Taxpayers Are Building a $5 million Snack Bar
By Andy Caldwell
Years ago, I was a member of the Santa Barbara County tiger salamander recovery team. For reasons I will explain, I wasn’t all that concerned about the species as much as the 180,000 acres of mostly ag land the feds sought to tie up for its survival. What I learned during that time caused my head to explode when I recently read that the feds managed to extort $5 million from the Santa Maria airport to help “recover” the species.
Let’s discuss this colossal debacle.
If you remember the premise of the survival of the fittest from biology class, then you realize that some species are on the bottom rungs, so to speak, because they have zero predatory instincts and defensive capabilities. That would be the tiger salamander. Honestly, the only reason the species exists is to provide a slimy snack to birds, fish, frogs, and even other salamanders. When the salamanders are not being reared and eaten in vernal (seasonal) ponds, they go hide in a hole somewhere until the next procreation/snack cycle begins anew. This explains their abysmal 1-2% survival rate in the wild.
Besides predation, the other main reason for their pitiful survival rate here on the Central Coast has to do with the fact that we have few vernal pools to begin with, which rarely provide the 3-4 months of standing water required for the procreation/snack cycle to be completed. That is, we don’t have enough rain and subsequent ponding to facilitate the life cycle of these little varmints. Of course, if you were to travel to the land of 10,000 lakes, i.e., Minnesota, there is so much water and so many salamanders the locals sell them for fish bait! So, here $5 million of our tax dollars are being wasted on an “endangered” species that is so plentiful elsewhere you can buy them by the bucket in the springtime.
An Anti-Science Emergency Declaration
The great plan the feds came up with consists of burying 105 tubs on airport property to enable the breed stock to grow and reproduce sans any predation to increase their survival rate. Why bother? Once they are released in the wild, they will end up being eaten anyway!
This charade is a perfect example of why the Endangered Species Act needs to be revised. Please understand that what we are trying to save here isn’t really a species, it is a sub-species of a sub-species of a sub-species. That is, there are 740 different salamander species and gazillions of them exist in the wild with dozens of sub-species. Santa Barbara County salamanders are a puny sub-species of the California tiger salamanders sub-species. Again, the fact that they are considered endangered here on the Central Coast has to do with our lack of rainfall and subsequent vernal pool habitat formation.
Years ago, the species was listed by way of an emergency declaration, sans a scientific record to justify the same long before it was discovered that there are dozens of pools that can form in the region from time to time. The feds nonetheless slapped a 180,000-acre critical habitat designation to help the species survive by limiting development in the area, albeit critical habitat designations are not legally in effect unless there is a federal nexus to the project that could disturb the habitat.
This is how they nailed the airport. The airport is regulated by the federal government and by extension so was the farmer that leased ground from the airport. The feds claimed the farmer destroyed habitat and so the airport (read: taxpayers) had to pay a a steep $5 million price to help a slimy little snack survive a little while longer than normal. The feds needed money for their recovery program and unfortunately taxpayers got stuck with the bill.
Andy Caldwell, Executive Director, COLAB
This reminds me of the government/ environmentalist attempt to repopulate the often (usually) dry creeks of Southern and Central coastal California with steelhead trout. Many millions of taxpayer dollars have been expended with what evidence that it has made a difference?
These are all ways to launder money.
They don’t give 2 sh#s about nature.
But to your point they are Godless people who believe in evolution, survival of the fittest? Yet they refuse to allow nature to take its course, when they can steal tax payer monies.
Look at the marsh lands in Carp. The rich are now worried that “global warming” might sink their houses which they were told would be under water before they bought them. But hey they’re rich and deserve to deserve nature to save themselves.
Just like the CA $24 billion in homeless funding that is, well unaccounted for.
Homeless are another species that the corrupt have convinced the public to allow to be free range foraging through trash for food. They say it is inhumane to furce mentally ill, drug adducts into housing off the street away from violent predators where they will receive shelter, beds, three square meals/day and regular health care.
So Democrat Voters choose to protect the homeless habitats allowing them to set fires in the bushes, camp in front of your house or business.
I’m surprised no one has set up a feeding zoo like at 5he SB zoo. They’ll sell you mini bottles of alcohol do you can go feed the homeless. Wait , San Fran has already decided yo do this, they give homeless free alcohol.
Ok let’s call all this BS what it truly is, a way to launder money and steal from you & me. And the IRS wants to tell me how to run my business and extort money from me.
Criminal syndicate, called government.