Tombstone is a shithole tourist trap anyway, make em move to Bisbee or Douglas!
Anyhow, yeah, I think the Rangers are wrong. Then again I tend to think environmentalists are assholes about things like that, so this isn't so much the Rangers as it is environmental policy being stupid.
Like how I can't vaporize the Swallows nest above the door to my guard shack. They keep shitting all over my doorstep...
Heck, I'm an environmentalist, and I'm kinda scratching my head at this. Now would be the perfect time to repair and restore the pipelines, since nothing's grown back yet.
"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian
Would be a really rotten thing to do if someone actually solved the endangered owl problem by torching their trees. And I can see exactly this happening if the Rangers keep going the way they are going. People are more important than owls. If an owl is making a human's life less safe by virtue of its very existence, as seems to be the case in this instance, then that existence should be terminated as humanely as possible.
Or they could just fix the water and the owls could frigging deal with it, they'll live through a few people using wheelbarrows.
Its a bit of a judgement call.
On one hand, doing something might be bad for the endangered owls.
On the other hand, not doing anything will definitely be bad for the common people there.
Well, honestly, I don't really think that even bringing heavy equipment up would endanger the owls any more than they already have been. The main problem for them is when construction crews remove the trees indiscriminately.
"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian
A new duel for Tombstone, Arizona.
Last year, a series of wildfires in June scorched the mountains north of the town, killing off most of the plant life. The damage caused by the wildfires and the subsequent monsoon seasonal flooding (due to few remaining trees to anchor the soil) cut off their water, so the town needed to repair the pipeline.
However, the rangers of the U.S. Forestry service are going to great lengths (and somewhat ridiculous ones: declaring a wheelbarrow as "mechanical"? Really?) to stop them, citing environmental concerns like protecting endangered owls. While they have a temporary solution in place, it doesn't seem likely to hold.
The result is a huge political fight that turned very ugly, and currently is working its way through the court system as a lawsuit. The rangers state that the town is trying to "improve" the pipeline, rather than simply repair it. The town apparently is not impressed, viewing the rangers as looking down on the town and the people there. At one point, the town mayor was recalled, leading to a different one taking over the legal fight. The whole thing is starting to get nationwide attention.
There is a point where environmentalism does get in the way of human survival, and I'm thinking the rangers are pushing the line there. Granted, this may be a New Orleans style case where settling there originally was not the best idea, but, well, here they are now. Something has to be done, that much is sure.
edited 10th May '12 3:45:52 PM by TotemicHero
Expergiscēre cras, medior quam hodie. (Awaken tomorrow, better than today.)