Reply #50: Some of it, however, is NOT a natural process. Witness the

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plight of the http://audubon2.org/watchlist/viewSpecies.jsp?id=85">Golden-Cheeked Warbler. "This warbler is one of the most at-risk species in North America. It breeds exclusively on or near the Edwards Plateau of central Texas, requiring Ashe juniper habitat, much of which has been lost or altered due to urban sprawl and land management practices. Birders make the pilgrimage from all over the world to see this special warbler."

I personally have previously been active in the conservation of this species here in Texas and, together with the Travis Audobon Society of Austin, the Texas Resource Conservation Commission and the Texas Fish & Wildlife Department, my organization (currently inactive) Environmentalists Concerned for the Habitats of Earth (ECHOE) played an important role in mediating the conservation compromise that has kept this species relatively stable for the past 10 years.

But the road to compromise was littered with potholes. It is EXTREMELY difficult to stop suburban sprawl. And the other "land management practices" mentioned in the blurb above was the practice by ranchers of cutting down the juniper breaks in which this species builds its nest and raises its young. The area was suffering a persistent drought and ranchers needed to clear these trees in order to give the grasses that fed their livestock more room to grow.

I formed ECHOE as a vehicle to begin my campaign to save this bird and it started with letters to my local paper, then political meetings (including my personal presentation to Pete Geren, eww!), clandestinely attending and tape-recording county and ranch coop meetings, then protests on the front lawn of the state capitol building in Austin that drew 1500 angry ranchers and culminating in the conference room of an office building in Waco where the compromise was reached. The ranchers had agreed to spare the juniper trees on hillsides and steep grades and in canyons and draws. This was a great victory because if there's one thing a Texas ranchers hates is someone telling him what he should and shouldn't do with his land.

Oh, and, I hate this part. During all of that I had the opportunity to question one certain little puny sample of a man by the name of George W. Bush who was at the time running for governor of Texas against the dearly beloved Ann Richards about his environmental policies for Texas.

My question: Mr. Bush, what will you do to ensure the perpituity of endangered species such as the Golden-Cheeked Warbler if you are elected governor? His answer: "Heh, heh. Well, I love to hunt and fish so I'll be thinking along those lines."