Vernon Ehlers: “There is a very important point here that has not been emphasized in the debate. The example of the gentleman from Texas…”

“There is a very important point here that has not been emphasized in the debate. The example of the gentleman from Texas about the red cockaded woodpecker is a good example of how it should be done. We had a similar situation in Michigan with the Courtlands Warbler a number of years ago. Once again we established areas within the national forest and within State forests and solved the problem without impacting private property owners. The reason I mention this is that the portion of the Porter-Farr amendment which has not received emphasis in the debate is the part that requires the agency, as part of their private property impact analysis, to include alternatives to the agency action if indeed that would achieve the intended purpose and lessen that likelihood of a taking of private property, which is precisely what happened in Texas, which is precisely what happened in Michigan. I can tell you from our experience, with takings in Michigan that once we turn the bureaucracy around and say, ``No, you cannot just simply say `no' to some alternatives, you have to sit down with the property owner when they have a permit, you have to sit down with them and discuss alternatives with them.'' That solved virtually all of the problems that we had.”