Posted on 09/28/2004 8:52:42 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
If you have foreign weeds, grass, trees, or shrubs on your property (and you most certainly do), you're in trouble. Under "Invasive Species" provisions currently sitting in the Senate's version of the Federal Transportation Bill (S. 1072), your property could quickly become the target of radical environmentalists and bureaucrats.
Imagine the Endangered Species Act on steroids. Now multiply its devastating effect on property rights by one million. That should give you a pretty good idea of what "Invasive Species" legislation will mean for property owners in every state, country, city and suburb in the nation.
"Invasive Species" is the radical Greens' an international socialists' key to controlling every square inch of land in the United States……………..
(Excerpt) Read more at michnews.com ...
Kerry is blasting Bush on the environment (story at link below) even though he voted against the Kyoto Accord in 1997 (95-0 Senate vote).
Kyoto would restrict our ability to defend ourselves, as it would curtail our use of energy and our military needs a lot of it. The cost of everything would go up to the consumer and drive more businesses to third world countries that won't have to comply with Kyoto. The entire reason for Kyoto is to weaken our country and strengthen socialist countries.
Teresa Heinz Kerry gives vasts sums of money to Green causes (she is an environmentalist activist). She refuses to release all of her tax returns to show what causes she supports and will continue to support if Kerry goes to the WH.
Heinz Kerry has an ecology agenda ***.....But behind the scenes, Teresa Heinz helped persuade her husband to support a clean air provision proposed by Environmental Defense, enabling polluters to trade so-called ''emission credits" with companies that reduced pollutants more than the law required, and her husband became one of the most important Republican votes for passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act. Then, just before John Heinz died in a plane crash in 1991, one of his last conversations with his wife concerned their plan to use part of the family fortune on environmental efforts. Her foundations have since poured nearly $200 million into an array of environmental causes, including large sums to help Pittsburgh become an environmental model for the nation.
Now, with her second husband, Senator John F. Kerry, running for president, Teresa Heinz Kerry again is asserting herself on environmental issues, partly because of her belief that the Bush administration is undoing the clean air law that her first husband -- and the first President Bush -- helped pass. In a series of speeches, including one earlier this month, Heinz Kerry has said it is ''a sin against humankind" that the current Bush administration has rolled back environmental policy on clean air and water. ....***
Right..and there is nothing wrong with homosexuality at all. Or abortion, etc
The article liked above is one of the most ridiculously hysterical screeds I ever read. This is why John Gibson thinks there are a lot of Kooks here at F.R.
There IS a serious problem with noxious invasive species here in the U.S., and it's about damn time we started doing something about it. Most of the most noxious of these are in public waters (water chestnut, bighead carp, etc) and these will consume whatever energy the clay-footed federal government manages to exert in this direction. You needen't worry that Feds will show up on your lawn and begin eradicating your Kentucky Bluegrass (although I would welcome some help getting rid of the Oriental bittersweet that is trying to choke out my various plantings....)
Time for an EXPERT PING Carry_Okie!!! That is, unless you're too busy out pulling these monstrosities invading your property up by the roots!!!
So you thought out CA legislation was threatening to property rights...
I thought they were talking about Illegal Aliens.
read later
Yep, and the seat belt legislation would never allow for it being the primary reason for a stop!
Just to let you know, the government is not a self limiting organization!
Correction ...
Under "Invasive Species" provisions currently sitting in the Senate's version of the Federal Transportation Bill (S. 1072), environmentalists and bureaucrats could quickly become the shooting targets of home owners who believe their home to be their castle.
Tresspassers will be shot ... survivors will be shot again.
That's Patience on the left and Maturity on the right.
Just thought you would like to be able to differentiate, as they are both stunning. ;)
In the last few hundred years literally hundreds of non-native species have become established here, from blackberries to horses to starlings. They do so well because they are often better suited to the environment than the native wildlife and if we were to erradicate them all we would have no more wildlife. It's Darwin in action.
ping
The Democrat/liberal 2004 IS the prime invasive species, forever seeking to expand the reach of Big Brother/Nanny State into all aspects of our lives. This must be one of the top 10 items on the agenda of the Democratic National Committee.
Sorry to have put you through such nonsense.
I'm sure John Gibson will survive.
If you feel this is the most ridiculous screed you've ever read, you need to talk to some people who have to deal with government control of their property.
"...you need to talk to some people who have to deal with government control of their property..."
I'm a COE-certified Wetland Delineator (among other things), so I have some familiarity with this issue.
