Raleigh Logger Fined After Tree Cut Down With Eagles' Nest In It

http://www.wral.com/news/1884232/detail.html ^ | January 12, 2003 | WRAL-TV News

[AlwaysLurking]

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A Raleigh logger must pay $95,000 after his business cut down a tree where bald eagles nested, a federal judge ruled.

David Norwood, 46, could have faced up to a year in prison, a $100,000 fine and a year of supervised release for violating the federal Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.

[AlwaysLurking]

Am I crazy or is this crazy???

"Norwood was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and donate $90,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a private nonprofit conservation group. He also got six months of house arrest and two years of probation."

And we wonder why businesses fail!

[Willie Green]

"I think I was treated fairly," Norwood said Friday, the day after he was sentenced in Elizabeth City. "I made a dumb mistake."

Mr. Norwood has no objections. Why do you?

[Chad Fairbanks]

Yes, but gotta give the guyy credit - he owned up to it and took responsibility...

[Mr. K]

and he thinks he was treated FAIRLY?????

"thank you sir, may i have another"

[gundog]

Am I crazy or is this crazy???

Can't speak to the former, but the latter doesn't seem to bother the logger as much as it does you. You ever seen an eagle's nest? They're freakin' huge. Safe to say people will look up before they cut trees thereabouts.

[AlwaysLurking]

He got six months of house arrest for cutting a tree as part of his business that just HAPPENED to have a frickin nest in it?????

This is NUTS! It is the greenie wackos taking money that is not theirs to advance their agenda from those who work for a living!

[DWSUWF]

"..."I think I was treated fairly," Norwood said Friday, the day after he was sentenced in Elizabeth City. "I made a dumb mistake."..."

"Treated Fairly"?

Robbed of $95,000.00 for cutting down a tree with a bird's nest in it?

And accidentally at that?

And he thinks that he was "Treated Fairly"?

Norwood is a sheep.

[Slyfox]

Bald eagles are a threatened species protected by the federal act and state law, which makes it illegal to kill them or disturb their nests...Norwood was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and donate $90,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a private nonprofit conservation group. He also got six months of house arrest and two years of probation.

Ah....too bad human babies were not considered as valuable...and abortionists getting house arrest and having to pay their local pro-life pregnancy center $90,000?

Fat chance.

[AlwaysLurking]

Yes! I have seen an eagles nest...

But that is totally beside the point....this poor guy has been pussy whipped in to shape by the envior wackos....and so apparently have you!

He was clearing a huge area as part of his business....was he going to leave that one sole tree standing in the middle of a houseing complex ot parking lot???

Let's stop progress for a nest....and while we are at it let's confiscate $95,000 of someone elses hard earned money!

[AlwaysLurking]

YES! You get it!!!!

I was getting worried at the level of sense amoung the Freepers!

[RJCogburn]

Here in Manchester, NH, there is a plan to build a new road to our rapidly growing airport. A few years ago, a 'nesting pair' of eagle set up in a tree by the river near the planned road. The route had to be moved a ways so as not to 'disturb' the little birdies....they are said to return to the same nest every year to reproduce and raise their young. The cost to change the planned route was just a few million dollars.

After a couple of years, but before construction began, the eagles left for other parts.

It is completely crazy.

Meanwhile, there is a plan to widen the interstate that heads from here to Boston. The enviros are worried that this will destroy a 'habitat' for wild lupines that grow in open areas along the road.

It has been pointed out that there is nothing special about the area except that it is open, as road are. Further, one can buy seeds for this plant and so seed them elsewhere.

It is completely crazy.

[vbmoneyspender]

Norwood was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and donate $90,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation . . . .

Why didn't the judge just order the guy to pay the $90,000 to the Democratic Party. There are the same thing, so it wouldn't have really mattered.

BTW, care to guess as to how much time the guy would have gotten if his employees had accidently damaged somebody's home. I am quite certain he wouldn't have had to do any time at all and insurance would have take care of the damage.

[Double Tap]

Your not crazy. But from some of the replies here, I can think of a few on FR who are.

[AlwaysLurking]

Yeah, good point, I don't think there is any insurance to protect business owners from envior wackos! The premiums would be sky high!

I am so over the hammerlock these people have put this country in!

[Chad Fairbanks]

Lupines? I'm sick to death o' Lupins...

[Mo1]

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[Sacajaweau]

Amazing, that a couple of folks spotted the nest, isn't it. It wouldn't surprise me if it was a plant by the enviros!! They have a good fix on these nests. Why didn't they stop it BEFORE it happened????

Think about it!!! The Dems must have something else on this guy.

[Willie Green]

He got six months of house arrest for cutting a tree as part of his business that just HAPPENED to have a frickin nest in it?????

What do you consider appropriate punishment for disturbance of nesting bald eagles?

[par4]

LOL - I'd almost forgotten about that.....

[Sacajaweau]

$90,000 check is in the mail to the Dems, less $10,000 finders fee.

I'd really like to see what contributions were made by this group, through whom and to whom.

[vbmoneyspender]

What do you consider appropriate punishment for disturbance of nesting bald eagles?

To be forced to read 10 of your posts about corporate job cuts.

[RightWhale]

Am I crazy or is this crazy???

Probably neither. The logger should have left that tree standing. Eventually a windstorm would have taken down the exposed tree or blown the nest into the next county, but that's Nature's Way. Everybody likes eagles, or at least likes the idea of eagles, even though eagles themselves are nasty seen up close. Would it hurt to take a look around before raping and pillagingharvesting the stand?

[AlwaysLurking]

I don't think there should be ANY punishment for disturbing the nest, if it is done BY ACCIDENT and not malicious!

$95,000, six months of no ability to work, and 2 years of some greenie wacko looking over your shoulder????

