washingtonpost.com Editorial

A Tortoise-Cattle Debate

Thursday, April 4, 2002


The article "A Fight to Protect Home on the Range; Tortoise-Cattle Debate Illustrates Western Struggle" [news story, March 24] fails to mention the real problem out West: So-called environmentalists misusing and abusing the Endangered Species Act to pursue their own agenda.

Removing Dave Fisher's cattle will do nothing to save the tortoise. It will do everything for the environmentalists who want to get rid of all grazing on public lands. The tortoises will never stand a chance to recover until a cure is found for the respiratory disease that is decimating them.

The other major cause of the tortoise's demise is predators. Under controlled conditions where there is no vehicular access, grazing, mining or any other activity deemed as a threat to the tortoise, the species still has a less than 10 percent chance of surviving. The issue is not about the tortoise, it's about controlling access to our public lands.

DEREK COOPER

Ridgecrest, Calif.

Link to origninal article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2002Mar23.html
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