U.S. Agrees to Drop Endangered-Species Case Against Farmer

The federal government has agreed to drop its controversial case against a bamboo farmer accused of plowing under critical habitat of three endangered species in Kern County and killing five kangaroo rats.

Attorneys for farmer Taung Ming-Lin declared a victory Monday in the yearlong case that has galvanized conservatives nationwide who argue that federal officials have gone overboard in enforcing the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Lin admitted no wrongdoing in exchange for the federal government’s agreement not to prosecute him or his company. In addition, the 52-year-old Taiwanese immigrant can still farm his land outside Bakersfield if he waits six months and obtains the proper state and federal permits.

Lin will donate $5,000 toward endangered species protection in Kern County as part of the agreement.

“There is no question that public sentiment had a lot to do with the resolution of this case,” Lin attorney Anthony Capozzi said after the accord was signed by both sides in federal court in Fresno.

“The government didn’t want a jury trial, because they knew we would win,” he said.

Federal prosecutors would not comment publicly when asked if they were caving in to pressure from politicians and activists who have rallied around the Lin case as an example of all that they say is wrong with the Endangered Species Act.

But in private they maintain that Lin has become an unlikely poster boy for foes of the federal law, which has been targeted for overhaul this year by Republicans in Congress. They say the landowner’s case took on a life of its own that had very little to do with the facts.

Lin, they point out, is no dirt-under-the-fingernails farmer but a millionaire businessman and investor who lives in South El Monte, far from the alfalfa and cotton fields of Kern County.

They say a quick glance should have told the savvy entrepreneur that the 723 acres he purchased from Tenneco in 1991 was just about the worst land for farming in these parts. Laden with salt and studded with desert scrub, it is home to the Tipton kangaroo rat, the blunt-nosed leopard lizard and the San Joaquin kit fox--three endangered species.

Lin was warned by the state Department of Fish and Game that the land was critical habitat, they say. He chose to ignore these warnings--delivered by registered mail--and instructed his farm manager to plow under the land, they add.

“I never received those letters telling me this was endangered species land,” Lin told reporters Monday through his translator.

The small, soft-spoken immigrant stood in the hallway outside the courtroom wearing the same lucky jade dragon belt buckle that he has worn over the past two years to Bakersfield tractor parades and Fresno rallies. During that time, he has become a darling of farmers, developers and right wing groups supporting private property rights.

Lin said that he felt only partly vindicated, though, and that he would have preferred to take the case all the way to trial. “One half of me is relieved,” he said. “The other half says I never made a mistake.”