Fairy shrimp a risk to national security

[question everything]

Fairy shrimp a risk to national security

MARCH AIR BASE: Officials say designating a home for the species will obstruct operations.

11:48 PM PDT on Tuesday, April 12, 2005

By JENNIFER BOWLES / The Press-Enterprise

For the second time in as many weeks, federal wildlife officials bowed to national security concerns Tuesday in deciding against designating habitat protections for an endangered species in the Inland region.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, while saying some habitat for the Riverside fairy shrimp exists on March Air Reserve Base near Riverside, agreed with Air Force concerns that an official critical habitat designation for the tiny crustacean could interfere with shuttling Marines to Iraq. Such designations can require modifications to operations to prevent harming the land needed by an imperiled species to survive.

(snip)

A seasonal, rain-filled pool that harbors the fairy shrimp is in an airfield zone where ongoing maintenance is necessary to ensure proper drainage, base officials said in the agency's ruling. A second pool elsewhere on the base had been altered too much to make it biologically valuable, Hendron said.

The U.S. Endangered Species Act allows for critical habitat exemptions for military reasons. It was used last week in deciding against habitat protections for an endangered plant on land where the Army wants to expand its tank-training center at Fort Irwin, north of Barstow.

(snip)

Reach Jennifer Bowles at 951-368-9548 or [e-mail]

Online at: http://www.pe.com/localnews/riverside/stories/PE_News_Local_S_fairy13.58a18.html

[davidinalameda]

1. that's right--blame the fairies

we get blamed for everything

jeesh!

[ashling]

2. Those shrimp are getting married in there !

:)

[question everything]

3. Actually, March Air Base is "lucky"

Not so for LAX http://www.latimes.com/news/local/state/la-me-shrimp13apr13%2C1%2C7986401.story?coll=la-news-state where the city of LA is going to move 468 tons of dirt by hand, to try to save some tiny endangered shrimp that live at Los Angeles International Airport.

[firefox]

4. My goodness. 10 yards by ten yards and 3 yards deep

It is just too much sacrafice to use physical labor to save any species. It could be a couple hundred man-hours in the gym getting buff and it is a tight labor market on top of that.

[CornField]

5. This is really bullshit

An endangered species is an endangered species. May those responsible for this decision contract some ailment that only the fairy shrimp can cure.