Richard Pombo: “If you want to use your property, you have to go to the Federal Government and get permission to use your property, or…”

“If you want to use your property, you have to go to the Federal Government and get permission to use your property, or risk being taken under the Endangered Species Act and being prosecuted for taking an endangered species. You must go to the Federal Government to use your property. So, fine. You do not have to go to the Federal Government, unless you want to use your property. Now, under the marbled murrelet critical habitat listing it says they need 150-foot-tall trees. This is part of the private property that was so necessary to include under the Endangered Species Act to protect the threatened marbled murrelet, this property right here. You can tell that it is not a forest, it is not populated with 150-foot-high trees, and yet they insist that it must be protected. This is about private property rights. That is what this debate is all about, and that is what we must protect.”