THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 7, 1994 TAG: 9409070011
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 51 lines
The canebrake rattlesnake is on Virginia's endangered species list, and scientists studying the snake in Chesapeake's Northwest River Park have tagged some of the snakes to track their movements. Local farmers, however, are up in arms. They worry that the snakes, some of whom have slithered onto their land, may make the farmers the next victims of environmental laws that favor the rights of animals over the rights of property owners.
The Chesapeake farmers have every right to be worried about being snakebitten. When the federal government introduced the protected red wolf to a reservation in North Carolina, neighborhood farmers discovered there was nothing they could do when the wolves wandered off the reservation and began killing goats and hunting dogs. While Virginia law is not quite as Draconian as federal law in circumscribing the rights of property owners, there's still plenty of potential for mischief.
Virginia law states, for instance, that an endangered species cannot be killed, moved, injured or sold. So, if a sharp-eyed farmer riding his tractor one day spots a canebrake rattlesnake in his path, he'd better stop and wait for the snake to get out of the way in its own good time. If the farmer tries to hurry it along - or, God forbid, were to run over it and kill it - it would be an ``environmental crime.''
What makes all this fuss bizarre is the fact that the canebrake rattlesnake is commonly found throughout the American South, and so is an odd candidate for an endangered-species list. And even though the canebrake has not made it onto the federal list, it's probably only a matter of time, since about 60 new species are declared ``endangered'' each year.
The consequences for property owners have already been drastic. In the Pacific Northwest, thousands of logging jobs have been sacrificed to protect the spotted owl, which turns out to be not nearly as endangered as it was advertised to be. A California farmer is facing heavy fines because he accidentally chopped up with a tractor a supposedly endangered rat that turns out to be virtually identical to a species that is found in almost every field in the state.
As with most extreme laws, there has been a reaction. Environmentalists in California report the rise of a practice known as ``Triple S,'' for ``shoot, shovel and shut up.'' People are no longer taking a chance that an ``endangered species'' will be found on their property. Perhaps Gov. George Allen could take a look at the state's environmental laws, before ``Triple S'' becomes a way of life in Virginia. by CNB