An interesting review of what maintenance of “natural” habitat requires. It’s almost as if the more ‘natural’ we want a place to be, the more human management it needs.
On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral argument in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, concerning the agency’s authority to designate land as critical habitat if it isn’t even habitat in its present condition. Recognizing that such a power could easily be abused, the short-handed court spent much of the hour searching for some limit. Weyerhaeuser argued the limit was clear from the statute: “critical habitat” must first be habitat. The government argued for a fuzzier line: such designations can also include lands that could become habitat with “reasonable effort.”
What’s the definition of “reasonable?” — Justice Samuel Alito
At the center of the case is the dusky gopher frog, a critically endangered species that has seen its habitat shrink dramatically due to human development, fire suppression, and the conversion of forests from open-canopied long-leaf pine to dense loblolly pine. Today, there…
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Nullius in Verba 