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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, July 7, 2022
OPINION
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
DERRICK DePLEDGE
Editor
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OUR VIEW
A bee is definitely not a fish
W
e live in a time when
we are regularly being
told that we are not to
believe what we see, but instead
to believe what we are told about
what we see. Up is down, down is
up.
Still, we were nonetheless sur-
prised a California appeals court
has ruled that a bumblebee can be
a fish as defined by the Califor-
nia Endangered Species Act. Then
again, it is California.
In 2018, the Defenders of Wild-
life, Xerces Society for Inverte-
brate Conservation and Center for
Food Safety petitioned the Califor-
nia Fish and Game Commission to
list four bumblebee species — the
Crotch, Franklin’s, Suckley cuckoo
and Western bumblebees — for
protection.
However, there was a catch.
The California law only protects
“native species or subspecies of
a bird, mammal, fish, amphibian,
reptile or plant.” Insects are nota-
bly missing from the list.
But, that’s only if you read the
plain text of the law. Don’t believe
what you see.
Section 45 of the California
Endangered Species Act defines a
fish as a “wild fish, mollusk, crus-
tacean, invertebrate, amphibian
or part, spawn or ovum of any of
those animals.” The environmental
groups argued for a reinterpretation
of the code where the word “inver-
tebrate” includes all invertebrates
whether on land or in the water.
Rich Hatfield/Xerces Society
A California fish?
The California Fish and Game
Commission responded by voting
to begin the listing process in 2019
but was sued by seven agricultural
groups, including the Almond Alli-
ance of California and the Califor-
nia Farm Bureau Federation.
The California Superior Court
ruled in favor of the farm groups
in 2020, but in May the Califor-
nia 3rd District Court of Appeals
reversed the decision, allowing
bumblebees to be classified as fish.
“Although the term fish is collo-
quially and commonly understood
to refer to aquatic species, the term
of art employed by the Legisla-
ture in the definition of fish in sec-
tion 45 is not so limited,” Associ-
ate Justice Ronald Robie wrote for
the three-judge panel. “ … Accord-
ingly, a terrestrial invertebrate, like
each of the four bumblebee spe-
cies, may be listed as an endan-
gered or threatened species under
the act.”
A fish is whatever we say it is.
We think the court is mistaken
and has given short shrift to the
clear language California legisla-
tors used to define “fish.” In 1970,
when the act became law, a fish
was a fish, and a bee was a bee.
When lawmakers repealed the
act and replaced it in 1984, and
amended it several times over the
years, it did nothing that broadened
the definition of fish to include
insects, or provide specific protec-
tion to insects. The court acknowl-
edges its position requires a liberal
interpretation.
No kidding.
Bees and other insects could
conceivably need protection.
The Legislature is free to add, in
equally clear language, a defini-
tion of “insect” and extend poten-
tial protection.
The issue before the court was
whether the act, as written, pro-
vided the basis for that protection.
It did not.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The path forward
Americans are living in a tumultu-
ous version of our country, with surprises
coming from the courts each day. No one
can tell what will be next.
Authoritarian movements always tell
us what they will do. We must listen
when they describe their war on individ-
ual rights and American democracy. After
successfully enshrining guns and over-
turning reproductive rights, they are tar-
geting contraception, LGBTQ+ identity,
relationships and marriage; voting rights,
school funding and free and fair elec-
tions. Recent weeks show us that what
they can’t win in Congress, they will take
through the Supreme Court.
Despite claiming to be the party of
small government, Republicans and their
funders seek to impose a framework of
authoritarian power in which govern-
ments exercise profound control over
our lives. These actions not only shatter
American norms, they also set a danger-
ous precedent.
Our choices are to do nothing or to
resist. We must stop reactionary ideology
and theology from destroying our coun-
try through a slow-motion dissolution of
rights and freedoms. Democracy is on the
ballot this year. Your vote will determine
the survival or end of that ideal.
It is time for each us to become pro-de-
mocracy activists. Please join and support
pro-democracy groups and campaigns for
candidates who share your values. Join
get-out-the-vote campaigns hosted by
PostcardsToVoters.org and Indivisible.org
If we don’t save our democracy, who
will? Who will speak for each of us if we
remain silent?
MARY BETH COTTLE
Leadership team, Indivisible North
Coast Oregon, Cannon Beach
LETTERS WELCOME
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Find that balance
The decision to allow the first short-
term rental to open for business in a res-
idential coastal neighborhood in Clatsop
County let the proverbial horse out of the
barn, and this horse is not going back in
the barn quietly, and likely not at all.
Fast forward, and county commis-
sioners have come up with the purported
solution to this earlier miscalculation —
Ordinance 22-05. Problem solved; com-
missioners can now move on to other
pressing agenda items.
Unfortunately, they may not like what
they see in their rearview mirrors. A tsu-
nami maybe headed their way, taking the
form of a referendum to once and for all
limit the unfettered proliferation of short-
term rentals in the county’s residential
neighborhoods.
Angered citizens who believe their
quality of life is being negatively
impacted by short-term rental operations
just might follow in the footsteps of their
neighbors to the south.
The citizens of Lincoln County suc-
cessfully overruled their county commis-
sioners, who apparently ignored their con-
cerns that short-term rentals negatively
impact the quality of life.
The short-term rental issue will
to other letter writers should address
the issue at hand and should refer to
the headline and date the letter was
published. Discourse should be civil.
Send via email to editor@dailyasto-
rian.com, online at bit.ly/astorianlet-
ters, in person at 949 Exchange St.
in Astoria or mail to Letters to the
Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR.,
97103.
continue to appear and reappear on
the board’s agenda for some time to
come. They will need to find that bal-
ance between one’s property rights and
the overall quality of life in residential
neighborhoods.
JIM AALBERG
Warrenton
Dehumanization is next
Regarding the Supreme Court’s over-
turning Roe v. Wade:
Roe v. Wade guaranteed a right to pri-
vacy that extended to all people, not just
women. That right has been revoked and
it will affect everyone, even you. And
when the court is coming for contracep-
tion next.
Men benefit from abortion just as much
as women do. Men are the cause of all
pregnancies.
Women are going to die because abor-
tions happen in so many scenarios where
otherwise a woman would die. And all of
the girls and women forced to give birth
(no matter by whom or by what means)
will risk losing their lives from giving
birth.
There are either human rights or there
are no human rights. There is no parsing
these rights out to certain people while
denying them to others. Believing that
to be true is what got us here in the first
place.
This country is not even remotely pre-
pared for what is going to happen as a
result of this obscene decision. They are
coming for the LGBQT community next.
After that, well, who knows? One thing
is certain, no matter who you are, your
dehumanization is next.
CHRISTINA BUCK
Seaside