Reordering Environmental Priorities

Barbara McCarthy’s letter, “Some Species Should Not Be Saved” (July 7), does raise valid questions about the attitude of many environmentalists who discount the needs of their fellow human beings in favor of lesser species.

Measures taken to enforce the Endangered Species Act indicate that the federal government has become too fixated on the preservation of individual habitats without regard to the dire consequences for public health and safety, and even the environment that officials seek to protect.

A prime example of preservation gone awry was the release of 6 billion gallons of fresh water from Prado Reservoir after the March storms to prevent the flooding of the nests of the least Bell’s vireo. It is possible that this bird could have established nests after the dam was built, perhaps because the occasional inundation left the area more hospitable for wildlife.

The water was desperately needed to replenish the underground basin that supplies drinking water to many communities in northern Orange County. This resource is badly depleted after five years of drought. The first impact of any shortage will likely be felt by the green areas that make life tolerable in our asphalt jungle. These refuges in the urban “‘wilderness” could also be habitats for endangered species, including the bird that federal bureaucrats sought to protect.

Common sense dictates a reordering of priorities in the environmental movement.

WILLIAM J. STREMMEL, Huntington Beach