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: : BLM Attacked For Inaction on Tortoise Land : : U.S. Judge Blames Failure On New Administration : : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16922-2001May11.html : : : : TEXT of Article: : : A federal judge sharply criticized the Bush administration this week for reneging on an agreement to force ranchers off a half-million acres of the Mojave Desert reserved for threatened desert tortoises, warning that he would hold government : : officials in contempt of court if they did not honor their promises to restrict economic activities on sensitive public lands. : : : : At the end of the Clinton administration, the Bureau of Land Management finalized a court-ordered deal with : : environmentalists to eliminate grazing from March 1 to June 15, while the tortoises emerge from their winter burrows to eat : : and mate. But under Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, BLM did not follow through, and U.S. District Judge William H. : : Alsup ruled Monday in San Francisco that it had violated "the letter, the spirit and everything about the whole process." : : : : A BLM spokesman said the agency decided not to remove the livestock on March 1 because ranchers were appealing the : : decision and called the situation an honest misinterpretation of Alsup's orders. An Interior spokesman said that while Norton : : intends to be more sympathetic to ranchers than her predecessor, she had nothing to do with BLM's missteps. : : : : But at a hearing last week, the judge sternly rejected the excuses, noting that government attorneys had promised immediate : : removal of the cattle in no uncertain terms, calling the subsequent failure to follow through "discouraging" and "disappointing." : : Livestock can be trouble for tortoises, eating their food and trampling their burrows, and the judge warned that BLM's : : defiance would hurt the imperiled species. : : : : "One more problem for the desert tortoise, and I hope they survive it," said Alsup, a Democrat who worked to protect : : Yosemite National Park before he was appointed to the Northern California bench by President Bill Clinton. The judge gave : : the Bush administration until next Thursday to work out a new agreement with the environmental groups that fought for the : : tortoise -- the Center for Biodiversity, the Sierra Club and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility -- and : : suggested that he may hold the government in contempt if it cannot do so. : : : : "I think this has something to do with the change in administrations," he said. "I think that is all that's going on here, and that's : : not the way the government should be working." : : : : President Bush has expressed solidarity with ranchers who complain that government regulations interfere with their : : livelihoods and has announced the nominations of two Interior officials with ties to the cattle industry. Bush has also suggested that he will be far less sympathetic to environmentalists on the endangered-species issues that have inflamed the West, and : : Norton has infuriated green groups by abandoning the Clinton administration's efforts to introduce endangered grizzly bears : : into the Idaho wilderness. : : : : The desert tortoise is a case study in America's endangered-species wars, a subject of litigation for more than a decade. : : Environmentalists have sued successfully to get it listed as threatened, to reserve more than 3 million acres as its "critical : : habitat," and to restrict mining, grazing and off-road vehicle use there. Interior has 10 biologists devoted to the tortoise; in : : 1997 it spent $5.7 million on recovery efforts. But to property-rights activists and business groups out West, the tortoise is a : : stark symbol of the Endangered Species Act's excesses, illustrating the law's sweeping power to keep public land away from : : the public. : : : : Norton's spokesman said yesterday that he could not comment while the matter is being litigated. But Jan Bedrosian, a : : spokesman for BLM's California office, said the agency misinterpreted the judge's order without any direction from Bush's : : new political appointees. She said there is plenty of grass for tortoises and cattle to coexist in the Mojave this year. : : : : "We didn't receive any direction to slow down the process," Bedrosian said. "We were just being very careful to give the : : ranchers due process. We didn't think this was an emergency." : : : : Norton did uphold the Clinton administration's decision to ban snowmobiles from Yellowstone National Park, and she : : recently disappointed drought-stricken farmers in the Northwest by reserving more water for endangered fish. Still, she has : : been a lightning rod for environmentalists, who have lambasted her for endorsing oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife : : Refuge and for proposing language in the Interior budget that would restrict endangered-species lawsuits like the one that : : helped protect the desert tortoise. : : : : Yesterday, green groups piled on Norton again, scoffing at the idea that she was out of the loop on the tortoise decisions. : : Daniel Patterson, a former BLM ecologist in the Mojave who now works for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the : : administration's failure to comply with the court-ordered agreement exposed the gap between Norton's rhetorical : : commitment to rare species and the reality of her hostility to government regulation. : : : : "It's clear that Norton is kowtowing to the livestock industry by blocking on-the-ground action to reduce harm to the desert : : tortoise," Patterson said. "We will not sit back while wildlife suffers as . . . anti-environmental politics subvert a court-ordered : : settlement." : : : : There are 1,200 species on the protected list; only 13 have recovered enough to be delisted. Another 250 species would be : : listed if Interior had enough money to do the work involved. Environmentalists have 75 lawsuits pending that could force : : Interior to do more to protect about 400 species already on the list; they intend to file 86 suits that would increase protections : : for another 640 species. A Senate subcommittee held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss possible ways out of this litigation : : morass. The Bush administration has argued that the real obstacle to endangered-species protection today is the proliferation : : of endangered-species lawsuits, an argument also made by Clinton administration officials. : : : : But one fact cannot be denied: Environmentalists win almost every endangered-species lawsuit they file. "The fact is, the : : government just pays lip service unless a court forces them to do something," Patterson said. "Sometimes, they pay lip service even then." : : : : © 2001The Washington Post Company : : : : : : Annie Lancaster : : Director-TortoiseAid http://tortoiseaid.org : : Apple Valley, CA USA : : <¤><^~~~^<¤>^~~~^<¤>^~~~^<¤>^~~~^><¤> : : Desert Tortoise Listserve: : : http://www.topica.com/lists/Gopherus/ : : BLM Attacked For Inaction on Tortoise Land : : U.S. Judge Blames Failure On New Administration : : http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16922-2001May11.html : : : : TEXT of Article: : : A federal judge sharply criticized the Bush administration this week for reneging on an agreement to force ranchers off a half-million acres of the Mojave Desert reserved for threatened desert tortoises, warning that he would hold government : : officials in contempt of court if they did not honor their promises to restrict economic activities on sensitive public lands. : : : : At the end of the Clinton administration, the Bureau of Land Management finalized a court-ordered deal with : : environmentalists to eliminate grazing from March 1 to June 15, while the tortoises emerge from their winter burrows to eat : : and mate. But under Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, BLM did not follow through, and U.S. District Judge William H. : : Alsup ruled Monday in San Francisco that it had violated "the letter, the spirit and everything about the whole process." : : : : A BLM spokesman said the agency decided not to remove the livestock on March 1 because ranchers were appealing the : : decision and called the situation an honest misinterpretation of Alsup's orders. An Interior spokesman said that while Norton : : intends to be more sympathetic to ranchers than her predecessor, she had nothing to do with BLM's missteps. : : : : But at a hearing last week, the judge sternly rejected the excuses, noting that government attorneys had promised immediate : : removal of the cattle in no uncertain terms, calling the subsequent failure to follow through "discouraging" and "disappointing." : : Livestock can be trouble for tortoises, eating their food and trampling their burrows, and the judge warned that BLM's : : defiance would hurt the imperiled species. : : : : "One more problem for the desert tortoise, and I hope they survive it," said Alsup, a Democrat who worked to protect : : Yosemite National Park before he was appointed to the Northern California bench by President Bill Clinton. The judge gave : : the Bush administration until next Thursday to work out a new agreement with the environmental groups that fought for the : : tortoise -- the Center for Biodiversity, the Sierra Club and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility -- and : : suggested that he may hold the government in contempt if it cannot do so. : : : : "I think this has something to do with the change in administrations," he said. "I think that is all that's going on here, and that's : : not the way the government should be working." : : : : President Bush has expressed solidarity with ranchers who complain that government regulations interfere with their : : livelihoods and has announced the nominations of two Interior officials with ties to the cattle industry. Bush has also suggested that he will be far less sympathetic to environmentalists on the endangered-species issues that have inflamed the West, and : : Norton has infuriated green groups by abandoning the Clinton administration's efforts to introduce endangered grizzly bears : : into the Idaho wilderness. : : : : The desert tortoise is a case study in America's endangered-species wars, a subject of litigation for more than a decade. : : Environmentalists have sued successfully to get it listed as threatened, to reserve more than 3 million acres as its "critical : : habitat," and to restrict mining, grazing and off-road vehicle use there. Interior has 10 biologists devoted to the tortoise; in : : 1997 it spent $5.7 million on recovery efforts. But to property-rights activists and business groups out West, the tortoise is a : : stark symbol of the Endangered Species Act's excesses, illustrating the law's sweeping power to keep public land away from : : the public. : : : : Norton's spokesman said yesterday that he could not comment while the matter is being litigated. But Jan Bedrosian, a : : spokesman for BLM's California office, said the agency misinterpreted the judge's order without any direction from Bush's : : new political appointees. She said there is plenty of grass for tortoises and cattle to coexist in the Mojave this year. : : : : "We didn't receive any direction to slow down the process," Bedrosian said. "We were just being very careful to give the : : ranchers due process. We didn't think this was an emergency." : : : : Norton did uphold the Clinton administration's decision to ban snowmobiles from Yellowstone National Park, and she : : recently disappointed drought-stricken farmers in the Northwest by reserving more water for endangered fish. Still, she has : : been a lightning rod for environmentalists, who have lambasted her for endorsing oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife : : Refuge and for proposing language in the Interior budget that would restrict endangered-species lawsuits like the one that : : helped protect the desert tortoise. : : : : Yesterday, green groups piled on Norton again, scoffing at the idea that she was out of the loop on the tortoise decisions. : : Daniel Patterson, a former BLM ecologist in the Mojave who now works for the Center for Biological Diversity, said the : : administration's failure to comply with the court-ordered agreement exposed the gap between Norton's rhetorical : : commitment to rare species and the reality of her hostility to government regulation. : : : : "It's clear that Norton is kowtowing to the livestock industry by blocking on-the-ground action to reduce harm to the desert : : tortoise," Patterson said. "We will not sit back while wildlife suffers as . . . anti-environmental politics subvert a court-ordered : : settlement." : : : : There are 1,200 species on the protected list; only 13 have recovered enough to be delisted. Another 250 species would be : : listed if Interior had enough money to do the work involved. Environmentalists have 75 lawsuits pending that could force : : Interior to do more to protect about 400 species already on the list; they intend to file 86 suits that would increase protections : : for another 640 species. A Senate subcommittee held a hearing on Wednesday to discuss possible ways out of this litigation : : morass. The Bush administration has argued that the real obstacle to endangered-species protection today is the proliferation : : of endangered-species lawsuits, an argument also made by Clinton administration officials. : : : : But one fact cannot be denied: Environmentalists win almost every endangered-species lawsuit they file. "The fact is, the : : government just pays lip service unless a court forces them to do something," Patterson said. "Sometimes, they pay lip service even then." : : : : © 2001The Washington Post Company : : : : : : Annie Lancaster : : Director-TortoiseAid http://tortoiseaid.org : : Apple Valley, CA USA : : <¤><^~~~^<¤>^~~~^<¤>^~~~^<¤>^~~~^><¤> : : Desert Tortoise Listserve: : : http://www.topica.com/lists/Gopherus/

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