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California 101-405 Interchange Opposed by Creation … errr … Environmentalists

The tyranny of the minority is starting to gnash its ugly teeth in California as environmentalists vocalize their opposition to a revamp of the 101-405 interchange in Los Angeles. The current interchange

is ranked among the state’s most dangerous and delay-prone interchanges, routinely carrying more vehicles than it was designed to handle and often causing bottlenecks on the southbound San Diego Freeway. The exit from the southbound San Diego Freeway to the northbound Ventura Freeway (which actually runs west) is used by about 25,000 vehicles each day.

“This is one of the busier connectors we have in the entire country,” said Aziz Elattar, office chief of Caltrans’ environmental planning division. “Everyone involved in transportation agrees it’s an important project.”

Everyone, that is, except the environmentalists, who oppose the project on the grounds that it will take a few acres in the corner of the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve. Apparently, migrating Canada geese (real name, not typo) have been using the park as a resting place on their migration. Canada geese are not endangered, far from it, they’re so numerous that they have expanded their habitat to Europe and are actually considered pests in some areas – resulting in efforts to cull their numbers.

But, as the environmentalists put it:

“We’ve trained the geese to come here for 20 years and forage in grasses we planted,” said Steve Hartman, a volunteer with the California Native Plant Society. “Are they going to come one year and it will be a dirt construction site?”

Oh, so you artificially created an environment and trained birds that are not endangered to come there when they normally would not, and we should oppose this because a few acres of this artificial wildlife preserve might be temporarily off limits to the geese. How exactly does this constitute an emergency when we consider this is one of the worst interchanges in terms of delays and safety? Do these environmentalists really value these geese over people’s lives?

Answer, yes. Again in their own words:

“We’ve put 30 years of work and sweat into it,” said Kris Ohlenkamp, who has spent decades rehabilitating the reserve and estimates he has taken thousands of children on walks there. “This wildlife area is part of the San Fernando Valley’s culture. It’s part of everyone’s lives here.”

Moron alert! – This isn’t part of everyone’s lives, it’s ARTIFICIAL. It wasn’t there until you created it 30 years ago.

“Many volunteers, the city and the U.S. Army Corps have worked for many years to develop the wildlife area,” said Kevin Regan, the department’s assistant general manager. “It would be a difficult thing to have any damage, or destruction, or loss of that open space.”

That sounds great – way more important than this:

[the project will] ease the daily commute for some 318,000 drivers. It will save more than 738 million gallons of fuel and nearly 50 minutes in time per round-trip for the average commuter, according to a report released by the American Highway Users Alliance.

The improvements will protect drivers from an estimated 9,017 crashes, including 36 fatalities and 4,427 injuries, according to the report. There will also be reductions in emissions of carbon monoxide by 63 percent, smog-causing volatile organic compounds by 60 percent and carbon dioxide by 82 percent.

Humorously, the “habitat” that the environmentalists want to protect is a dam – that’s right, a manmade structure that THE WILDLIFE HAVE ADAPTED TO.

Let’s assume that the wildlife wouldn’t be able to adapt in this instance though – so what? Again, this wasn’t here 30 years ago, and the geese aren’t endangered.

But we’re supposed to express concern for the other species too, the theoretical fuzzy crested striped bill chirpbirds that are endangered!!!!

Let me tell you the Lewis Derkins theory of endangered species – there are two types. The first are the animals that are truly endangered as a result of man’s actions – see Bison, Tigers, Elephants, etc… These animals are important to their habitats and we should conserve them. They occupy important niches in their ecosystem that will suffer without their presence.

Then we have the second group – the useless chirpbirds of the planet – the odd curiosities that are very interesting to look at, but don’t do a whole lot. California has things like the desert tortoise – an animal so stupid that it will urinate as a defense mechanism if handled, dehydrate itself and potentially die (pretty smart for an animal that lives in a desert with no water). This animal isn’t endangered because of man, this animal is endangered because of natural selection, and man’s efforts are only prolonging the inevitable.

If this freeway expansion kills the last of the four fuzzy crested chirpbirds, how will it affect anyone? How many mosquitoes do they eat, what animal eats them or depends on them to pollinate or fertilize? None – that’s how many. Like it or not, most of these species are on the long slide to oblivion because they have been displaced by bigger and better species – not man.

But with these people, it’s almost like arguing with a creationist. They talk in circles. We need to protect the sanctity of all life because of its divine origin, but overlook the fact that God has no further plans for this species. We also need to respect the science of ecosystems, but we need to try to re-engineer their natural selection processes to suit our notions of fairness.

This is beyond stupid. It is borderline criminal.

Quit killing real people to save some cute little bird that doesn’t stand a chance anyway.

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