I love the Endangered Species Act, but you could write volumes about the bizarre ways it gets enforced here in California. (Above and beyond the volumes you could write about how we do ANYTHING in California) Two fascinating examples:
On one of the Channel Islands (that's basically Catalina for those who don't know West Coast geography) there is a tiny little fox which is native there and found nowhere else. Cutest little bugger you ever saw, but they are practically extinct. Seems that the introduction of pigs that went feral messed up the balance for that area, and to make a long story short, a species of EAGLE which had not been living there before came over from the mainland to take advantage of all the baby pigs and they have forced out the Bald Eagles which DID "belong there". So now, in order to enforce the Endangered Species Act, the Park Service and the ecologists find themselves in the messy position of having to shoot both pigs and eagles, which wipes out the currently dominant life forms there, in order to "save" the little fox who might not survive anyway.
The other case is up at the newly ground-broken University of California Merced, where in one of the most brazen sweetheart deals of the century a local rich guy was allowed to "donate the land free" so that the UC system would start building an entire university from the ground up in the middle of nowhere instead of taking over available areas with fully constructed structures, utilities, and access (one of which was in downtown Fresno). The payoff is that the guy owns all the rest of the land surrounding this spot and will be able to cash in bigtime with his monopoly on all housing sites, shopping centers, and anything else that follows a growing university. Ooooops! Vernal pools
Itty bitty fairy shrimps, only found during the few months of the year when it rains enough, but on the List. So now we have a scheming would-be developer turning purple because he has to set aside many prime acres right in the middle of where he planned to put a golf course and luxury housing (which every university MUST have) so as not to harm something which is difficult to see with the naked eye. Yep, spotted owls are great, but fairy shrimps rock too
