[Sosfbay-discuss] San Mateo County Supervisors support ESA

[Wes Rolley]

Good news here:  I would like to hear the Santa Clara County Supervisors 
take this on also. Story at KPIX (CBS5)  
http://cbs5.com/topstories/local_story_031143923.html.
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SAN MATEO/ In a unanimous vote, the San Mateo County Board of 
Supervisors adopted a resolution Tuesday in support of the Endangered 
Species Act.

The 33-year-old act "provides for the conservation of species that are 
endangered or threatened with extinction and the conservation of the 
ecosystems on which they depend," according to Supervisor Jerry Hill.

Since it was passed in 1973, the act has worked as a "safety net" 
helping to protect many species on the brink of extinction, Hill said. 
"This community has demonstrated time and again its commitment to 
protecting the environment."

The San Bruno Mountain Park houses several endangered species including, 
the San Bruno Elfin, Mission Blue, Callippe Silverspot, and Bay 
Checkerspot butterflies, according to the San Mateo County Web site.

Another threatened species, the San Francisco Tree Lupin Moth, once 
inhabited San Bruno Mountain Park, but urban development decimated the 
population, according to the county Web site.

The Endangered Species Act has "done more to preserve the quality of 
life in San Mateo County," said Brent Plater, staff attorney for the 
Center of Biological Diversity.

Hill stated that "over 200 species in the Bay Area alone, many of them 
residing in San Mateo County refuges such as Montara Mountain, Edgewood 
Preserve, San Bruno Mountain and the wetlands of Rockaway beach and 
those adjacent to Belle Air Elementary School in San Bruno, are 
officially designated species of concern."

While many support the Endangered Species Act, U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, 
R-Tracy, has spearheaded legislation that looks to modify the act.

Pombo's bill, which was passed by the House in September, would revise 
various sections of the Endangered Species Act "relating to 
determinations of endangered or threatened species, recovery plans for 
such species, and the role of states and private property owners in 
protecting such species," according to the bill.

"The Endangered Species Act is not perfect, but gutting such a vital 
protection is not the answer," Hill said. "Protections are working."

Plater said there is other legislation currently in circulation that 
follows a similar path as Pombo's bill, but that Pombo's is "the most 
drastic."

"He has an ideological belief that endangered species should not be 
protected," Plater said.

More information on endangered species in San Mateo County can be found 
on the Web site, http://www.co.sanmateo.ca.us.

-- 
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente

Wes Rolley
http://www.refpub.com/
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