Maintaning Biodiversity on the Working Landscape and Working Seascape

Great discussion. Was not surprised to hear from the experts and those working with the ESA that it is not working and if nothing changes true success is doubtful. Jeff Eisenberg hit it right on with his comment that going forward whatever gets done needs to be balanced and property rights need to be considered and preserved. Property rights are protected in the Constitution therefore laws and regulations that will minimize or remove that Constitutional right needs to tread lightly. Then there is the issue of economics. As it should be with all government programs, economics should be the keystone element, unfortunately it is always an afterthought since everyone lets business absorb the costs. As was pointed out in the presentations protecting biodiversity is a costly initiative and will continue to be. Due to the high cost they are missing a huge audience since small landowners cannot comply cost effectively, because of this they do not try or just give up and sell out. No surprise to learn that after all these years and all the money spent - which comes out of our pockets be it from the government funds being used (which is really tax dollars) or packed into the cost of the product or service we as consumers purchase from businesses complying - those who work with the program reported that is has been ineffective.

I felt the presenters did an excellent job in laying out the needs and noting time and time again that this could not be done by government purchasing land to create protective reserves. I like the idea of using the citizens and their property through education of the landowners and economic incentives such as tax exempt conservation bonds for landowners of varying landmass so more successes could be documented. Along with that I think there was a clear message that the processes need to be streamlined and the paperwork load reduced as well as a better working relationship between similar laws at the federal, state and local levels. This is obviously a huge job, but one that needs to be done.