Totally and completly out of the realm of sensible "justice"!

[gundog]

He was clearing a huge area as part of his business...

Part of his business is knowing how to avoid hassles like this. The enviros didn't start up last week...what he did has been illegal for 30 years.

More likely the land was being cleared to replant...you live closer, perhaps you have more info?...leaving trees is not unheard of in Oregon.

[Bobby777]

agreed ... it was an accident ... unless I misread the article none were hurt ... they showed a farmer on TV one night who couldn't develop his land ... the problem? ... fairy shrimp ... yep, fairy shrimp ... they live in mud puddles ... one was by a tire track ... I'm not sure exactly but from the film, they looked like they might be about a 1/2 inch long ... now, it's a "protected wildlife reserve" ... mud puddles ... federally-protected mud puddles ...

[GirlShortstop]

Let's stop progress for a nest...      Progress is gauged, or based upon whether a tree is left standing?  C'mon, simmer down now.   :-)

The logger should have left that tree standing....<snip>  Nature's Way.     Well stated RW.

[vbmoneyspender]

apparently there are bunch of pinheads on this thread who can't understand that it is outrageous for someone to have to go to jail for accidentally chopping down an eagle's nest. If this guy had accidently run into a cow, would the eco-meisterss on this thread be suggesting that the guy go to jail? Maybe so.

[AlwaysLurking]

Whatever....my faith in Freepers has been eroded today!

[DWSUWF]

The G.D. communists in our midst are working overtime to overturn our Constitution and our way of life.

One of the tools they employ is to manipulate people and events over long periods of time with the goal of turning our culture, and its values, on its head.

When I was a kid babies were more precious to their mothers than her life was.

Beloved family pets were treated at least decently by absolute strangers.

And bugs in a mud puddle risked being squished without even being noticed.

Now we live in the middle of an American Holocaust with 30 million murdered and counting, Beloved family pets are butchered by out of control jack-booted thugs and a damn mud puddle shrimp enjoys the protection of the most powerful nation-state this planet has ever known.

The world's gone mad.

Thank God we know who's to blame...

Now all we need is to whip up a little red-meat resistance to them.

[AlwaysLurking]

It seems that the envior nuts have made more progress in their propaganda then I had ever realized!

This story shows that the judicary is actively fundraising for the PC/Enviornmental crowd! It is dusgusting!

[Bobby777]

One of the tools they employ is to manipulate people and events over long periods of time with the goal of turning our culture, and its values, on its head.

and this is happening in many ways ... it's one thing to adapt to change ... there are tons of groups working to make the USA a third-world nation ... instead of raising the standard of living in other countries, their goal is to cripple it here ...

[LibKill]

This ain't right.

I value the Bald Eagle as much as any patriotic American, but this was an accident. It's not as if he saw an eagle perched on a limb, identified it and blasted it with a shotgun.

He says that he was treated fairly. It may be part of his plea-bargain that he says so publicly.

[RightWhale]

my faith in Freepers has been eroded today!

Let's restore the universe to a balance: the State of Alaska claims to own the resources of Alaska, ownership implies responsibility for management of the resources, responsibility implies the State of Alaska shall build the Natural Gas Pipeline rather than wait for the private sector.

The voters of Alaska recently approved this induction. The Alaska Pipeline Authority is preparing to swing into action.

A speech at the CoC this week presented all the logic and then arrived at this surprising and most illogical conclusion--the State shall develop, build, and operate the Natural Gas Pipeline now whether it is economically feasible or not. Some may view Alaska as the last bulwark of free enterprise, but a sober assessment would compare Alaska to Venezuela--Government owns all. It's not capitalism, it's not fascism, hmm, what other system could it be?

[DWSUWF]

"...their goal is to cripple it here..."

When I was a kid there was a book: 'NONE DARE CALL IT TREASON'.

That title describes to a 'T' what is going on, 'hidden out in the open', in America today.

[af_vet_rr]

Yes, but gotta give the guyy credit - he owned up to it and took responsibility...

The costs are extreme, way extreme, but on the other hand it was a bald eagle and maybe he felt guilty about it. Some people are big on symbols. But I do give the guy credit for owning up to it.

[DWSUWF]

"...He says that he was treated fairly. It may be part of his plea-bargain that he says so publicly..."

The left has always delighted in clumsy, "Say it and it's so" attempts to manipulate reality by imposing just this sort of public self-humiliation on their victims...

This may well be a good catch by you.

[AlwaysLurking]

RightWhale...was that suppose to make me feel BETTER??

LOL!!

sigh...we conservatives have SO much work to do....

[Willie Green]

I don't think there should be ANY punishment for disturbing the nest, if it is done BY ACCIDENT and not malicious!

Sounds like a flimsy excuse for irresponsible negligence.

[Drippy]

"I made a dumb mistake."

Just for the record,I don't see the word "accident" anywhere within the text of this article.If it was an accident I would think this guy would have fought this hefty fine to the bitter end.And if the guy did not actually know of the existence of the Eagle's nest I would say he really got screwed.

[Byron_the_Aussie]

..I think I was treated fairly," Norwood said Friday...

Sheesh.

You need to get a pair, Norwood.

[Rocketwolf68]

Obviously this guy did not look up at the tree or he would have seen the nest. The eagle is our national symbol and we do need to watch out for her. We can protect species and habitats without being environmentalist wackos.

[gundog]

Amen; reconsidering my earlier post, it has probably been illegal to harass bald eales for a hell of a lot longer than the existence of the ESA.

[dfwgator]

Dennis Moore, Dennis Moore,
Riding through the night.
Soon every lupin in the land
Will be in his mighty hand
He steals them from the rich
And gives them to the poor
Mr Moore, Mr Moore, Mr Moore