Richard Pombo Property Quotations

The purpose of this bill is to protect my private property owners, ... and to make them willing participants in protecting species and their habitat.

The act has been a failure at recovering species, ... We have to respond to that and step in and reauthorize the bill, put the focus on recovery and protect private property owners.

Private property owners have to be part of the solution,

There's something wrong with that, and I don't know how anyone can defend taking someone's private property for a public use, for the public good, and not paying them for it just because you've gotten away with it for 32 years.

In our bill we protect the small property owners, ... It was a compromise, a reasonable way to protect endangered species, to protect the habitat which they need to recover.

You've got to pay when you take away somebody's private property. That is what we have to do. The only way this is going to work is if we bring in property owners to be part of the solution and to be part of recovering those species.

The Endangered Species Act is in desperate need of an update, ... It has hurt species recovery by leading to the trend we all know as 'shoot, shovel and shut up.' And it has hurt family farmers and ranchers by taking their property away.

I am willing to do whatever we can to put the focus on recovery and do what we can to recover these species as long as my property owners are protected,