GOODY TWO SHOES: The Law Of Unintended Consequences
When the Fish and Wildlife Service notified residents of Boiling Springs Lakes that it planned to designate entire neighborhoods in the North Carolina town as protected habitat to prevent development from evicting the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker from area trees, landowners did something extraordinary: They grabbed their chain saws and started felling every tree on their lots to prevent the woodpeckers from nesting in them. No trees, no woodpecker, no protected habitat regulations. The Associated Press reports that, "Since February, the city has issued 368 logging permits, a vast majority without accompanying building permits."
Ironically, in trying to protect the woodpecker’s habitat, the Fish and Wildlife Service is indirectly responsible for despoiling the human’s habitat:
Along the roadsides, scattered brown bark is all that is left of pine stands. Mayor Joan Kinney has watched with dismay as waterfront lots across from her home on Big Lake have been stripped down to sandy wasteland.
"It’s ruined the beauty of our city," Ms. Kinney said. To stop the rash of cutting, city commissioners have proposed a one-year moratorium on lot-clearing permits.
The Stiletto hopes the clear signal that landowners in North Carolina sent to the Fish and Wildlife Service that they will not take the environmental version of eminent domain sitting down will cause the federal agency – which has a reputation of being particularly imperious and arrogant in its dealings with landowners and developers – to rethink its priorities and strategies.
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