Charles T. Canady: “I want to go to an actual example, the bald eagle, one of the few successes we can point to under the Endangered Species…”

“I want to go to an actual example, the bald eagle, one of the few successes we can point to under the Endangered Species Act. The requirements in my part of the country were practical and simple. You had to leave one tree. You had to leave the nest tree. You could have 100 acres of land, but you had to leave one tree to recover the bald eagle. It has now recovered. That is a live and living symbol of the United States of America. I think it was worth saving the bald eagle. Under this legislation, we would have had to compensate every single person who saved one tree, one tree. Is that too much to ask? I do not believe that is an unwarranted intrusion. Ten percent is an absurd threshold. Ten percent of any portion of your land, that is 1 tree out of 10, you get compensated. That is not right. This is something that is taking the relief that is needed too far to hamstring and follow another agenda. This is the big developers' agenda. This is not going to help the little people of my district who have been having problems with the Federal Government.”