Conservationist’s Lompoc Land Deal Goes Awry
“Eight years ago, the County of Santa Barbara accepted responsibility for killing two tiger salamanders, a federally protected species that lives in rural ponds and vernal pools, and the wheels of bureaucracy have been slowly grinding ever since to make things right. But along the way, the woman who tried to save the county from the expensive wrath of federal wildlife officials says she’s been most thoroughly wronged and is dismayed that the county is now blaming her for the need to unleash its powers of eminent domain — the government’s right to take private property for public use — to finalize the deal.
“This could have been handled with the feathered touch of diplomacy,” explained Sonia Wisniewska, formerly Anderson, who let the county create habitat and a conservation easement for the rare creature on 16 acres of her ranch near Lompoc, in hopes of showing her regulation-fearing North County neighbors they could work with the government toward mutually beneficial results. “Instead, they came out with the A-bomb,” she said.
The specifics of the real-estate transactions that led to today’s situation are tremendously complicated, and there are fundamental disagreements about who should have done what and when. But everyone agrees that the “A-bomb” of eminent domain is a last resort, especially in an agricultural region where worries about further regulations are already explosive.”
Kettmann, Matt. Santa Barbara Independent 3 October 2013.