A Line in the Sand

About 400 opponents of the federal government's proposed listing of the dunes sagebrush lizard as an endangered species delivered a full-throated protest at a rally here in the hour before a Fish and Wildlife Service public hearing on the plan. "Enough is enough," shouted New Mexico Rep. Steve Pearce, a headliner at the rally organized by oil industry employees, concerned citizens and officials of area chambers of commerce. "Enough is enough." Several speakers, including Pearce, asserted that the yearslong effort by conservationists to have the dunes sagebrush lizard, also known as the sand dune lizard, listed as an endangered species was not aimed at protecting an embattled species, but at destroying a way of life. "The agenda here is not actually the lizard," said state Rep. Bob Wooley of Carlsbad. "It's to get us off the land and take our jobs away." Marita Noon, executive director of the Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy, an industry advocacy group, said those seeking the listing of the dunes sagebrush lizard, which lives only in sand dunes in four southeast New Mexico counties and parts of West Texas, were "trying to destroy America. ... That is their goal."...more