September 28, 2003

By Jonathan DuHamel

jedtaz@mindspring.com

Some Pima County politicians need an attitude adjustment.

Between pampering pygmy-owls, proposing tunnels for toads, protecting peaks, and pandering to GangGreen, these politicians seem very anti-human.

They seem to forget that they are public servants, hired to serve people, not pygmy-owls.

Just consider some recent events and policies and see if you agree.

For the last several years it has been Pima Policy to pamper pygmy-owls by requiring property owners to set aside up to 80% of their land when building a house.

Protection of the pygmy-owl was touted as a major reason to devise a habitat conservation plan, the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan.

But now that the owl may be removed from the Endangered Species list, county officials see no reason to change their grand scheme.

They cite many other critters deserving protection, but the pols seem less enthusiastic in protecting property rights of citizens.

Pima County is fretting that too many toads are becoming road kill; so, in one of their more ridiculous schemes, even for them, they propose to spend $625,000 of our tax money to build tiny tunnels for toads under east Speedway Boulevard.

They refuse, however, to build a bridge for people across the flood-prone CaAada del Oro wash, an area recently made more dangerous because burned forests have increased runoff.

Recently a gasoline transmission line ruptured, filling a wash with raw gasoline and dousing several houses. The pipeline company wants to replace the aging line along the existing right-of-way, a portion of which runs along Tumamoc Hill, a botanical research area of the University of Arizona.

The UofA and Pima County officials opposed using the existing right-of-way because construction would disturb the grass and weeds that have grown up since the pipeline was first constructed.

Instead, the county wanted to relocate the new line closer to residential areas and schools.

They even got the Indians to try the "sacred mountain" gambit in that campaign.

Fortunately, the Tucson City Council, which has jurisdiction in this case, had more sense and told the pipeline company to use the existing right-of-way.

Pima County is concerned about our "viewshed."

They want to restrict home construction on peaks and ridges, lest they disturb the harmony of mountain vistas.

Property owners are not thrilled.

In a marathon county supervisor's meeting, the county backed off the most stringent restrictions proposed by GangGreen after hearing from dozens of irate property owners (and maybe counting votes).

The Supes recommended a slightly less restrictive ordinance which they and the Arizona Daily Star called "middle ground."

The folks over at The Wildlands Project held a press conference announcing their new "Room to Roam" program (see http://www.wildlandsproject.org/roomtoroam  to read all about it).

County employee Julia Fonseca was on hand to explain how the county's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan (SDCP) fits right into this scheme to push people off the land.

"Room to Roam" is not actually new, it's just a repackaging of The Wildlands Project goals.

By any name, the Wildlands Project is very anti-human. It will have detrimental effects on property rights, businesses, jobs, and our freedom.

It is really a religious quest that ignores evolution and attempts to regain an imagined Eden that never was.

Pima County has embraced this anti-human religion.

Among the many papers written by the county concerning SDCP is a tome on "environmental justice."

County Administrator Huckelberry writes, "The Environmental Justice (EJ) study is one of the most profoundly important research documents in the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan series ... SDCP is in harmony with all of the applicable concepts [of environmental justice]."

Note that the first principle of EJ states, "Environmental justice affirms the sacredness of Mother Earth..."

It seems Pima County has an official religion.

Radical environmentalism is a rather Puritanical movement which frowns on human "interference" with nature.

But humans are as much a part of nature as anything else, and this is our time, in the geologic sense; we are the keystone species.

This eco-religion is impractical, because we cannot return to the past.

Nature evolves; apparently greens don't see that.

The Wildlands Project, and each of its pieces, such as the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan, do not enhance nature, but rather interrupt and stifle evolution by imposing Soviet-style government control to gain what people would not do of their own accord.

One of the biggest problems with environmentalism, as it is practiced, today is that radical Greens suffer from moral relativism.

They lack a sense of value.

They think that human values [except their own, of course] are equivalent to, and no better than, some intrinsic "value" in all things: a bug is just as important as a human.

Tell that to Truly Nolan. But "values" are a human invention based on reason and moral principles.

Wild nature is a place where you have to kill for your dinner every day.

Wild nature is amoral; it's eat and be eaten.

A patient at county-run Kino hospital was killed due to incompetent management and staffing. The death was ruled a homicide. The county will be sued, and we taxpayers will have to pay for their mismanagement.

Pima County recently received more revenue than expected and will increase county spending rather than decrease property tax rates which are the highest in the state.

Do you see a pattern in these stories?

Are our Pima County officials serving us, or some mystical, pseudo-religion, and themselves?

Yes, some Pima Pols need an attitude adjustment, or an adjustment in their employment status.