Conservation is a twisted liability for Gray Skipper and the Alabama landowner feels betrayed by his own government. Despite Skipper’s family allowing decades of public access to private property for conservation, scientific research, and recreation, a federal agency has dropped a critical habitat designation on 10,000 of the family acres in the name of a threatened snake that doesn’t live on the ground. “No good deed goes unpunished,” Skipper exclaims. “Where has reason gone in this country?”
In February 2020, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) tagged 324,679 acres in Alabama and Mississippi as critical habitat for the black pinesnake, including 93,208 acres of private land. Even with only a single black pinesnake sighting on Skipper’s property across almost 30 years, and 60 years of family effort toward habitat preservation, he now is under the regulatory weight of a federal decree that permanently alters the value of his ground and silviculture business. FWS insists economic loss to private landowners, including Skipper, will be minimal. “Who believes that?” he asks. “This is the very definition of overreach.”
Represented by Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), Skipper is in a legal battle as the lead plaintiff in a suit against FWS and the Department of the Interior (DOI). “Office bureaucrats that preach about saving species and taking care of the land are hypocrites because they do nothing but hurt their own cause by breaking trust with private citizens,” Skipper contends. “What landowner wants FWS to show up at their gate? Really, who in the hell actually trusts FWS anymore?”
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