The Baptists and the Bootleggers

Why would St. Joe, the largest developer and landowner in the Florida Panhandle, team up with local environmentalist fanatics to push Crayfish regulations on the rest of us? It's a case of the Baptists teaming up with the Bootletters, as explained in the link below, from an article that explains "rent-seeking". Wikipedia definition: "rent seeking occurs when an individual, organization, or firm seeks to make money by manipulating the economic environment rather than by making a profit through trade and production of wealth." The article explains:
"Rent seeking occurs, in part, because firms can receive concentrated benefits through government action while the costs are dispersed throughout the whole of society."

An excerpt:
Rent seeking in the name of environmental policy is prevalent, in part, because green policies shield otherwise ill-fated policies—paint a proposal green, and it will receive less scrutiny than it would otherwise. Moreover, the ability of economic interest groups to supplement their lobbying efforts with "public interest" allies from the environmentalist community greatly enhances their political clout. Clemson University Professor and former-Federal Trade Commission official Bruce Yandle called such efforts "Bootlegger and Baptist" coalitions. "Both bootleggers and Baptists favor statutes that shut down liquor stores on Sunday," Yandle explains. "The Baptists because of their religious preferences. The bootleggers because it expands their market."

Read the entire article here:
http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/reg19n4b.html

Letter to Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission

The following letter was sent to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission this week, with copies to Governor Crist and the State Legislators who represent the Florida Panhandle. Thank goodness this local citizen is trying to help the others affected. Since only a tiny fraction of the thousands of 'listed species' have ever been delisted since the passing of the Endangered Species Act over 30 years ago, it's imperative that the people who own these 38,000 parcels of property understand just exactly what they will be burdened with, probably for the rest of their lives:


March 2, 2007
Mr. Ken Haddad
Executive Director
Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission
620 S. Meridian Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399

RE: Panama City Crayfish

Dear Mr. Haddad:
Your agency has prepared a Draft Management Plan for a proposed listing of the Panama City Crayfish as a threatened species. The deadline for filing comments is April 5, 2007.

Since the Draft Management Plan was made available for review last Friday, February 23, 2007, we have been attempting to obtain the GIS data used for the delineation of the range of the Panama City Crayfish to be used as the designated habitat. It is estimated that over 38,000 parcels stand to be affected by this designation. With more than one third of the parcels of all of Bay County containing soils that may be conducive to this species, it is essential that all of the property owners within the affected range be properly notified and allowed an opportunity to comment on the designation. To that end, I intend to send individual letters to each property owner within the habitat area, providing Owners with information they may need to properly assess the impact this designation may have on their property. I do not want to unnecessarily alarm property owners who may not be affected. Consequently it is essential that I have the accurate GIS data that was used for delineation purposes.

I contacted your agency for the information and was directed to the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Attached you will find a copy of the response from this agency. Since it is likely that the information I seek may not be available until after March 9th, I do not believe there will be sufficient time within which to notify all of the affected property owners before the deadline you have set for comments on the Plan.

By notifying all of the property owners within the area of your proposal, I hope to generate sufficient response so that your agency can more accurately assess the social and economic consequences of this designation as required by Florida Statutes. To that end, I would also request that your agency hold a public hearing in Panama City before voting to provide this extraordinary protection to the Panama City Crayfish. It would be an additional burden and
imposition on us to arrange transportation for hundreds of property owners that may wish to personally address the Commission.

I, therefore, respectfully request that you extend the deadline for comments until after a duly noticed public hearing to be held here in Bay County.

Sincerely,
Mary K. Sittman

cc: FWC Commissioners
Senator Don Gaetz
Representative Jimmy Patronis
Representative Marti Coley
Earl Durden
L. Charles Hilton, Esq.
Jack Williams, Esq.
Mayors and Commissioners of Panama City, Lynn Haven, Cedar Grove,
Callaway, Springfield, Parker
Board of County Commissioners, Bay County

New Crayfish "Plan" Published - Property Rights Skewered

The new Panama City Crayfish Draft Management Plan has been published here by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Here are some of the ways in which this monstrosity skewers your property rights and makes a mockery of Panama City, Florida:

- They decided that certain soil types 'might' be favorable for this crayfish. 70% of the land in the greater Panama City area has this soil.

