Michael Lissack if Mr. Van Leuzen had destroyed thousands of acres of pristine Everglades. However, the land in question is less than half an acre and is situated 50 feet from Highway 87.” “Federal authority preempted state laws with the 1973 Endangered Species Act, but its reach was limited by the statute’s condition that eco- nomic impacts be considered before a species was listed as “endangered.” In 1982, however, environmentalists pushed through Congress a provision that abolished the economic impact requirement. After that, it was save the bugs, never mind the cost. The endangered species bureaucrats rarely deny development permission. Outright denial would effectively destroy the property’s value, inviting applicants to demand compensation under the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment. The service finds stalling safer and more effective. Recently, the service has been listing as endangered creatures that are neither few nor declining in numbers. It ingeniously interpreted the act’s prohibition against inflicting harm on a creature to include alteration of habitat, estimating future habitat loss with what critics argue are highly unscientific ‘extrapolations’ from past land use patterns. That means that landowners may be criminals if they cut down a tree deemed to be import- ant habitat even though no bird has ever been sighted there. Wouldn’t it be much less damaging to the private property rights that underlie many of our freedoms if the government or private conservation groups simply bought up wildlife-rich land? But that would undermine one of Washington’s fastest-growing regulatory armies, cost thousands of bureaucrats their jobs- and force Congress to spend public money rather than imposing the cost on unlucky private people. Federal control over private land surged.” The Journal article was just the tip of an iceberg. A substantial problem with the current wetlands program is that it fails to consider the environ- mental value of wetlands. To most Americans the word wetland conjures up the image of a water-laden marsh, filled with saw grass or cattails, where great blue herons and snowy egrets stalk minnows and bull frogs in the shallow water. They basically think of a wildlife-rich ecosystem, with great diversity and ecological value. Unfortunately, the wetlands definition of the Army Corps of Engineers says nothing about wildlife, nothing about
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