Some of the people who complain about such things live in glass houses. I worked in Montana one summer. A good many people out there are reflexively opposed to anyone they perceive as an agent of the Federal government. I picked up a stranded rancher out on a country road one day as I was driving out to the field. He asked me what I did, and when he found out I worked for the Federal Government, he started insulting me and calling me a parasite. I knew who this fellow was (although he didn't know it), and knew that he had received tens of thousands of dollars (of taxpayer money) in crop defficiency payments, CRP payments, etc, in the previous year. I just listened, didn't say much.
Well, then that explains your explosive post.
Have you recorded the farmer's name in your little book?
And if you have so much insight and experience, why didn't you write a reasoned rebuttal?
By slamming something, you only anger people, you don't inform them.
Have at it.
Bump!
Yes I do. AB 2631 is an invasive species bill currently on the governors desk. It will be the regulatory nightmare feeding the Sierra Nevada Conservancy monster.
Rights, farms, environment ping.
Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from this list.
I don't get offended if you want to be removed.
What does a COE-certified Wetland Delineator do?
Do you work for a private company, the government or hire out for government contracts?
,,, weeds and bureaucrats are pretty much one in the same category. Dealing to them has never been easier.
BTTT!!!!!!
I work for an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a soil scientist. Most of my work is directed at producing soil surveys; wetland delineation is a relatively minor (and infrequent) part of my job. When requested by a "district co-operator" (i.e., a farmer who has signed a conservation agreement with our agency), I can delineate wetlands on his property in areas that he is considering clearing for agricultural production.
Agricultural operators who clear wetlands without a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers may become ineligible for government benefits (crop deficiency payments, federal crop insurance, price supports, CRP or WRP payments, etc). Commodity prices have been so low, for so many years, that only a tiny minority of farmers can make a profit without access to government support payments, so most farmers are quite willing to cooperate with the USDA.
Oh No, I have star thistle.
Didn't the apple tree come from Europe? According to invasive species ac,t since the apple tree is not indiginous to North America, it has to be eradicated.
Same for the cow, sheep, pigs, chickens. Tulips. Rice.
Noxious weeds are one thing, but this environmental crap goes way beyond weeds.
Renfield -
Couple of questions for you -
As a soil scientist for the USDA, would I call you and ask for soil advice about growing specific plants?
For example, I'm growing prairie grass in my nursery. Eventually, I want to plant this grass on my property. Right now I have escapee European grass (lawn) growing on the land. I eventually want to plow it under and plant the prairie grass.
Would you, or someone in the USDA, come onto my property and assess the soil and make recommendations?
Is that the kind of thing you do?
Only NOXIOUS invasives are targeted for removal.
While our agency supports the planting and production of warm-season perennial grasses ("prairie grasses"), you want to contact your county extension agent. Soil testing for fertility assessment and fertilizer recommendations is normally done by state land-grant institutions (your state university, such as Iowa State, NC State, Virginia Tech, University of Kentucky, etc).
You don't say where you live, but in our area (Maryland), the native perennial grasses (Switchgrass, Indiangrass, Eastern Gamagrass, etc) generally grow to heights of 4 to 6 feet on good sites, and are pretty shaggy looking....might make for a curious lawn.
I've noticed more noxious species on public lands too, but my 7 acres has gradually less. I care about my property and try not to pass weeds to my neighbors which include the federal government. It's not a simple issue, but to believe that weed eradication trumps property rights is not a good starting point.
If I want to build a wetland (which I have) or get rid of one, it's none of the government's business unless my property starts streaming muddy water onto someone else's or there is some similar property rights violation.
Likewise with weeds, the government should provide the information (as you have suggested in your later posts) but should not be involved in any coercive measures unless there is a significant violation of someone else's property rights.
That is analogous to claiming that a man with smallpox should not be quarantined until he has infected his neighbors; by then, it is too late.
By the way, I have known a number of people working on invasive species issues over the years, and I cannot think of a single instance in which control measures were taken against the wishes of a landowner. (It may have happened, but I haven't heard of it.) Normally, it's the other way around; the landowner (or land manager, if public land is involved) phones up one of the relevant agencies or universities, and asks for help in controlling some infestation. I suspect that the appearance of the Northern Snakehead fish in the Potomac Watershed may be responsible for this legislation; someone should do a little investigating and find out.
No, it's saying that a man who has smallpox should be left alone. For the invasives issue, the concern is that narrow-minded bureaucrats will enforce arbitrary and rigid regulations. That's been done many times WRT wetlands. My personal role in wetlands management is to build them myself and encourage my neighbors to do so. But if the government tells someone to keep one where they don't want it, I'll always side with the landowner.
Fortunately in VA they are pretty reasonable about that.
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