- If you have the soil on your property, to build or add anything, you may be required to allow government biologists to come on your property and look for the crayfish. Their protocol requires them to make a least 3 visits to search for the creature, and each visit should be timed based on the weather conditions before and during the search.

- A "take permit" could be required. The State has the unmitigated gall to call this permit 'free'. What they neglect to tell you is that the City of Panama City had to pay an environmental consultant over $8,000 to get one of these permits for a project they did.

- You may be offered "mitigation", which is basically a payoff demand that will allow you to use your land the way you want to. The 2 for 1 mitigation plan means you'd be asked to buy 2 acres of property elsewhere for every one acre of your own property you want to use.

- Through the mitigation plan you may be transferring your money to St. Joe Company, the richest landholder and developer in the Florida panhandle, to buy their 'crayfish land' from them. You won't be able to use it for yourself. Government workers and their environmentalist leeches will use it, at taxpayer expense, to further study the crayfish and publish pointless studies about it.

- If the crayfish is found on your property, they plan to keep coming back around looking for it. If some day they can't find it any more, they can throw the book at you. Criminal charges could include heavy fines or even jail time.

- You can't tell if you have the crayfish or not! Because there is only one man in the State of Florida who is 'qualified' to identify it. He'll get the lucrative government contracts to find the thing on your property, and you have to sit back and take whatever he tells you. Is it any shock that he's also the person who petitioned the State to upgrade the endangered status of the crayfish? This whole plan should be invalidated just based on the incredible conflict of interest inherent in it.

- The plan recommends that your tax dollars get diverted to public schools in Florida to indoctrinate children. So one night you'll be sitting at your dinner table and receive a lecture from your daughter about why you need to give up your property rights for the common good of the ecosystem.

-The plan calls for 'influencing and motivating' operators of off-road vehicles to stay off this land. Assuming that means public or private land, envision a wildlife officer stopping hunters wherever they travel and telling them to get off the land. Whether they own it or not.

Again, remember, the crayfish LOVES PEOPLE. It has only been found in man-made ditches and swales between man-made tree farm rows. So it's ridiculous to have a plan to make humans grow more of them. In fact, this may be the first time the Endangered Species Act has been used to have our government introduce a species into a developed metropolitan area.

You can still do something to prevent the travesty that will befall Bay County if this law hits the books. Earlier in this blog we posted the contact information for the seven commissioners who will vote this summer to enact the law. You may want to go straight to the Governor. This will become law unless citizens stand up against it. Governor Charlie Crist can be reached at charlie.crist@myflorida.com.

Ugly, Blighted Crayfish Habitat Being Created in the City

A news reporter recently biked past a swampy mess of land and commented about why a bulldozed, back-hoed piece of blight would be called a nature preserve. It brought a snippy response in a Letter to the Editor by a member of the "Bay County Conservancy". The letter writer insinuated that we should all hang our heads in shame for being here on earth, and our penance is to create these blighted swampy areas (at landowners' and taxpayers' expense) to grow the Panama City Crayfish. Here's the letter:

