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Life in Jeopardy on Private Property 47 <br />vidual animals, but the welfare of the species has figured into <br />such regulations for both game and nongame species. No great <br />stretch of thought is required to agree that all the animals, birds, <br />fish, perhaps even the butterflies and the bees, are common <br />goods that can be regulated by the state e The prohibition of the' <br />Endangered Species Aet against taking animals on private land, <br />including invertebrates, has not been seriously challenged. Fur- <br />ther, the federal government can designate critical animal habi- <br />tat on private land. <br />Yet the Endangered Species Act, people soon discover, is not <br />only about fauna .but also about flora-pitcher plants and cacti. <br />In the original 1473 act, plants were already of concern; one <br />could not engage in unrestricted interstate commerce in pro- <br />tected plants. Plants could be listed regardless of where they <br />occurred. Initially, however, there was no prohibition against <br />taking endangered plants on public land, much less private <br />land. Since 1973, Congress has increasingly expanded protec- <br />tion for endangered plants. In 1982, Congress prohibited the <br />private collecting of endangered plants on federal lands; techni- <br />cally this did not prohibit destroying them by logging, grazing, <br />building dams, and so forth, as long as one was not collecting <br />them.' The 1988 reauthorization of the act makes it a violation <br />maliciously and knowingly to damage endangered plants on <br />federal land. That ban prevents vandalism, but it may not re- <br />quire people to notice what their cows eat or whether their <br />ORVs crush protected plants. The 1988 amendments also pro- <br />hibit harming endangered plants on private land in violation of <br />state law, including trespass law.8 State laws vary widely,• some <br />states do indeed prohibit anyone, landowner or not, from taking <br />endangered plants on private property without state permit. <br />Most states, however, require nonlandowners to obtain a permit <br />to collect or destroy an endangered plant, but allow landowners <br />to do what they please. <br />Plants do not move around, though some disperse their seeds <br />on the wind or in the fur of animals. Rare plants move less than <br />common ones. Traditionally, the trees and grass belong to the <br />landowner. "Standing timber is real estate. It is a part of the <br />realty the same as the soil from which it grows" (Kerschensteiner <br />v. Northern Michigan Land Co.) 9 Except for noxious weeds and <br />marijuana, the state has made few claims regulating flora on <br />