There
are all types of virus out there.
Jaguar
habitat virus
In 2014 the United States Fish & Wildlife Service
(USFWS) designated 764,287 acres in Arizona and New Mexico as critical habitat
for the jaguar. The area designated was divided into six units, with units 5
and 6 affecting New Mexico. The Peloncillo Unit (Unit 5) covers 102,724 acres
in Cochise County, Arizona and Hidalgo County, New Mexico. Unit 6 covers 7,714
acres in the San Luis Mountains in Hidalgo County, New Mexico.
What is the cure for this virus?
The New Mexico Cattle Growers, the New Mexico Farm
& Livestock Bureau and the New Mexico Federal Lands Council filed a lawsuit
against the USFWS’s designation of Unit 5 and Unit 6.
In their lawsuit against this particular virus, the
industry (represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation) argued that since Units
5 and 6 are “secondary”, “marginal” habitat and make up only a small portion of
the jaguar’s range, they cannot be considered essential for the conservation of
the species. And they lost on this issue.
The industry also argued the USFWS failed to include a
“point” where the methods and procedures employed “are no longer necessary.”
And they lost.
However, the Tenth Circuit ruled the agency did not
comply with its obligation to designate unoccupied critical habitat “only when
a designation limited to its present range would be inadequate to ensure the
conservation of the species.” By not following their own regulations, the court
ruled the designation of Units 5 and 6 was “arbitrary and capricious” and thus
illegal.
Let’s consider this a temporary cure for the Jaguar
habitat virus.
Climate
Change virus.
The airlines industry is reportedly requesting $50
billion in federal assistance to help it recover from damage caused by the coronavirus.
Writing in The Hill, an attorney for
the Environmental Defense Fund has recommended that any such assistance should
require the airlines to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by fifty percent by
2050. The author also writes that one way for Congress “to enforce this
commitment would be for Congress to require that airlines accessing bailout
funds file and maintain plans for how to achieve these commitments — and really
achieve them — as a condition of receiving and maintaining their air carrier
and operating certificates from the Department of Transportation (DOT) and
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).”
Both the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and
R-Calf have called for federal assistance to livestock producers. What if the
enviros lobby for requirements that every grazing permittee must reduce the
greenhouse gas emissions associated with their allotment by fifty percent, and
that Congress should enforce this by requiring those who receive these funds
prepare and follow a plan to accomplish this, and make this a requirement for
receiving their permits from BLM or the Forest Service?
You better watch out for this virus. You may have more
in common with Southwest, Delta and American Airlines than you thought.
Recreation
economy virus
Some states will be hit harder than others in the
economic chaos being caused by the coronavirus. The Economic Policy Institute
recently prepared an analysis predicting job losses in each state by this
summer. And guess what? New Mexico made the top ten, with an estimated 29,016
jobs lost. Why this high a figure? Because 28.2 percent of our jobs are in the
leisure, hospitality and other tourist-associated industries. Those are the
areas that will be hardest hit.
One reason New Mexico is so vulnerable is because of
its support for Senator Martin Heinrich’s continuous calls for a transition to
a recreation economy. The Senator has successfully pushed legislation that
either prevents or severely limits the ability to mine for minerals, harvest
timber or graze livestock. Heinrich insists these job losses will be replaced
by jobs in the outdoor recreation industry. New Mexico is now paying the cost
of following Heinrich’s prescriptions.
H2A
virus
Plastic bag virus
Our friend at the Rio Grande Foundation, Paul Gessing, is a talented virus hunter. This time he is stalking the bans on plastic bags. Gessing has donned his most famous hunting cap, the one that says RESEARCH across the front, and explains why the reusable cloth bags are so unsafe. In 2018 Loma Linda University conducted an experiment whereby a reusable bag was “contaminated” with a harmless virus. The researches then tracked the virus while a single shopper went through a grocery store. Here is what they found: “The data show that MS2 spread to all surfaces touched by the shopper; the highest concentration occurred on the shopper’s hands, the checkout stand, and the clerk’s hands.” Gessing also cites a peer reviewed study in Oregon that documented a reusable grocery bag was the point source in an actual virus outbreak in the Pacific Northwest. No wonder he thinks there should at least be a temporary waiver of the bans on plastic bags!
I’ve run out of time and space to diagnose the Red Tape Virus and the Deficit Virus, but rest assured your favorite cowboy physician will bring to light these and other threats to our wellbeing.
Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch.
Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of
Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com)
and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western
Heritage Foundation
This column originally appeared in the April issues of The New Mexico Stockman and The Livestock Market Digest.
This column originally appeared in the April issues of The New Mexico Stockman and The Livestock Market Digest.
1 comment:
I agree with each of the topics as being a picture of disease and the comments are right on.
For example, sheep ranches in Nevada depend on foreign nationals as sheep herders. At this time most are from Peru. In a meeting with the Department of Labor a couple of years ago the goofy DOL big shot was so impressed that he could speak some Spanish that he didn't comprehend the descriptions of the care each ranch provides for their employees. Herders generally have a close working relationship and nearly family like affiliation for each ranch with some of the men being employed by the same ranch for 20 or 30 years. The DOL meetings resulted in huge increases in labor costs being demanded by the United States government and the only thing proposed but not enforced was their initial demand for running water and indoor toilets in every sheepherder tent. (Much to the relief of the burros who would have to pack the government approved facilities)
Endangered Species Act recovery plans and critical habitat designation should be defeated with a challenge that the Primary Constituent Elements (USFWS phrase abbreviated PCE) are not present so a given area will not meet the biological needs of the species and will not support life history functions. At this time, in our area, Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep and sage grouse habitats are delineated by federal wildlife biologists based on how the feel about the areas. They are not required to provide clear definition or quantification of PCEs and have only had to give lip service to the concept. Consequently we have ephemeral streams classified as critical habitat for trout even during the years the creeks are dry. There may be another way to clarify how the "habitat" is identified since the area is recognized by the presence of biologists but not by the presence of the species it would appear, for example, that we don't have mere Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep habitat but instead we have really spectacular Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep Biologist Habitat. The same classification can be applied to about any species.
There may be some strong medicine in the works for these virus diseases in the form of the US Supreme Court finally reversing the Chevron Deference standards that have let the federal employees avoid being accountable for their lack of honesty and ethics while calling themselves scientists. That won't solve the whole problem but is a good start.
Post a Comment