La. landowners intend to file lawsuit over frog habitat

The owners of about 1,500 acres of land in St. Tammany Parish have put federal agencies on notice that they will file a lawsuit if the government does not reverse its designation of the property as critical habitat for the dusky gopher frog, a species that hasn't been seen in the wild in Louisiana in about 50 years. The intent-to-sue notifications, required before parties can sue over an Endangered Species Act regulation, were filed by Edward Poitevent II, whose family owns most of the property in question, and the Pacific Legal Foundation, which is representing land owner Markle Interests LLC, a company owned by cousins of Poitevent. Weyerhaeuser Co., which has a timber lease on the 1,544 acres and owns a small part of it, is preparing its own demand letter, Poitevent said. But Poitevent is under no illusion that the litigation warnings to Secretary of the Interior Kenneth L. Salazar and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Director Daniel M. Ashe, will trigger any action from the federal government. "I'm told that they ignore (such notifications) and never respond and most certainly don't reverse themselves." The case will undoubtedly be decided in the federal courts, perhaps ultimately in the U.S. Supreme Court, he said. "It could take three or four years." Under the law, a lawsuit can be filed 60 days after a notification is made. "This case is about a federal land grab in one parish in Louisiana -- but it's also about property rights from coast to coast," Pacific Legal Foundation attorney M. Reed Hopper said in a news release. "Never before have federal officials attempted to rope off private property as 'critical habitat' for a species, where the land is manifestly not suitable for that species."...more