[CPEO-MEF] Habitat proposal decried

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Habitat proposal decried
By Scott Radway
Pacific Daily News
Friday, October 25, 2002

Gov. Carl Gutierrez yesterday denounced as ill-conceived and exclusive a
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to designate 24,800 acres on
Guam as critical habitat for three endangered species.
"The critical habitat issue is very complicated and very emotional,
especially for many Chamorro families who are directly impacted by it,"
Gutierrez said during his weekly radio address.

"Unfortunately the federal bureaucrats at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service fail to understand this. Worse yet, they refuse to discuss many
of the concerns raised by our administration, by the business community,
and by original landowners."

Gutierrez's first public statement on the issue comes a day after
Chamorro families vented their frustration with the plan at a public
information meeting, telling Fish and Wildlife officials to "go home."
The Chamorro families said the federal government should not dictate how
indigenous people should use their own land.

The critical habitat would be created for the Guam Micronesian
kingfisher, the Mariana crow and the Mariana fruit bat. The bulk of the
land the proposal would designate is on Andersen Air Force Base and in
Naval Magazine areas around Fena Lake in southern Guam.

The federal government controls 19,800 acres of the land area proposed,
land under the jurisdiction of the Air Force, Navy and Fish and
Wildlife. The government of Guam holds 2,800 acres, and 2,100 acres are
privately owned, according to Fish and Wildlife.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.guampdn.com/news/stories/20021025/localnews/360268.html

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