Proposal to protect fisher cites pot farm threat

Citing a threat from rat poison used on illegal marijuana plantations, federal biologists on Monday proposed Endangered Species Act protection for West Coast populations of the fisher, a larger cousin of the weasel. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published notice in the Federal Register that it wants to list the fisher as a threatened species in Oregon, California and Washington. The full proposal was expected Tuesday. The fisher is the second species in the West for which biologists have formally recognized a threat from marijuana cultivation. A recovery plan for coho salmon calls for reducing pollution from pesticides and fertilizers used on pot plantations...Scientists are also working to see how much the poisons are affecting the northern spotted owl...more

The feds can't manage their own lands which then creates a threat to a species.  The feds  then designate the species and identify critical habitat, which then punishes the legal users of the federal land and any private land owner in the area.  Nice work.