A Natural Disaster

An Oregon developer was recently sued for trespassing by the U.S. government after they repeatedly trespassed on acreage owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in order to “remove” thousands of vegetation and landscaping materials such as rock and dead wood.  It took some pretty big cajones to pull off such a stunt. The developer stated they needed these particular vegetative resources in order to give a desert like appearance to two golf courses on their resort. And that’s supposed to make it alright?! So far the developing company has only agreed to pay $200,000 for the materials they took, an amount far less than what they would have had to pay a nursery supplier. Is the government asleep on this one? The U.S. government has been known to pay that much for a single screwdriver! Not to mention the fact that this went way beyond trespassing; it was blatant and intentional stealing. Guess it’s a good thing the developers weren’t putting a lake on the property, the U.S. government probably wouldn’t have a clue what to collect for Rainbow Trout, Steelhead, or Salmon.