Wildlife officials counter Pearce lizard claims

The fading dunes sagebrush lizard is no destroyer of jobs, staff members of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Tuesday. They criticized U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-NM, for claiming that federal protection for the small reptile would harm the oil and gas industry. "There's just no data to support that," said Charna Lefton, a spokeswoman for the wildlife service's regional office in Albuquerque. Pearce has been campaigning for two weeks against endangered species status for the dunes sagebrush lizard. It is found only in eight counties of New Mexico and West Texas, and its range has decreased from about 1 million acres to 600,000, Lefton said. Members of New Mexico's state forestry division said Pearce's claim about the timber industry declining because of protections for the owl was incorrect and oversimplified. Likewise, in a conference call with reporters, Lefton and Michelle Shaughnessy, an ecologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service, said enforcing the U.S. Endangered Species Act to help the lizard would not imperil jobs...more

Everybody knows that an endangered species designation doesn't cost jobs. For instance, just ask the folks in Oregon and California and I'm sure they will tell you they didn't lose a single sawmill or even one job because of the Northern Spotted Owl.

It's a shame the Carlsbad City Council and all those folks rallying in West Texas don't understand the listing of this little lizard will result in an economic boom for the region. Kind of an Obama-style economic stimulus for the oil patch don't you see.

Lizard layoffs? Naw, Obama and the USFWS will never let that happen.

I'm sure that the listing of this little lizard and similar actions by the feds will result in a huge decline in gas prices too.

And for the folks in our own Forestry division, you are right too - the timber industry is just going great guns in the Gila.

It's about time, though, the public realized the kind of employees we have in the Forestry Division. Notice the article says "members", so there's more than one. Were they speaking for the Governor in criticizing Pearce? Notice their names weren't given in the article. Did they speak to the reporter but not for attribution? They say Pearce's statement was "incorrect" and "oversimplified".

I say they are incorrectly employed and Governor Martinez should a apply a simple solution - turn them loose from state government so they can work for the enviro organizations they are currently working for but at our expense.