In the late 1980s the Shorelands Company, a developer in the San Francisco Bay area, planned to turn a former salt-harvesting facility—sited on barren, salt-laden clays that are unable to support vegetation—into a race track and industrial park. But Fish and Wildlife Service jeopardy opinions stated that the development would endanger the California clapper rail (a hen-shaped marsh bird), the California least tern (a water bird), and the salt marsh harvest mouse. This finding was remarkable given that none of these species inhabited the property, and there was no suitable habitat at the site nor any prospect that suitable habitats could naturally develop.

The Fish and Wildlife Service presented an unusual rationale for prohibiting development. The agency argued that global warming would eventually result in 13-foot rises in the oceans; therefore, San Francisco Bay—along with the existing habitat for these endangered species—would be inundated. When this cataclysmic event occurred, wiping out major urban areas of the United States, the Fish and Wildlife Service would apparently busy itself by creating new habitats for these species bird and rodent on the site.

Beginning in October of 1987, the agency held up development on the property for three years—just long enough to cost the Shorelands Company $12 million and send the firm into bankruptcy.

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