Calaveras Rancher Jumps to Support Endangered Species Act
By Michael Doyle
The Sacramento Bee
Thursday 06 April 2006
Protecting a threatened frog hasn't hurt his business, he says.
Washington - It took a frog to make Calaveras County rancher Danny Pearson hop on an airplane.
Pearson runs cattle on his family's ranch near Burson, off a dirt road east of San Andreas. In his 42 years, he has never found occasion to fly. He's never registered with any political party, and he's certainly never lobbied Congress.
Until now.
This week, incited by his regard for the California red-legged frog and his concern over the future of the Endangered Species Act, Pearson has become the quintessential citizen lobbyist. He's learning legislative mechanics, navigating Capitol Hill and beginning to appreciate the art of the sound bite.
"I've got to get the message out there," Pearson said Monday. "Not all ranchers can be bought."
Pearson's is one sun-beaten face of the Endangered Species Act debate, which has stymied Congress for years. His opposite number, a man he has never met, is also a one-time rancher. As chairman of the House Resources Committee, Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, is pushing a dramatic rewrite of the 33-year-old environmental law.
Pombo characterizes the law as broken and, along with his chief co-author, Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, he secured House passage last September of his long-sought Endangered Species Act revisions. The next step is in the Senate - and in the court of public opinion, where all sides are still vying for advantage.
"Pombo has done an excellent job of portraying this as a bad, bad thing," Pearson said of the Endangered Species Act. "I think it's a good thing."
Pearson can thank his children, Beau and Haylie, for drawing him into this fight. In a family meeting, they agreed their dad should take his inaugural flight to Washington, even though it would take him away from ranch chores for a few days.
Several years ago, playing in a creek, Beau and Haylie found a frog that did not look like any bullfrog they had ever seen. The kids - Beau is now 8 and Haylie is 12 - jumped on the Internet to find out more.
Eventually, the family chanced upon fellow Calaveras County resident Bob Stack, a voluble biochemist and proprietor of a homegrown operation called the Jumping Frog Research Institute. Stack helped identify the unusual amphibian as a California red-legged frog, which is protected as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.
"I was saying, 'Omigod, omigod,'" Stack said Monday, recalling the moment he figured out the frog's identity.
Armed with a doctorate from the University of California, Davis, Stack previously had sued the Fish and Wildlife Service to compel designation of critical habitat for the red-legged frog. Unlike Pearson, he is also overtly political, having feuded with Pombo for several years.
Pearson subsequently brought in the Fish and Wildlife Service for an official confirmation. He has since dug two fenced-in ponds for the benefit of the frogs, with some financial assistance from the federal agency and Stack's group. All told, in 2004, the federal government reported spending $1.5 million on helping protect the red-legged frog.
The Fish and Wildlife Service wants to designate 737,912 acres in California, including at least part of Pearson's ranch, as "critical habitat" for the red-legged frog. The Bush administration contends this will result in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost development opportunities.
"The economic wheel in California is development," Pearson said, "and there's a real fear that the Endangered Species Act will keep them from building houses."
Pombo's proposal would eliminate the "critical habitat" concept altogether. It also would pay landowners compensation for diminished property values.
These ideas were popular in the House, which passed the bill 229-193.
Last week, though, the liberal-to-moderate Rhode Island Republican who chairs the subcommittee responsible for the law, Sen. Lincoln Chaffee, conceded doubts about Congress finishing its work.
"But we'll keep working," Chaffee told National Journal's CongressDaily. "I want to keep the door open a crack."
Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for the House Resources Committee, said that some non-Westerners in the Senate show a "lack of urgency" on the issue, and he acknowledged that "it's going to be a tough road" to secure Senate action.
"We do hope they keep trying," Kennedy said.
This week, Pearson, Stack and Mark Rockwell, a Grass Valley-area resident, avid fly fisherman and retired chiropractor, are carrying their newly honed messages to some sympathetic congressional offices, including that of Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. Pearson is telling lawmakers that the discovery of the California red-legged frog on his ranch has not hurt his property values or impinged on his freedom.
"I just built a barn," Pearson noted.
"No one has put a stop to my normal ranching practices."
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