NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A property rights nonprofit claims federal wildlife officials made an illegal land grab by listing 1,500 acres of private land in Louisiana as critical habitat for an endangered burrowing frog now found only in Mississippi.
The Pacific Legal Foundation sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday over the dusky gopher frog.
About 100 to 200 of the creatures are known to live in Mississippi, with fewer than 900 more in zoos around the country.
Fish and Wildlife exceeded its authority because none of the frogs lives on the land in question, and the acreage would need extensive work — which landowner Edward Poitevent will not do — to be suitable for them, said Pacific Legal Foundation attorney M. Reed Hopper. He filed the lawsuit in federal court in New Orleans.
Designation as critical habitat requires the agency's consultation for federal permits. About 5,000 acres in Mississippi, much of it on federal land, also was designated as critical habitat last June.
"If an agency can designate critical habitat based on a mere hope that a particular piece of property can someday be usable to maintain the species, the agency would have the authority to designate any piece of property as critical habitat based on the same hope," Hopper said.
People working to bring back the frogs say one feature makes this land essential: a series of five ponds so shallow they dry up in summer, each within hopping distance of the next. Dusky gopher frogs lay their eggs only in such temporary ponds, which are free of fish that would eat frog eggs, and the St. Tammany Parish land was their last known Louisiana breeding ground.
"We continue to support our biologists in their efforts to do the right thing to save this frog. They've done the right scientific things, they've done the research, and they know what's needed to recover this very unique species," said Tom MacKenzie, Southeastern regional spokesman for Fish and Wildlife.
U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., applauded the lawsuit. "I support protecting endangered species and don't want to see a species go anywhere near extinction, but in this instance in St. Tammany Parish, Washington bureaucrats are telling a private landowner that despite there being no frogs, his land is to be used as they see fit," he said in a news release.
The agency says the designation doesn't take lands out of business and the agency cannot compel any action on them, though it has programs to provide money and technical help for landowners interested in conservation.
The frogs, also known as Mississippi gopher frogs, have bodies about three inches long. Their dark backs are covered with darker spots and warts that secrete a bitter, milky fluid. When picked up, they cover their eyes with their forefeet, possibly to protect their faces until predators taste the liquid and drop them.
They live in stump holes and burrows dug by other animals and are part of an ecology that depends on regular fires to burn away brush and smaller trees from the longleaf pine forests where they live.
A conservation nonprofit, the Center for Biological Diversity, has said it will sue Fish and Wildlife for doing too little to protect the frogs unless the agency writes up a plan for their recovery. Endangered species director Noah Greenwald said Thursday that the agency is working toward that goal.
He said his group will ask to enter Poitevent's lawsuit on the government's side.
"This is a species that's highly endangered. It basically breeds in only one pond in substantial numbers," he said, adding that more suitable sites are needed to give it a chance.
The Pacific Legal Foundation is "part of a national effort to try to remove protections for highly endangered species," Greenwald said. "To my view, they're really out of step with the American public that really doesn't want to lose our endangered species."
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JUNE 17 Here's blogger Ian McGibboney's take on the Baton Rouge plan to give bus tickets to homeless people who have a home with family who live far away. Taken from one point of view, it could be a good solution for some people. But McGibboney raises some good points here, including this one: Why not improve opportunities for everybody in Baton Rouge so these people can find the jobs they came to BR for?
JUNE 17 Picayune columnist Jarvis DeBerry talks here about the Zimmerman trial, but the real topic is the concept of a black man being more dangerous, somehow, than a white man in a fight. It is an interesting discussion, and one that may enlighten people who think that racism doesn't exist because nobody's keeping black folks from eating at the Woolworth lunch counter.
JUNE 17 Here's an interesting column from Baton Rouge Business Report's publisher, Rolfe McCollister, about anger against the government. It's brewing because of recent revelations about the IRS and the GSA, he says. It's readable, not just for the subject, but because of McCollister's collection of sources: Huffington Post, National Review and Wikipedia. That's a combo you don't see every day.
JUNE 17 In this American Press post, Jim Beam talks about the high school diploma track that lets kids who aren't interested in university get what they want and need out of high school. The diplomas get kids ready for technical school, Beam explains, and then he goes on to give some of the numbers. Some of these numbers might really surprise people who think technical school is second best. And, Beam adds, a college diploma does not guarantee anybody a job.
JUNE 17 The Washington Post reports here that OSHA is going to investigate the explosion that occurred last week in Donaldsonville, shortly after the other fatal accident in Geismar. As soon as the site is safe, State Police will be pulling out of the Donaldsonville plant to make way for OSHA investigators, the story reports. (Hey, here's an idea: why don't they go a couple miles down the road and figure out what happened when that massive sinkhole started sucking up land.)
JUNE 17 Robert Mann writes about the LSU Board of Supervisors in this post, taking a look at the many ways board members have served Gov. Jindal and not their university or their students. The board members are esteemed members of their fields, but can't seem to do anything but say "yes" to Jindal, regardless of the cost to LSU, Mann opines.
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