dwellers; highly
 selective media article creating strawmen/demonizing farmers. 
 Yes everyone may have been doing their stuff but they did it badly. 
 Virtual salamanders and legislation were merely triggers for
 discontent. *They* messed around with rules and appeared to drag their
 feet. *We* lost our  crops, productivity and suffered damage to our
 homes. *They* were home and dry in Santa Cruz and Sacramento. They were
 the *knowers*; *we* were the doers.The entire situation is saddening. 
 Much could have been ameliorated. Not everything could really have been
 resolved. It wasn't a matter to be seen in terms of just science
 (biodiversity) or politics (agency interrelations) but it was the
 effect of the conjunction of a complicated flow of forces, human and
 environmental.  The ulimate outcome could have been very different had 
 parties  sat down and communicated their concerns and listened to those
 at the table beside them rather than operating, as pointed out, in a
 vacuum. 
 Bryan H Farrell                            RR1 Belle Site C4 
 Environmental Studies                      Halfmoon Bay, 
 University of California                   British Columbia, V0N 1Y0
 Santa Cruz CA 95064,USA                    Canada
 farrell@cats.ucsc.edu                      bryan_farrell@sunshine.net




... --------  From Dead Central California  ----------