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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Father Terrence who wrote (53219)	8/26/1999 1:53:00 PM
From: greenspirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Endangered fly swats California developers By Audrey Hudson THE WASHINGTON TIMES The Clinton administration has stalled construction projects worth millions of dollars -- including a school and hospital -- near Los Angeles to protect a bug. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is holding the projects hostage until the county of San Bernardino comes up with $220 million for land acquisitions to protect the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly -- the only fly on the Endangered Species List. When eight flies were discovered near the construction of a hospital wing, the Fish and Wildlife Service forced the hospital to move construction 350 feet north and set aside two acres of dune land for the flies, said Stephen Lilburn, an environmental planning consultant. "We spent about $4 million to mitigate the possible presence of eight flies near an existing hospital. People heard this and could not believe it was costing us an additional half-million per fly" to build the wing, Mr. Lilburn said. "No one actually knew how many flies were there, or if they counted the same fly eight times, or four flies two times, or so on," said Rob Gordon, president of the National Wilderness Institute. The fly is also to blame for holding up sewer and flood-control projects, and the construction of a middle school, Mr. Lilburn said. Urban residents have had little sympathy for ranchers and other Westerners who have long complained of adverse effects from the Endangered Species Act, said Sterling Burnett, a senior policy analyst at the National Center for Policy Analysis. "For years, people have said we were overblowing the effects of this endangered species takings scheme, and said it was just a myth. But guess what? Counties are finding out it's not a myth, and some counties are defaulting on millions in loans from bonds they've issued," Mr. Burnett said. "Now the problem has come home to roost in very populated areas, and it's just a mess out there." The region is critical in absorbing residential overflow from Los Angeles, but the communities of Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Rialto and Hemet have had to delay housing projects because of the fly. In Fontana, developers' vision of a $500 million project of single-family homes, shopping centers and strip malls has been dashed. The town of Colton had hoped to attract a manufacturing plant. Ironically, the affected area is an "enterprise zone," a federal program for urban poor areas to generate new investment and development, Mr. Lilburn said. About $42 million in bonds will go into default in October because Fontana landowners, unable to develop their land, are unable to pay their taxes. Colton has $11 million in debt tied up in an idle electrical substation that was built to supply power to the proposed commercial developments. And the town is in danger of losing $300 million to $500 million in commercial projects because developers are looking elsewhere, Colton Town Manager Henry Garcia said. The inch-long flies' only known breeding grounds are the Delhi Sands dunes stretching from San Bernardino to Riverside to Ontario, about 60 miles from Los Angeles. The fine dunes were created by Santa Ana winds carrying grit from the mountains and dropping it in the desert valley. The Delhi Sands are the largest remaining sand-dune system in the Los Angeles basin. But the few dunes that remain are surrounded by freeways and new development. Most of them are held by private landowners. In 1993, the fly was designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as an endangered species. "Anytime there's a listed species that's warm and fuzzy and endearing, it's easier for people to rally around it and work together toward a common goal. But this is about more than just God's creatures great and small," said Jeff Newman of the Fish and Wildlife Service. "This is a unique system with unique species." Afraid the Delhi Sands fly will go the way of the El Segundo fly, which disappeared when its breeding grounds were paved over at the Los Angeles International Airport, the Fish and Wildlife Service has halted development on the dunes until it can be determined how many flies there are and how best to protect them. "If one of these flies came into your house, you would probably swat it and not know the difference. But in California, you had better know the difference because if Fish and Wildlife caught you, they would fine you $25,000 and you might have to spend a couple of years in jail," Mr. Burnett said. The government and the communities that want to build are trying to agree on property that could be designated a protected habitat. The cities and county have proposed several sites, including 280 acres in Colton. Wildlife officials said the process could take up to two years. But county and city officials are desperate to complete it by the end of the year.