Floyd Rathbun

Floyd Rathbun said...in response to DuBois column

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.