Candidates for county commissioner and gophers

I read with interest two of the candidates comments on suing the federal government concerning the gophers and the fact they are now an endangered species. As I understand it, the largest concentration of these gophers are on JBLM and the Olympia Airport. Both of these entities have taken steps to protect these animals.Some property owners are also affected by the new County regulations about these animals.

It should be noted, to the best of my knowledge that Thurston County is one of two places on our planet where these animals exist. As far as a rescission of the gopher's status and suing the federal government to do so, there are a few things to consider. To begin with, you have to receive permission from the federal government to sue them. If in the unlikely event they give this permission, such a suit would be very expensive and would ultimately fail.

The county put the regulations addressed in place to do their best to help the property owners. Counties do not have much leverage in fighting state and federal regulations, particularly environmental regulations.

I'm sure the candidates were not aware of some of these problems when making their statements about litigation with the federal government.

This story was originally published November 5, 2016 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Candidates for county commissioner and gophers."