It’s worth the effort to protect wildlife, habitat

Tony Simmons’ Sunday column (“Suggestions to make the new year easier to face,” Jan. 14) pointed out the seeming incongruity of having a sign announcing a nature preserve on land that has been bulldozed and bush hogged. He invites readers to “laugh or cry … but appreciate the irony.” In my 33 years of living in Bay County, I’ve done a lot of laughing at the human arrogance that gives no thought to the landscape and its inhabitants, and I’ve done a lot of crying when I saw trees cut down, sand dunes bulldozed and wildlife lying dead beside the road. That is why I have been active in conservation groups since the year I moved here.
There actually is some logic behind the vegetation removal on the 10-acre Talkington Family Preserve, which is now owned by the Bay County Conservancy. When the land at 26th Street and Jenks Avenue in Lynn Haven was permitted for development, the Department of Environmental Protection required that offsets be made for the wetlands that would be destroyed. That agreement included setting aside the wettest 10 acres of the property and manipulating it to become suitable habitat for the protected Panama City crayfish, an animal that has almost disappeared because its living places have been destroyed by swamp-filling and ditch-clearing. Will this attempt to imitate Mother Nature work? We don’t know, but it is worth the effort to try. We have done so much to destroy the plants and wildlife that used to live here that we have an obligation to protect what is left.
The Bay County Conservancy is a local non-profit organization devoted to preserving pockets of native landscape, and it presently own 10 parcels comprising 170 acres. More information is available at 872-8260 or baycountyconservancy.org.
Candis Harbison, Panama City

News Herald Letters to the Editor January 16, 2007

This 'nature preserve' is simply land taken from a landowner who decided to use his private property to build apartments. Since there is constant hand-wringing in the City about the need for affordable housing, you would think the government would do everything they could to streamline the building of housing units. Instead, they demanded a portion of the land be given over. It was deeded to the conservancy who created the mosquito-breeding blight, in one of the fastest growing areas of Panama City, near churches and schools. By the way, since they have already decided that pesticides could be harmful to the crayfish, forget about mosquito control . What will they say if any cases of West Nile or other harmful mosquito-born diseases are traced to crayfish 'habitiat'? That the children deserved it because they don't understand how important the crayfish is to the world?

Now the State is trying to upgrade the crayfish to a 'threatened status', creating additional bureacracy and costs for any landowner that will want to do anything with their land in this city. Again, this is in direct opposition to the concept of making Panama City an affordable place to live.

Contact Your Florida FWCC Commissioners

If you would like to have your voice heard, email the FWCC Commissioners who will be making historic votes this year (perhaps as early as April) on the Panama City Crayfish. Here's their email address. Send email early and often:

Commissioners@MyFWC.com

Here are their names and home towns. Their bios can be found here:

Mr. Rodney Barreto, Chairman 2006 Miami
Mr. David K. Meehan, Vice Chairman St. Petersburg
Mr. H.A. "Herky" Huffman Enterprise
Ms. Sandra T. Kaupe Palm Beach
Mr. Richard A. Corbett Tampa
Mr. Brian S. Yablonski Tallahassee
Ms. Kathy Barco Jacksonville

Upcoming FL Fish and Wildlife Meetings

Here are the upcoming FWCC Commission meetings. If you are concerned about endangered human liberties, you may want to attend:


2007 Commission Meetings
February 7-8
Sandestin Resort
9300 Emerald Coast ParkwayWest
Destin, FL 32550
Phone: 850-267-8000

April 11-12
Ramada Conference Center
2900 North Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32303
Phone: 850-386-1039

June 13-14
Radisson Suite Hotel Oceanfront
3101 North Highway A1A
Melbourne, FL 32903
Phone: 321-773-9260

Crayfish Endangers Hurricane Evacuation Route

Here's the "Biological Status Report" (April 2006) for the Panama City Crayfish, which is an attempt to document the rationale for upgrading it to state level "Threatened". Here are some quotes from the report:


..."However, I think that it is abundantly evident that there is an overwhelming lack of biological and life history data available for this species. "

Hey, but let's go ahead and move it up higher on the endangered list so we can impose additional regulations on everyone!

All: There are many unknown consequences to PCC if the proposed Gulf Coast Parkway is built. There will be habitat loss and direct take of PCC along Star Avenue, Nehi Road, and Tram Road It is unknown whether DOT has a mitigation plan for these losses. Also unknown is whether the mitigation would be enough to recover the PCC population size to pre-construction levels. It was agreed that the proposed road expansion be monitored closely to alleviate negative impacts to PCC.

So, a popular hurricane evacuation route expansion that would improve safety for humans might be slowed down by bureaucracy as they try to maintain the human-made ditches beside this road for crayfish habitat!