Proof that even the Weekly Standard runs sensible pieces from time to time: Up in Smoke by Hugh Hewitt (”The core problem is that species protection prohibits many ordinary fire precautions. You cannot clear coastal sage scrub, no matter how dense, if a gnatcatcher nests within it--unless the federal government provides a written permission slip which is extraordinarily difficult to obtain. The same prohibition lurks behind every species designation, and can even apply to land on which no endangered species has ever been seen but about which allegations of ‘potential occupation’ have been made.”)
