18 June 2005

Chairman Richard Pombo 
Committee on Resources
US House of Representatives
1324 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515


Dear Chairman Pombo:


The only proper reform of the expired Endangered Species Act, is total
REPEAL of the Endangered Species Act, with immediate and full restitution to
the many people and businesses which the Act has harmed.

The Environmental Movement is the modern home of the Communist Party in the
United States of America.  The Endangered Species Act is a big and powerful
tool which the Environmental Movement uses to tear down America’s
Constitutional government and impose the bankrupt policies of Socialism, and
is a mechanism of fund-raising for environmental organizations.  Enactment
and application of the Endangered Species Act directly violates the 10th
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The ‘partnership/stakeholding/Non-Governmental Organizations’ bureaucracy
apparatus, which was declared as the proper ‘environmental’ methodology in
United Nations’ Agenda 21, is illegal as it usurps voting powers on property
rights issues, makes it impossible to tabulate the amount of land that land
trusts and environmental ‘non-profits’ actually have, and also ensures that
those organizations are virtually unregulated.

The Endangered Species Act is a vehicle through which productive Americans
are punished for their productivity.  The Endangered Species Act, in both
content and application, is not about ‘saving’ species, which is the same as
attempting to stop natural evolution.  The Endangered Species Act is about
shutting down productive use of land, running people off their land, and
enlarging the government estate.

The Endangered Species Act has wasted enormous money and resources and
accomplished almost nothing of value.  The Endangered Species Act has
further corrupted our U.S. Constitution.  The Endangered Species Act is a
failure at saving species.  There is no valid reason for fixing or retaining
the Endangered Species Act.  The expired Endangered Species Act must be
REPEALED.

While you work toward total REPEAL of the expired Endangered Species Act,
there are many changes that need to be made.  Here are some of the necessary
changes:

1)     Stop ALL transfer of wealth and property, for ’species’ projects,
from the federal government to state and local governments, and to
individuals and private organizations.  Environmental organizations, land
trusts, state conservation and wildlife agencies, and the like, must not
receive any federal public money, for any reason.  That includes ending
reimbursement of legal costs of organizations that sue a government agency
for ‘species’ reasons, and for all other ’environmental’ reasons.  A judge
is not a wildlife biologist and ought not make any decision regarding
species recovery.  Ending transfer of money and property also includes
stopping all grants to universities and other institutions for research on
‘endangered species’ and issues related to ‘endangered’ species and for
related issues including ‘threatened,’ and ‘invasive’ species and general
‘environmental‘ issues.

2)     End the practice of tax-exemption for environmental organizations,
land trusts, and federal agencies.  All organizations that own or control
land must pay, to the county or city in which the land is located, the same
yearly property tax money that would be paid by private property owners on
the same land.  That includes payment to Counties by federal agencies such
as the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.  The tax exemption on
income must be ended for land trusts and so-called ‘not-for-profit’
environmental organizations, some of which have enormous yearly income and
vast property holdings that are not now taxed.

3)     Outlaw ‘regulatory takings’ of privately owned land and property.  If
there is a valid reason for denying the use of a landowner’s property to aid
in the recovery of a plant or animal, negotiate (do not coerce) with the
landowner for a short-term lease and land rental fee to be paid for the
recovery use.  If recovery is important enough to be worth shutting down
private land, then recovery is worth paying the landowner for the PRIVILEGE
of using that land for a government-sponsored species recovery program. 
Restitution must be made immediately for ’regulatory takings’ which have
already happened.  The current application of ‘regulatory takings’ is
nothing more than un-Constitutional theft of private property, which ought
to result in fines and prison time for the environmental organizations
people and government agency people involved in that theft.  Landowners must
be allies in the process of recovering species. They must not be forced to
do it with government guns to their heads.

4)     Land which is legitimately needed for an environmental project, or
for any other government project such as a highway or reservoir, must be
LEASED (not purchased) in almost all situations, with payment to the
landowner for the privilege of using privately owned land, and with title to
the land and property tax liability remaining with the private landowner. 
Income to the landowner must be exempt from taxation.  If there is a
continuing yearly cost to pay when a government agency uses privately owned
land, there will be much less incentive for the agency to acquire and hold
large areas of private land..

5)     Species must not be listed as ‘endangered’ or ‘threatened’ or in any
other category of concern, simply because they are decreasing in number in
one area, when they exist in large numbers elsewhere.  To list a bird as
‘endangered’ in California, when large flocks of the same bird numbering
hundreds of thousands of individuals live in Baja California, is dishonest
and a corruption of the legal process.  Unfortunately, this is commonly
done.  There must be consideration of protection only for species, not for
sub-species, varieties, local population segments and other phony categories
useful only for shutting down use of land.

6)     There must be severe penalties for individuals and organizations that
transplant ‘endangered’ or ‘threatened’ species, including fur, feathers and
other body parts cited as evidence of the species’ alleged presence, for the
purpose of shutting down use of a forest, stopping housing construction, or
for any other reason.

