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#1
24th September 2006, 12:07 PM
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Stupid Is As Stupid Does!If that saying is true, then all I can say is that some of the townspeople in BOILING SPRING LAKES, N.C fit the bill, in my opinion. (Sorry in advance to any of our N.C. members) But, see if you don't agree......
 Rare Woodpecker Sends a Town Running for Its Chain Saws By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: September 24, 2006 BOILING SPRING LAKES, N.C., Sept. 23 (AP) — Over the past six months, landowners here have been clear-cutting thousands of trees to keep them from becoming homes for the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. The chain saws started in February, when the federal Fish and Wildlife Service put Boiling Spring Lakes on notice that rapid development threatened to squeeze out the woodpecker. The agency issued a map marking 15 active woodpecker “clusters,” and announced it was working on a new one that could potentially designate whole neighborhoods of this town in southeastern North Carolina as protected habitat, subject to more-stringent building restrictions. Hoping to beat the mapmakers, landowners swarmed City Hall to apply for lot-clearing permits. Treeless land, after all, would not need to be set aside for woodpeckers. Since February, the city has issued 368 logging permits, a vast majority without accompanying building permits. The results can be seen all over town. 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 red-cockaded woodpecker was once abundant in the vast longleaf pine forests that stretched from New Jersey to Florida, but now numbers as few as 15,000. The bird is unusual among North American woodpeckers because it nests exclusively in living trees. In a quirk of history, human activity has made this town of about 4,100 almost irresistible to the bird. Long before there was a town, locals carved V-shaped notches in the pines, collecting the sap in buckets to make turpentine. These wounds allowed fungus to infiltrate the tree’s core, making it easier for the woodpecker to excavate its nest hole and probe for the beetles, spiders and wood-boring insects it prefers. “And, voilà! You have a perfect woodpecker habitat,” said Dan Bell, project director for the Nature Conservancy in nearby Wilmington. The woodpecker gouges a series of holes around the tree, creating “sap runs” to discourage the egg-gobbling black snake, the bird’s chief enemy. Because it can take up to six years to excavate a single nest hole, the birds fiercely defend their territory, said Susan Miller, a biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Service. “They’re passed from generation to generation, because it’s such a major investment in time to create one cavity,” Ms. Miller said. Like the woodpeckers, humans are also looking to defend their nest eggs. Bonner Stiller has been holding on to two wooded half-acre lakefront lots for 23 years. He stripped both lots of longleaf pines before the government could issue its new map. “They have finally developed a value,” said Mr. Stiller, a Republican member of the state General Assembly. “And then to have that taken away from you?” Landowners have overreacted, says Pete Benjamin, supervisor of the federal agency’s Raleigh office. Having a woodpecker tree on a piece of property does not necessarily mean a house cannot be built there, Mr. Benjamin said. A landowner can even get permission to cut down a cavity tree, as long as an alternative habitat can be found. “For the most part, we’ve found ways to work with most folks,” he said. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/us/24woodpecker.html Linda 
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#2
24th September 2006, 12:37 PM
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 I just couldn't believe what I was reading. Greed and stupidity reign. Cynthia
__________________
All beings are fond of themselves, they like pleasure, they hate pain, they shun destruction, they like life and want to live long. To all, life is dear; hence their life should be protected. -Mahavira
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#4
24th September 2006, 12:50 PM
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Quote:
I know, neither could I. Linda
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#5
24th September 2006, 12:59 PM
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I was just going to post this one myself...unbelievable reaction, isn't it?
http://articles.news.aol.com/news/_a...00010000000001 Last edited by Trees Gray; 24th September 2006 at 01:02 PM.
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#6
24th September 2006, 05:15 PM
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Well, being from North Carolina what can I say except I am sorry that we have IDIOTS here as well.
Land values in that area, and most of the other coastal communities in NC, have sky rocketed in the past 3-4 years and everyone wants their share of the $$$$$. It is pretty sickening when a member of our General Assembly is part of this. The town council should have already issued a moratorium. I am going to contact our local TV/newspaper to see if they will follow up on this news. IT SUCKS!
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Maggie 
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#9
13th November 2006, 08:42 AM
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I would be HONORED to have an endangered species around. o.o What is wrong with those people?? Do they WANT another species to go the way of the DODO??
(No offense to dodos. I am sure that if they had the chance, they would have put humans in cages.)
__________________
My birds are my life.
My life would not be worth living without them. I pray that God will protect us from AvianFlu.
