The Most Endangered Species

What do you consider to be the most endangered species in America? Could it be the number one topic of the day: the American Bison? Or, could it possibly be the Gray Wolf, the Sage Hen, Whooping Crane, Black-Footed Ferret, Pallid Sturgeon or the Sprague’s Pipit. And what about the Side-Hill Gouger and the Jackalope? (Very rarely seen these days and nearing extinction much like the T-Rex)

There are 104 species of fish listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) along with 29 species of snails. At last count there were 63 mammals listed as being on the Active Recovery Plan.

To sum it all up, there are 685 (all species) listed on the endangered or threatened rolls. Of that number, 474 are with active recovery plans. No sponges, flatworms, annelid worms or roundworms are listed, much to the delight of fisher-people everywhere.

It costs American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars to administer to these creatures. I can think of at least a dozen places more needy of those dollars than in the “saving” of the Greater Sage-Grouse.

I have one more thing that should be placed on the ESA list immediately if not sooner. It’s a mammal that has been in decline since the ‘30s and ‘40s of the last century. Where once there was a farm family on nearly every farm-able 320 acre piece of ground in every state in the Plains Region of America, now there are single-family farms and ranches that have swallowed up the small farmer/rancher who couldn’t make a decent living off the acreage he had and couldn’t afford to buy more.

Where once farmers plowed with teams of horses or oxen they are now driving $250,000 tractors towing 90 feet of air drills and harvesting wheat with $400,000 combines. Back in the day a family living frugally could make do on a 300 acre farm. Now there are farms that are cropping upwards of 25,000 acres of corn, wheat, barley, peas and other crops.

In my way of thinking folks, the most endangered species in America today is the young farmer/rancher having to go into debt three or five hundred thousand bucks to get a start in a career of agriculture raising animals and crops to feed a hungry nation.

A rancher is in an ever-fluctuating business. Wheat prices change daily, as do cattle prices. His operating costs are not constant either. Where farm diesel can cost two dollars a gallon one year and four dollars the next. Where the bottom can drop out of the cow market overnight. He is constantly at the mercy of the weather. A sharp late spring snowstorm can wipe out half his calf crop. A violent hailstorm can obliterate a 50 bushel to the acre crop in a heartbeat. His very livelihood depends on the stock and commodity markets where greed and corporate profits are the common goals.

So, let’s get these young people on the endangered or threatened list, protect them, at least from government overbearance and regulation, so they can grow and prosper.

That’s it for now folks. Thanks for listening.