A Katrina For The Northwest

I know a lot of you wonder why I go on and on about the Endangered Species Act when it's arcane and not nearly as interesting as, say, Earle vs. DeLay, but it is Keslo a la Kafka, a massive infringement of rights with almost nothing to show for it.

The Wall Street Journal agrees, in a major piece by editorial page writer Kimberly Strassel that ran on Wednesday.

Keslo? Try this:

One minute, the Western timber industry was proudly tending the timber stands that had built the nation. The next minute, poof, and it was all pretty much gone! -- the [northern spotted] owl landed on the species list in 1990, and the Clinton administration effected an 80% cut in logging on 24 million acres in Washington, Oregon and California. ...

According to a congressional committee, the spotted owl protections resulted in at least 130,000 lost jobs, after more than 900 sawmills, pulp mills and paper mills closed in the mid-'90s. Many of these were family businesses and the effect on small communities was severe. Divorce rates shot up; men committed suicide."

Kafka? How about:

... [M]ore than 10 years after a halt of logging on the "old growth" trees in which spotted owls are supposed to thrive, the bird's population has continued to plummet -- declining by 7% a year in Washington. The answer, biologists are beginning to admit, is ... another owl. Barred owls migrated into spotted owl territory decades ago, and have a nasty habit of killing the smaller birds, driving them out of their homes, or mating with them -- producing impure offspring. ...

But what makes this so galling is that it isn't news. Back in 1992, Bush Agriculture Secregary Edward Madigan publicly admitted that barred owls might be a big problem. His comments elicited howls of protests from environmental groups opposed to logging on principle. The Clinton administraiton came to office and swept away any talk of rival species, proceeding with plans to further shut down timber-cutting.

Now that they've used bad science and bad law to stop foresting, the envirofascists have their eyes set on hydroelectric power, the lifeblood of industry in the Northwest, and they have a friend in US Ninth Circuit judge James Redden.

Redden, according to the other CSM, "raised the specter of tearing out mammoth hydroelectric dams in the Columbia-Snake River system - which could dramatically alter key parts of the region's economy, particularly the agriculture and shipping industries..."

This time it's salmon, not owls, and the science is just as suspect, even though the issue is more complicated.

Immediately hit would be the poor farmers of Klamath, Ore., who were decimated by earlier federal efforts to protect salmon. Redden seems intent on trying a second blow, saying,

"We are all aware of the demands of other users of the resources of the Columbia River and Snake River, but we need to be far more aware of the needs of the endangered and threatened species."

Do we? It would be nice to have salmon by the thousands flapping around in the shallows of these rivers, and happy bears, and a really neat wilderness experience.

But let's check in with the wife of the logger who committed suicide first and see what she thinks. Let's go down to the Union Hall and ask the guys who will lose their jobs if electrical costs double or triple as the dams are torn down. Let's wait until the spring rains and snowmelt comes, running free and unabetted by the great dams, flooding Portland up to its so carefully over-planned eaves, and see if the residents think it was worth it.

Better, let's make the existing system work, change ESA, and do all we can to make sure the salmon remain a part of that system.