7749

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7749
• Author: Kohm, K. A., ed.
• Title: Editor
• USFW Year: Series
• USFW - Doc Type: 1991
• Copyright Material: YES

Life in Jeopardy on Private Property 55
level is more appropriate for moral and legal concern since the
species is a more comprehensive survival unit than the organ-
ism. What survives for a few months, years, or decades (rarely
centuries) is the individual plant; what survives for millennia is
the kind.
When a rhododendron dies, another one replaces it. But when
Rhododendron chapmanii goes extinct, the species terminates
forever. Death of a type is radically different from death of a
token. Extinction shuts down the generative processes, a kind of
superkilling. This kills forms (species) beyond individuals. This
kills essences beyond existences-the soul as well as the body.
This kills collectively. To kill a particular plant is to stop a life of
perhaps a few years while other lives of such kind continue
unabated and the possibilities for the future are unaffected. To
superkill a species is to shut down a story of millennia and leave
no future possibilities. One generation stops future generations.
In this sense, "harm" takes on a profound significance.
What is wrong with human-caused extinction is not just the
loss of human resources, but the loss of biological sources. Cer-
tainly we care about values to the nation and its people, but we
should also care about biological processes that take place inde-
pendently of human preferences. In former times, humans had
neither the power to cause mass extinctions nor the knowledge
of what they were inadvertently doing. But today humans (cer-
tainly those who support, authorize, and. implement the En-
dangered Species Act) have a greater understanding of the
speciating processes, more predictive power to foresee the in-
tended and unintended results of their actions, and more power
to reverse undesirable consequences. Increasingly, we know flo-
ristic locales and natural histories; we find that Willy-nilly we
have a vital say in whether or not these evolutionary stories
continue. We have sufficient knowledge and control over the
threatening social, economic, and political forces to have op-
tions. Never before have questions at this level been faced. The
answers are generating a deeper sense of responsibility. Hu-
mans ought not to superkill a species without a superjustifica-
tion. This may involve redefining what property rights mean in
the light of learning what a species is and discovering the values
carried by species.
Some claim that we should protect rare plants that were once