Beware knee-jerk reactions to salmon listing

By BRENT D. BOGER
Pacific Legal Foundation

I am concerned. From what I have read in the popular press lately, the world and mankind are facing unprecedented threats, an environmental Armageddon if you will.

The other day I heard a meteorologist conjecture that our world's dependence on fossil fuels, and the automobile, have led to a hole in the ozone layer. The hole, he surmised, may have caused global warming and the deadly July 1998 heat wave in Texas and the killer flash-flooding in Tennessee.

In fact, Vice President Al Gore minced no words blaming the Texas heat and the Florida wildfires on global warming, making the fantastic assertion that July stood a good chance of being the warmest month recorded on the planet for the past 600 years. But this isn't all. According to him the web of life is on the brink of destruction.

Despite what the vice president says, there is no objective, nonpartisan science validating any of these disaster conclusions. I am concerned, however, that our local politicians, similar to Al Gore, will attempt to address environmental issues with careless reactions that completely ignore the rights of the individual under our constitution and amount to an exemption to the use of common sense.

Examples from the Pacific Northwest lead me to fear the common sense exemptions already may be in place.

Oregon's salmon plan

For example, Oregon has been working for months to provide an effective, balanced restoration plan for the coho salmon. To the state's great surprise, the National Marine Fisheries Service recently presented it with a draft document detailing its decision to forgo Oregon's restoration planning process and replace it with a federally mandated plan.

Reportedly, under the federal plan, 40 to 50 percent of the existing private property will be off limits to timber harvesting. Of course the federal government is not proposing any mechanism to help the economically injured private landowner.

The 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says that private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation. But the government contends it does not need to provide any compensation when the landowners still have 50 percent of their land and trees.

As a result of this federal failure to recognize and balance all public interests, including private property rights and local economies, NMFS has guaranteed distrust, antagonism and disruptive lawsuits. Where is the common sense in that approach?

Knee-jerk proposals

The state of Washington, and in particular the Puget Sound area, is having its own endangered salmon problems. Many people expect that by next March, the Chinook Salmon will be listed as an endangered or threatened species under the federal Endangered Species Act by NMFS.

In anticipation of the listing, we are witnessing regrettable knee-jerk proposals by some of the local politicians that disregard the multitude of public interests that must be considered and balanced during government decision making.

Recently at a "Salmon in the City" conference attended by area scientists, engineers and technicians, Commission of Public Lands Jennifer M. Belcher decried the influx of new residents into the Puget Sound area. She was quoted as saying that the counties should resist the state Growth Management Act's mandates that they make plans to accommodate rapid population growth.

As Belcher put it, planning the population growth is going to keep us from being successful about saving salmon. The irony of this statement is sharp because the GMA was designed to protect our environmental resources by discouraging rural development and channeling it and population growth into urban areas.

Now the Public Lands Commissioner wants to not only keep people out of rural Washington but also urban Washington. Where else will our children live?

I find this kind of reaction lamentable and very short-sighted. Such reactions to perceived emergencies throw out all precepts of common sense in an effort to "protect us from ourselves." Unfortunately, such ill-conceived solutions also create many more problems than they solve.

Let's admit it. Growth is inevitable. It is also necessary to maintain a healthy economy. With a healthy economy, we have a better adjusted and satisfied public that is willing and able to provide resources for environmental protection and natural resources conservation.

People need a place to live, and businesses need a place to operate. The key isn't how to keep them out, but how to accommodate them in the most appropriate manner that balances their economic, social and individual rights with society's interests in preserving the Chinook salmon and all other natural resources.

I hope the Public Lands Commissioner and NMFS come to realize that putting the needs of the salmon above all other Puget Sound interests will not solve the problem. It will abridge property rights, injure the economy, cost jobs, and most of all, result in regional antagonism towards species preservation efforts.

Common sense tells you that if the interests of preserving the Chinook are to be successfully served, all other inextricably interrelated interests must also be served.

Let's hope this fact gets through to the decision makers.

Copyright © 1998 Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.