Informant38

Condors have died after ingesting lead
�

Environmental groups and local residents Tuesday criticized a tentative plan by the Tejon Ranch Co. and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that protects ranch developers if they accidentally harm or kill endangered California condors, but also takes steps to protect the huge birds.

That's the lead paragraph in an LA Times story by Daryl Kelley July 14. "Environmental" meaning granola-eating radicals to most Americans these days, and notice the doubling up on "protect" and the "accidentally" harm or kill. It's not an accident if you don't care.

As part of a plan to protect condors while allowing Tejon Ranch to develop its property, officials announced at a meeting Tuesday in this Tehachapi Mountains community that about 37,000 acres on the ranch would be set aside for feeding and care of the birds.

That's the third paragraph in the same article. It kind of makes you want to go feed the developers doesn't it? Such nice people! Planning to protect! Setting aside for feeding!
Here's some more heartfelt truth from Mr. Stine, the farmer:

"This isn't about killing condors; this is about preserving them," Tejon Ranch President Robert A. Stine said in an interview. "What we're doing is setting aside tens of thousands of acres for them."
Stine said Tejon Ranch has been in negotiations with the Fish and Wildlife Service since 1992 to determine how to pursue ranch activities and projects while also meeting federal law that protects endangered species such as the condor. He said a Kern County rancher was put in jail a couple of years ago because he ran over a protected kangaroo rat with his tractor.
"That really happened," Stine said. "As a private land owner you run the risk of doing something you can get penalized for. So we're entering into this agreement so we can be a good citizen and continue to do our farming activities."

�

3/15/03; Frazier Park, Calif.- Tejon Ranch Co.'s annual "Pig-O-Rama" appears to have been the death knell for 30 year-old AC-8, one of the few remaining native California Condors born in the wild, and a favorite to many So. Calif. school children.
Our sources tell us that the condor was killed while sitting in a tree, and that the shooter thought it was a "buzzard", during the 25-man annual wild boar pig hunting event sponsored by the Ranch, as a part of their game management program. We are asking Ranch officials to comment on this report and will publish their response if and when received.
In October, 1999, TRC President Robert Stine signed an 11-page, 75-year agreement with the US Fish & Wildlife Service regarding the Condor, in exchange for concessions from USFWS regarding future residential and commercial development at the Ranch. In that document and negotiations related thereto, Tejon promised observation, management oversight and diligent on-site protection of the birds, in view of the frequent travel of this endangered species over Ranch properties.

story by Lloyd Wiens [scroll to pig-o-rama]
from the Frazier Park enews March 15, 2003
via shopoutdoors
�
Kerry's Strategy Accents Positive Alternative
That's the lead headline on the LA Times' online front page for July 25, a story by Ronald Brownstein.

"The country does not need to be won over to the fact that it wants change," said veteran Democratic pollster Stanley B. Greenberg. "It needs to be won over to the fact that Kerry is the person who can lead that change."

That's the seventh paragraph in that story. What some of us might find ironic here is the stress on the country not needing "to be won over to the fact that it wants change" and the complete lack of acknowledgement that there's no one else but Bush and Kerry running for the Presidency.