Achieving Abundance Ecology requires a direct relationship between man and the land. To release the potential productivity and diversity of a landscape, an owner must be free to engage in rigorous disturbance, and free to pursue a reasoned and creative process of trial and error. This process would be suited to the choice of each individual and the uniqueness of each property. In comparison, "Sustainable Development" represents the efforts to eliminate private property in America and to control and limit human action. Sustainable Development is a synonym for "shortage ecology". The philosophy behind the creation of a shortage ecology underlies the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Endangered Species Act is the foundation of the land use element of Sustainable Development. Since the ESA puts the government in control of plants, the ideals of private property are destroyed, natural resource shortages arise, and natural calamities--such as devastating forest fires--increase.