Today the Center for Biological Diversity announced that the winner of its third annual Rubber Dodo Award is Michael Winer, portfolio manager for Third Avenue Management, LLC (“TAREX”).
The Center for Biological Diversity awards the Rubber Dodo each year to the person who has contributed the most to driving endangered species extinct. Winer was selected this year for his leadership role in Third Avenue Management, LLC (“TAREX”), a giant real-estate investment firm responsible for unsustainable sprawl in California and Florida – and the driving force behind the proposed destruction of Tejon Ranch with a luxury development known as Tejon Mountain Village.
Last year’s recipient was former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
According to Center for Biological Diversity attorney Adam Keats, Winer is behind Tejon Ranch Company’s plan to destroy the largest parcel of private land in California, home to the critically endangered California condor.
Mr. Winer, more than almost any other single individual, is responsible for the reckless speculative investment strategies that have led to the current development pressure facing Tejon Ranch.
If Tejon Mountain Village gets built, our children will very likely never be able to witness the majesty of the California condor soaring over its ancient core habitat. Meanwhile, we’ll all be stuck holding the bill for the project’s smog, traffic, water use, and wildfires, while Mr. Winer and his investors make off with the profits.
In an effort to distract the public from its bid to destroy critically endangered California condor habitat, Tejon Ranch Company concocted an elaborate PR scheme called “Tejon Preserve”, which (ahem) won a conservation award from environmentally-unconscious California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Congratulations, Winer – you’ve certainly earned it.
See also:
- Condor-Killing Development Company Receives Governor’s Conservation Award?
- California Condors in Peril: Is ‘Tejon Preserve’ Just A PR Smokescreen?
Image via Center for Biological Diversity
About Rhishja Cota-Larson
Big deal! A fringe eco-terrorist group gives out a nonsensical award. If it was up to the Center for Bio Diversity, the human race would be living in caves. Get a life you losers!
Just because nature has made u capable enough to have an upper hand over other species, doesn’t give you any right to exploit or ignore them. Whatever is your idea of a life, I believe its as pathetic as you, Frank.
Waaahh….. Humans do have the upper hand you moron. And where do you live? Do you flush a toilet? Do you drive a car? Do you heat your home? Why is it that every reputable environmental group has agreed that the Tejon Ranch conservation agreement is good for the environment? The Center for Bio Diversity is a fringe organization that has now resorted to personal attacks to promote their out-of-touch-with-reality agenda. Talk about wasting resources. I feel sorry for anyone who donates their hard earned wages to an organization that is run by a group of former hippies that obviously dropped too much acid back in the day.
Frank Benjamin :
“The Center for Bio Diversity is a fringe organization that has now resorted to personal attacks to promote their out-of-touch-with-reality agenda. Talk about wasting resources.”
This sentiment would carry more weight if it wasn’t immediately followed by personal attacks.
Frank Benjamin :
“I feel sorry for anyone who donates their hard earned wages to an organization that is run by a group of former hippies that obviously dropped too much acid back in the day.”
Ignore Frank, Puneet. He’s missed the point. Those that can have to do for those who cannot. If a human can keep another human from wiping out a beneficial species, he should. Frank probably has real estate investments and is so short-sighted that he doesn’t see the benefits of having big, ugly birds in his subdivision. I bet he thought the Gulf War was a good idea, too. Maybe he should drop some acid. It MIGHT open his eyes, but I doubt it. Who cares where the Center for Bio Diversity came from, the message is sound. Don’t kill off an endangered species because you feel it’s your manifest destiny to do so. I GOT IT – ask a native American what he feels we should do with his land. Wait, there aren’t any more of them. Screw it, Frank, do whatever the hell you want. I’m sure God will reward you for it.
DIAF
is that an actual trophy? or just a photoshop mockup?
“Those that can have to do for those who cannot. If a human can keep another human from wiping out a beneficial species, he should.” … Oh please…now I want to just cry for your bleeding heart.
Sorry, I do not have real estate investments. I am simply mad as hell because there seem to be so many people from which the CBD has taken money that could have gone to other environmental organizations that have more mainstream agendas.
Come on folks! It’s very easy for the CBD to say that they want all 270,000 acres of Tejon Ranch preserved as a national park. BUT WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR THAT? This is still the United States of America, and the last time I checked, Tejon Ranch owns it’s land. IT’S CALLED PRIVATE PROPERTY!!!. If the government or conservation groups don’t want to allow the limited development that Tejon Ranch is proposing (with the blessing of the “mainstream enviro groups), then SOMEONE HAS TO BUY IT.
It’s very easy to take an unreasonable position, but then you have to ultimately back it up with science or CASH. The CBD doesn’t seem to have either one. They are outnumbered, outflanked, outsmarted, out financed and OUT OF TOUCH.