The National Wildlife Federation has this report on the continued destruction of conservation funding by Congress, this time in the Senate Appropriations committee: Roadkill: Lawmakers Throw Wildlife Under the Bus – National Wildlife Federation.
Conservation
Keepin’ It Wild
UPDATE:
The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation caught a lot of flak for supporting legislation to open up roadless and wilderness areas. There membership didn’t agree with that position and RMEF to its great credit withdrew its support. Read it here.
More on this topic later but for now some brilliance from Hal Herring: Roads to Nowhere
Here is a taste,
“What we are witnessing with the demand to dismiss any new discussion of wilderness or roadless public lands is part of the tremendous move in our country to privatize wildlife and to make the quality hunting and fishing available only to those who can afford to buy land and rivers, lease hunting rights, to bring hunting and fishing into line with the other privileges that are the sole province of the wealthy.”
and his parting comment,
“I’m not saying that we need to start declaring wilderness and roadless designations willy-nilly across the public lands. I am saying that we don’t need politicians to wave their manicured hands and declare the debate over, and declare themselves, their ideology, and their contributors’ the winners.”
Get some Hal!
Victims of Deficit Reduction
Nicholas Kristoff offered a provocative column; Republicans, Zealots and Our Security, in Sunday’s New Your Times. Kristoff opens with an intriguing notion. If foreign fanatics were to take our country to the brink of financial crisis we would be up in arms. He makes a compelling case that ideology by the more conservative wing of the GOP should be no different.
We tend to think of national security narrowly as the risk of a military or terrorist attack. But national security is about protecting our people and our national strength — and the blunt truth is that the biggest threat to America’s national security this summer doesn’t come from China, Iran or any other foreign power. It comes from budget machinations, and budget maniacs, at home.
In other words, Republican zeal to lower debts could result in increased interest expenses and higher debts. Their mania to save taxpayers could cost taxpayers. That suggests not governance so much as fanaticism.
We should be alarmed and outraged.
How did we get to this point? When did politics become more important than responsible governing?
Kristoff focuses on the damage this mania for budget cuts does to education. The same could be said for conservation and environmental programs. Try substituting conservation or the environment for education, Kristoff’s words ring just as true.
More broadly, a default would leave America a global laughingstock. Our “soft power,” our promotion of democracy around the world, and our influence would all take a hit. The spectacle of paralysis in the world’s largest economy is already bewildering to many countries. If there is awe for our military prowess and delight in our movies and music, there is scorn for our political/economic management.
While one danger to national security comes from the risk of default, another comes from overzealous budget cuts — especially in education, at the local, state and national levels. When we cut to the education bone, we’re not preserving our future but undermining it.
This is going to be a long hot summer…
Another Reason Clean Water is Important
Most of the time when you hear “Superfund site” you think “well that can’t be good.” And you are likely to be right.
So when the work done by EPA to clean up a Superfund site results in stories like this one: Eagle River west of Vail back to being a fun place for fishing, it grabs your attention.
Ravaged by toxins spilling from the abandoned Eagle Mine near its headwaters, the Eagle River went sour in the early 1990s before the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program helped it return to life over the course of a 10-year cleanup.
If the fishing downstream from the mine this week serves as any indicator, the resilient river has mounted quite a comeback.
Just another example of that simple equation: healthy habitat equals opportunity that creates economic activity.
Think Congress will get the message? Yeah that’s what I thought.
But hope, like the Eagle River, springs eternal.
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Veto Pen for the Rusty Machete
Here is a an update on the conservation funding bill that is headed to the House floor next week. The administration weighed in this afternoon with a STATEMENT OF ADMINISTRATION POLICY on H.R. 2584, The Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
The SAP, as they are known, is five pages of details of the funding and policy problems created by this bill should it become law. Worth a read if you are still unsure how bad this is…
Stay tuned.
U.S. House Votes to Dirty Your Water
Just to prove it is not just the renegades over at the Appropriations Committee trying to undermine conservation and environmental policy, the U.S. House of Representatives voted last week to gut the Clean Water Act by passing H.R. 2018, The Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act.
Conservation, Sportsmen’s and Outdoor Industry Organizations Oppose H.R. 2018
Before the vote, The American Fly Fishing Trade Association, Trout Unlimited, The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, The Izaak Walton League of America and The National Wildlife Federation sent a letter strongly objecting to this legislation.
The bill would adversely affect waterways nationwide, and would lessen protective standards provided by the Clean Water Act for 38 years. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held no legislative hearings on the bill, and rushed to pass it through committee. The bill deserves far more scrutiny.
Yup, you read that correctly. This legislation didn’t get a hearing, in fact the bill was introduced at the end of May and apparently the need to gut the Clean Water is such a high priority for the Republican leadership in the House it got to the floor in short order.
Puts nation’s waters, fish and wildlife at risk.
H.R. 2018 proposes sweeping changes to the Clean Water Act that would undercut the progress the Act has made in restoring our waters over the last four decades. The bill purports to strengthen “cooperative federalism” by giving the states more control over EPA’s Clean Water Act oversight. In fact, the bill undermines the federal‐state partnership on which the Clean Water Act is based.
We would welcome committee consideration of an appropriate increased role for the states. However, as written this bill clearly is intended to weaken implementation of the Clean Water Act.
Of course water tends to travel across state lines so while one state might hold the water in the state in high regard, their up stream neighbor might not be so conscientious. That was one of the reasons for having the Clean Water Act in the first place.
Habitat equals opportunity that creates economic activity
Clean water is key to 40 million anglers who spend about $45 billion a year and about 2.3 million hunters spending $1.3 billion each year hunting ducks and other migratory birds. The U.S. House continues to ignore the simple economics of outdoor recreation in favor of poorly conceived “solutions” to unfounded “problems”.
Who voted for this?
Wondering how your Representative voted? You can check the final vote results for Roll Call 573 here.
Why not write your Representative and let them know what you think of their vote.
Fortunately if the Senate is silly enough to pass this legislation the Administration has put the word out that the veto pen will be uncapped.
Stay tuned…