Lawsuit Filed to Stop Condor-Killing Development, Save Tejon Ranch
A lawsuit to overturn the approval of Tejon Mountain Village - a luxury development which will destroy fragile California condor habitat - has been filed by a coalition of environmental justice advocates, Native Americans, endangered species advocates, and local residents.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Wishtoyo Foundation, TriCounty Watchdogs, and the Center on Race, Poverty & The Environment filed the suit under the California Environmental Quality Act in Kern County Superior Court in Bakersfield.
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Although touted as a conservation milestone in a carefully-crafted PR scheme, Tejon Ranch Company’s proposed development of luxury homes, golf courses, hotels, and heliports is, upon close inspection, actually an environmental disaster. Tejon Mountain Village will destroy critical habitat of the California condor, increase greenhouse gases - and rely completely on an unsustainable water supply.
The development of luxury homes, golf courses, and hotels would destroy critical habitat of the iconic and severely endangered California condor and would potentially derail the most expensive species-recovery effort ever attempted. The project would add significant air pollutants and greenhouse gases to an area that already suffers from the worst air pollution in the country. It would rely entirely on water unsustainably imported from the State Water Project, and is sited on top of two of the largest earthquake faults in the country – as well as in an area known for catastrophic and deadly wildfires.
Chumash sites and sacred places under threat
Mati Waiya, Chumash ceremonial elder and executive director of the Wishtoyo Foundation and its Ventura Coastkeeper Program, said via the Center for Biological Diversity that the upscale development - known as Tejon Mountain Village - demonstrates “greed and disregard for Native American people and cultures”.
It also threatens our sacred and cultural relationship with the California condor that is depicted in our ancient cave paintings and told in our stories, which have been passed down from generation to generation for more than 10,000 years. It is important that we as Chumash people protect our sacred grounds and our ancestors’ burial sites, and continue our elders’ work from the early ’80s to help bring back the California condor population, from 22 left in the wild to a still-scarce population of more than 140. The cultural impact of this proposed development and the accompanying proposed desecration of Chumash cultural resources and our sacred California condor is, once again, a demonstration of greed and disregard for Native American people and cultures.
Wall Street vs. the environment
Even Wall Street - specifically the mutual fund TAREX - is involved in the controversy.
Third Avenue Real Estate Value (TAREX) is the mutual fund that has invested heavily in Tejon Ranch Company (TRC) - and is far more interested in turning a profit than acting in a socially or environmentally conscious manner.
Attorney Adam Keats, director of the Urban Wetlands Program at the Center for Biological Diversity, points out that the development of Tejon Mountain Village will adversely affect the entire state of California.
All of California will suffer if this project gets built – more water will be stolen, the bird that graces our quarter will be doomed, our air will get dirtier, and thousands of people will be placed in harm’s way because of earthquakes and wildfires that will inevitably follow – all so Wall Street can make another quick buck.
Last month, the Center for Biological Diversity announced that the 2009 winner of the Rubber Dodo Award was Michael Winer, portfolio manager for Third Avenue Real Estate Value (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.
How to help
There are only 358 California condors left in the world.
To learn more about how you can help the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus), visit Save Tejon Ranch.
Find out more about how Tejon Ranch Company is threatening the survival of critically endangered California condors:
- Condor-Killing Development Company Receives Governor’s Conservation Award?
- California Condors in Peril: Is ‘Tejon Preserve’ Just a PR Smokescreen?
- Tejon Ranch Company’s Development Plans Include ‘Incidental Take’ Permit for California Condors
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Rhishja, Excellent story as always. The groups involved in this suit would easily win, if our justice system wasn’t just an extension Wall Street. Just as George Orwell wrote in his book “Animal Farm”………… the pigs are the ones that have the power.