7)     Economic Impact Analysis must be part of the process.  Shutting down
the economy of an entire region to ‘save’ some creature is an abomination.
If the creature is living there it is adapted to local conditions, including
human presence and economic activity.  Demanding that all logging stop in
Northwestern forests to ‘save’ the Spotted owl is not species recovery, it
is application of Socialist political agenda designed to drive people and
business out of the area and increase government ownership and control of
the land.  Critical Habitat designations that shut down use of thousands or
millions of acres of land for the supposed benefit of some bird or beast are
an abomination, and doubly so when the designation is made on the basis that
habitat is merely ‘suitable’ -- even though the creature does not live there
now and has not lived there during all of recorded history.  Breaching dams
and infrastructure destruction for the supposed benefit of a creature must
not be allowed.  Yes, local economies really ARE of higher priority than
making life comfortable for some bird or fish.  If a species is listed as
‘endangered’ or another category of concern, and later it is determined that
the listing was in error, all persons and agencies that participated in the
listing must be responsible for paying restitution to persons, businesses,
communities and others who suffered economic or other harm because of the
erroneous listing and the resulting restrictions and enforcement actions.

8)     A sunset provision must be added to the ESA, so the Act expires after
5 years and cannot be extended or funded unless re-authorized by a recorded
vote of all members of Congress.  The phony ’Unanimous Consent’ ploy must be
forbidden for re-authorization of all ’species’ legislation.  Require
species to be re-listed, or permanently dropped from the list, after 10
years.  The general primacy of state authority over wildlife should be
recognized in the ESA.

9)     Include landowners in decision-making.  Operate under an ironclad
no-net-loss of private property provision.  Eminent Domain and other
legalized property theft is entirely inappropriate for environmental and
‘species‘ projects.  Stealing land through legal and regulatory means is
still stealing, is forbidden, and must result in fines and prison time for
government personnel and agencies attempting to acquire the land, neither of
which penalties can be plea-bargained away.

10)    Most major environmental organizations support Socialist policies
regarding land ownership and use.  Those policies are in opposition to the
principles of American Constitutional government.  Environmental
organizations that support Socialist policies must be publicly identified,
eliminated from receiving any money or assistance from federal agencies, and
their members must be immediately and permanently removed from federal,
state and local government employment.

11)    End the practice of ‘re-introducing’ creatures, dangerous creatures
in particular.  Introducing wolves, bears, panthers, rattlesnakes and
similar dangerous creatures is both expensive and destructive.  Wolves were
eliminated from most States for good reasons that remain valid today. 
Identify the private and government agencies responsible for re-introducing
dangerous creatures, and make the agencies and the individual people who
re-introduced the dangerous creatures PERSONALLY responsible for death,
destruction and damage which result from their actions.  Large fines and
prison time are appropriate, especially in cases of death or personal injury
caused by the dangerous re-introduced creatures.  If wolves, cougars or
Grizzly bears are in conflict with people and livestock, it is the wolves,
cougars and bears that must go, and the persons responsible for
re-introducing the wolves, cougars or bears must be legally responsible for
paying restitution to victims and for PERSONALLY guarding hikers and
livestock until the dangerous animals are gone.

12)    Apply species actions uniformly.  Don’t exempt eastern places such as
New York City or Washington D.C. from species enforcement actions that are
presently applied only to Western states.

13)    If declining species are worth ‘saving,’ breed them for release.  It
is generally inexpensive and effective to set up a captive breeding program
to increase numbers of a creature and then release the captive-bred
creatures back into their native area.  Salmon are an example.  Hatcheries
produce salmon by the gazillions and return the fish to their native
streams, very successfully and inexpensively.  The current use of the
Endangered Species Act to shut down all human contact with a stream, and
even within the entire watershed feeding the stream, on the theory that
salmon numbers will increase, is wasteful, ridiculous, immoral, criminal,
and un-Constitutional.  It also is ineffective and very costly.

14)    International ‘species’ treaties and agreements must be forbidden,
and existing treaties and agreements, and U.S. domestic laws and regulations
based upon those international treaties and agreements, must be immediately
terminated.  Environmental and species treaties and agreements are created
to circumvent the U.S. Constitution and empower federal authorities to act
in violation of the Tenth Amendment.  Governments may cooperate with regard
to migratory species and other creatures of mutual interest, but must never
be allowed to make treaties or other formal agreements that can be used to
expand government power under the guise of species management, or that can
be used in any manner to degrade Constitutional protections.  Repeal of
treaties and international agreements, and repeal of laws and regulations
based upon those treaties and agreements, is a high-priority item that must
be addressed and completed within five years, and finished no later than
December 31 of the year 2010.

THIS LETTER IS TO BE ENTERED INTO THE COMMITTEE’S HEARINGS AS TESTIMONY FROM A CONCERNED CITIZEN.