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#10
25th January 2007, 06:50 PM
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Well....what I can say.....is I think I can imagine why these owners reacted the way they did. A two acre cleared lot perhaps could sell for $150,000...and in some cases, many thousands of dollars sometimes are earned by selling the logs. On the other hand, a lot which can not be logged or built on is worth much closer to nothing, except the goverment will charge taxes on the land which they made near worthless by their actions to protect nesting areas. It would appear that quite the opposite has occured.
Not saying what anyone did was right, but I can understand why they did what they did, to protect their wealth. How many readers here, are willing to contribute $150,000 to the cause ? I don't know the exact econmics, but there are areas here where hundreds of thousands would be very likely, and a law to limit future development causes an immediate shortage of supply, but not a shortage of demand.
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#11
26th January 2007, 01:22 AM
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There he goes again !The PM said, well Warren, there you go again.....digging up some old thread you decided you just had to go stick your nose in and stir up trouble !!
Actually, I wasn't thinking so much of the poor wood pecker who needs a tree to nest in, I was thinking of a recent situation in York County Pa. A family farm in this county which has been in the family for generations, is known by just about everybody around here. It may be one of the most beautiful horse farm in the state. From their vantage point, a person can overlook major portions of the county, the neighboring county and the river which seperates the two. Believe me, the views are breath taking....and that is the problem. A couple of County Commissioners felt it was so beautiful.....so pretty...so much a gift of God, that it must be "Preserved". So...the county condemed the property so they could turn it into a park !! It has now gone through every level of the courts...and the family has lost, and the so called "Preservationalists" have won. The family traced their ownership back to the 1700's, and their lawyer explained they would be willing to never develope it, by placing it into a family prservation land trust, but to no avail. Then the lawyer debated that these hundreds of acres could be sold off as building lots and would be valued at 32,500,000 to developers...sorry charlie....the county stole this land, this family farm, and gave them a pittance. People actually wrote letters to the editor of the local newspaper, and called the family "Greedy"......for fighting the ideal that this beauty should be preserved for the community ! I know I am sure sad that the county will now send in bull dozers to knock down trees and the like, so that roads and parking areas can be built, so that this beauty can be preserved for the public ! I am just so happy, that I have goverment here that looks after the interests of us all, even if they do have to crush a family now and then..... I just wonder, how the wildlife will fare, now that all these people will be driving cars and building picnic areas, walk ways, dog areas, swing sets, etc. in order to turn this farm into a preserved space for people to get away to, walk their dog, jog, ride a bike, listen to a rock concert etc. I know this situation is a little different then trees being cut down in order to avoid having the property condemed by a goverment agent so that wood pecker's could have a nesting spot. But the concept of goverment action destroying families and property rights, in order to protect or preserve something is not new. It's just hard for me to throw rocks at the families who were trying to protect their property. You will have to forgive me, I sometimes slip up in my role as an animal protector, by sometimes having empathy for the human, even if he is not perfect. 
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#12
26th January 2007, 02:43 AM
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That's the problem with this country. Land is valuable. I think one of the reasons Massachusetts is so high is that it is one of the smallest states in the nation. There's not a lot of land left - and the demand for it keeps growing. So prices skyrocket.
That's what's causing those people to react the way they are. They're afraid of losing money. Unfortunately, that's what makes the world go round. And on top of that, they are being taxed on that land because of its "assessed value." We'll always have this problem unless states can come up with a way of perhaps handing out tax incentives to make people not want to clear the land. Money is what is driving people to react the way they do. Nobody wants to lose out on their investments. Because unfortunately, we need money to survive here.
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#13
26th January 2007, 09:37 AM
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 Just kidding....kind of....LOL  Warren, I know you like to play "devil's advocate" sometimes and that's what I was thinking when I saw your original post. I also understand the point you were trying to make and it is a valid one. I just posted this thread with the title "Stupid Is As Stupid Does" because it seemed to me that the townspeople totally overreacted to the situation. I can understand trying to protect your investments (believe me, I do!), but it just seemed stupid to me to go so overboard as to turn a very scenic place (which is probably one of the reasons the land became so valuable in the first place) into a barren looking "wasteland" over the possibility the some of the trees would be protected. This situation you describe that happened near you is a totally different story in my book and I can totally understand your outrage. I feel the same way. I think it's a terrible situation and no matter how pretty the area is, I don't feel the government or the town or whoever has ANY right to take this family's land and then on top of it, not pay them fair market value. My blood would boil over a situation like this as well. Linda
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#15
17th July 2008, 07:41 PM
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Quote:
Sorry. That's still a very sore point. But I agree, humans are, on the whole, idiots.
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