I have always been in support of the Endangered Species Act with respect to its original intent: to prevent species from going extinct. Those good intentions notwithstanding, judges, politicians, and activists, have made a mess of the Act and Santa Barbara County offers two good examples of the same.
Do you remember the wind farm that was constructed in Lompoc? Well, the project applicants, while in the process of getting the project permitted in 2023, forgot to ask the feds for permission to kill protected species (known as an incidental take permit) such as golden eagles. That is, so-called green energy projects are allowed to kill species otherwise protected by the law because these projects are supposedly saving the planet. The EIR for the project required the take permit to be obtained before the project could commence operation.
To get around the lack of the incidental take permit, the county planning commission added additional language to the conditions of approval for the project. Namely, the additional requirements would provide protection for eagles, including (but not limited to) installing active control technology such as IdentiFlight, and implementing monitoring and adaptive management. Upon a first eagle mortality, carcass search frequency would be increased. A second eagle mortality would trigger measures to reduce fatalities, i.e., habitat modifications, project modifications, selective curtailment, and/or increasing cut-in speeds.
Well, after all that, the powers that be pulled a rabbit out of their hat! The USFWS sent a letter saying they were certain that the incidental take permit would be issued and, voila, the applicant and the county magically erased the additional requirements that had officially been tacked onto the project.
A draft of the letter indicating the feds would grant the take permit was sent to the project applicant for their approval!
That is when the dirtiest deed of all occurred.
The original draft letter, which USFWS forwarded to Baywa (the operator) as a courtesy, included the embarrassing and troubling expected mortality of 12-14 eagles per year! Baywa asked that this information be excluded from the final letter and the USFWS complied with the request. That begs the question, is there a limit imposed on the project regarding the deaths of Golden Eagles?
Well, fast forward to 2026, the Audubon Society believes the wind farm may have killed upwards of 29 golden eagles among many other species, which means the estimate of 12-14 eagle deaths per year was spot on! The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act makes killing bald and golden eagles illegal. So, what has the county, state, and feds, done about this slaughter?
Absolutely nothing.
Protection of Non-Existent Fish
The other endangered species case that I would like to focus on has to do with steelhead fish, which are the ocean-going brethren of rainbow trout, who later in life return to onshore riparian corridors to spawn. Rainbow trout, on the other hand, are content to stay onshore their entire lives.
The Santa Maria River, which is dry almost all year long, was nonetheless declared steelhead habitat along with most other rivers in Southern CA. That means the feds claim that these fish use the “waters” of the river to return to spawning grounds in the upper reaches of the Sisquoc River (as is the other river that makes up the Santa Maria River, the Cuyama River, is blocked by a dam). Never mind that these fish haven’t been seen in that river since the 1940s.
A couple of reasons for the disappearance of these migrating fish? Well, first, the fish runs on the Santa Maria River and the Santa Ynez River, were never entirely natural to begin with. Upwards of one million juvenile trout were transported and planted every year to the upper reaches of these rivers combined. Second, the construction of dams restricted access to spawning grounds. Third, the flows on these rivers decreased substantially as our population and irrigated acres of farm ground grew, resulting in water tables dropping. That is, as urbanites and farmers drew down the water table, the water in the rivers percolated so much more rapidly that less water makes it to the ocean to facilitate migration for spawning. Finally, as it relates to the waters of the Santa Maria River, steelhead trout require clean cold water to survive. The waters of the Santa Maria River are almost always filled with dirt and debris, which are hazardous to the fish.
The designation of the river corridor (most of which is privately owned) as habitat has cost our economy tens of millions of dollars in terms of water supplies, flood control efforts, restrictions on farming and ranching, in addition to impacts to the aggregate industry.
The organization I work for, COLAB, along with the County Farm Bureau and the County Cattlemen’s Association, are asking the feds to admit they made a big mistake by designating the Santa Maria River as habitat. Our petition and the science to back it up are being presented to the feds by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a phenomenal organization that has been fighting against punitive government overreach for decades, and which has amassed an unparalleled win streak at the U.S. Supreme Court.
There are plenty of dead eagles to prove our case in Lompoc, while on the Santa Maria River the feds are protecting phantom fish to no avail.