How has the ESA Impacted America?

. There have been numerous examples of how the ESA has had adverse impacts throughout the country. From Oklahoma where a thirteen mile highway project was delayed for four years because American burying beetles were found along two proposed routes, to Kentucky where loggers lost their jobs when the Forest Service shut down logging in the Daniel Boone National Forest for eight months in order to protect the red-cockaded woodpecker; people all over the country have felt the sting of the ESA's rigid enforcement.

The environmental community, and to some extent the government agencies responsible for protecting listed species as well, have attempted to dismiss these stories and other like them as "hearsay" and "fairy tales". But these stories are true, and they show just how draconian the curent law can be and where changes need to be made.

Below are additional examples of how the current implementation of the ESA has adversely impacted people all across the country. If you have been impacted by the ESA's implementation, let us know. Tell us your stories!

Delhi Sands Flower Loving Fly

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) delayed for years the construction of the San Bernardino Medical Center in California. The project was delayed because of FWS concerns over its impact on the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly — a large orange and black fly which feeds on flower nectar.

In order to win the permission of the FWS to build the needed medical complex,




The City of San Bernardino had to spend $3,310,199 to mitigate for the presence of eight flies;
The site of the hospital had to be shifted 250 feet;
Eight of the project's 64 acres had to be set aside as a fly preserve, surrounded by a chain link fence dotted with "No Trespassing" signs; and
The City of San Bernardino had to finance a five year, $480,000, study of the flies.

Construction has also been halted on a subdivision in nearby Fontana, California, because the fly lives on some of the property. Officials worry that a significant portion of $10 million in municipal bonds issued for the project will go unpaid.
Potentially most costly of all, the planned Agua Mansa Enterprise Zone, a massive industrial development that would be built on and around fly habitat, is stalled and so too are the 20,000 jobs its proponents say would be created over the next 15 years.

NBC Nightly News — February 14, 1997
Washington Post — April 4, 1997