GOLDWATER INSTITUTE TODAY'S NEWS: Tues., May 16, 2006
Endangered Habitat
Removing pygmy owls from the Endangered Species List may help recover human habitat
by Benjamin Barr
In Tucson, homeowners and developers have reason to celebrate. For years, development in Northwest Tucson was put on hold by federal environmental fiat. That's because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service put Arizona pygmy owls on the endangered species list. At 12:01 a.m., May 15, these birds were delisted.
From the get-go, the pygmy owl's inclusion on the endangered species list was controversial. Arizona is home to twenty or fewer of these birds, which are commonly found in Texas and Mexico. Halting development in Arizona due to a handful of birds flew in the face of common sense.
Had the owls remained protected, more than a half-dozen development projects would have been required to set aside up to 80% of their land as open space. Artificial designations like that are surefire ways to drive up housing costs and limit the number of new residents to a community.
It is fair to assume most Arizonans care about preserving endangered animals. But, these heavy-handed federal regulations did little to protect this species and at a great cost to Arizonans. Lifting this ban was long overdue.
Benjamin Barr is a constitutional policy analyst with the Goldwater Institute Center for Constitutional Studies