Priorities ???

[Kondla, Norbert FOR:EX]

In a recent note Ron Gatrelle made the following interesting observation
about a skipper living in a part of the world that is susceptible to habitat
destruction:
"Thus, this year I directly contacted top people with F&WS and the Nature
Conservancy asking them to help provide  possible protection for this unique
skippers habitat and consider requiring an impact survey for all development
south of Myrtle Beach relative to this skipper.  I didn't even receive a
polite "we got your letter" from either of these entities."
Having reviewed a number of listing documents under the USA endangered
'species' legislation I sometimes wonder both about the criteria used for
assessment and the seemingly interesting priorities for which entities will
get attention.  Seems a little odd that a non-endangered beast like Boloria
acrocnema (living on mountain tops in the wilderness) would get so much
attention while butterflies living in development-prone areas would get
pushed off to the corner of the desk.  I guess some people see nothing wrong
with spending money on non-endangered things while those are are really at
risk get ignored :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Norbert Kondla  P.Biol., RPBio.
Forest Ecosystem Specialist, Ministry of Environment
845 Columbia Avenue, Castlegar, British Columbia V1N 1H3
Phone 250-365-8610
Mailto:Norbert.Kondla at gems3.gov.bc.ca       
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca