Two years ago I wrote about how Presidential Administrations mature and die.
The question that spurred that article concerned what should people seeking
reform of the very harmful and senseless environmental and animal rights
laws try to do in the upcoming Presidential election. My observations were
that there was no support in the Bush Administration (not the Directors of
the National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, or the US Forest
Service or the Secretaries of Interior or Agriculture or their staffs) for
reforms and the US Congress was split (House from Senate and House Resources
Committee and many western politicians from all the Congressmen beholden to
the environmental elites and animal rights radicals. I advised waiting
until after the election.
My experience with reelected Administrations was that the first year they
just give a big sigh of relief (for their job retention truth be told) and
then kick back for a year of long lunches, afternoon workouts in "the
gym"
and generally ignoring any pesky complainers. Then they begin to dream
of
leaving a "legacy". In their dreams this is a warm fuzzy
feeling that
others have for them far into the future when their name is read on a Refuge
sign or on some bronze plaque commemorating some "bold" conservation
accomplishment. Reforming something or reducing the acquisition of
government land or repealing some bad law are not things that create a
"legacy". Anyone remember who got Prohibition repealed?
Anyway, my advice was to work on the political appointees during this period
to convince them of our determination and to propose solid reforms or even
repeals that they could get behind as positive elements of a
"legacy". Alas
we have all kicked back as well. While property rights advocates
disagreed
about how to reform legislation, and hunters believed their organizations'
propaganda that the "real" problem was "Invasive Species"
and "habitat loss",
and ranchers focused on cattle disease; no initiatives for reforms were
advanced, few alliances were formed. Today Congressional reform of the
Endangered Species Act is either shelved (per the Ivory-billed Woodpecker
crowd) or "watered down" or non-existent according to whom you ask.
Wolves
continue their spread all over the West and now a Vermont Law School class
got a Federal judge to demand wolf introductions and protection in New
England. Cattle disease, wildlife disease and human disease from foot
and
mouth and BSE (mad cow) to brucellosis (undulant fever), rabies, and chronic
wasting disease are reported by historic Russian studies to be spread by
wolves in Asia but this politically incorrect information is studiously
avoided in the US as we rush into a wolf-infested future making denials with
no research.
So while we have all been "cooperative" and "positive" to
our political and
bureaucratic overseers, they have developed their legacy vision and are
busily putting it in place. This legacy is to be the "Bush Program
to Save
our Environment". No they haven't named it yet but that is what is
underway. The following elements have appeared in a hodgepodge of
"public
service news releases" from Agencies and newspapers over the past few
months
and are here assembled for those of you without the "benefit" of
years of
government service at the center of the Universe (i.e. Washington, DC).
1.) Endangered Species expansion: Ivory-billed
Woodpecker "rescue from
extinction includes two years of "secret" planning, land
acquisition, and
partnering with certain favored environmental groups. Thousands of acres
were purchased without telling the sellers why it was purchased and massive
(5.5M A.) new land control by government and environmentalists will be
underwritten by both Appropriations and tax breaks. Simultaneously,
wolves
are continuing to spread throughout the West and Midwest and now are to be
put in New England to eventually cover the Nation. No serious opposition
or
questioning of any of this is tolerated.
2.) The final phase of absorbing State fish and wildlife
agencies as
subcontractors to Federal agencies is now underway. State agencies that
are
creatures of State government are to replace their increasingly disdained
hunting and fishing license income source with Federally Appropriated
funding to be managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
a.) A Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) was begun four years
ago and is
getting increased annually with Federal funds passed through the USFWS.
There is no requirement for any public access to where the funds are spent
and only the discretion of the USFWS on what non-hunting/non-fishing
purposes they see fit.
b.) A State Wildlife Grant Program (SWIG) was likewise begun
four years
ago and is now up to $80M Federal Appropriated funding each year. These
funds are passed through USFWS (who takes out overhead) for State fish and
wildlife agencies to use for non-hunting and non-fishing purposes. The
funding priorities (what you get the money for) are set by USFWS and
(surprise!) support land closures, Federal programs, more animal
"protection" (i.e. non-management programs like marine mammals,
predator
protection, no-use areas, etc.), "Invasive Species", and on and on.
This
current $80M is slated to go to $1Billion per year in the near future.
How,
you ask?
c.) "Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Plans".
Each State is currently
embarked on the composition of a CWCP for itself. My own State of
Virginia
just got an article in the Washington paper that "195 species of plants
and
animals are approaching Endangered status in the State". That is of
course
a dubious claim and a value judgment at best. However each State is
manufacturing the same sort of nonsense. Why? For two reasons.
First the
SWIG's are (Congress is told) "needed" to "keep plants and
animals from
BECOMING Endangered". Second, these State fictional novels will be
"rolled
up" by USFWS and then released to newspapers and magazines and to
Congress
thus: "One-thousand eight hundred and sixty seven species are in
danger of
becoming Endangered per the State agencies. They (the State agencies)
estimate it will take $6.8B per year to stop this slide to extinction.
It
will 'save' Federal funds if States 'save' these species before they become
Endangered. Therefore we (USFWS) ask a mere $450M this year to begin the
enormous task before us. We will only take X% out for overhead and we
will
carefully direct the State use of the money to assure 'effectiveness'."
Care to guess how long hunting, fishing, and trapping will last in places
like New Jersey or Illinois? Care to guess what the precedent from such
States will do to Federal overseers or radical groups and their lawyers with
a Billion per year in "walking around" money they can tell the
States how to
spend?
3.) Endangered Species Act "reform is to be morphed
into legislative
approval and authority for A.) government "taking" of private
property
without compensation up to a certain percentage of an owners property and
B.) the highly sought-after (by radical bureaucrats, appointees, academics,
and environmental elitists) Federal authority to begin purging "Invasive
Species" and restoring the romantic Shangri-La of the Native Ecosystem.
Other baneful Federal environmental/animal rights legislation from the
Marine Mammal Protection Act and Animal Welfare Act to the Wilderness Act
are to be given only honor and respect. Which brings us to the news item
at
the beginning of this article.
4.) "The White House is playing environmental
matchmaker". The
Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture have established little more
than "Clinton-Lite" records. Their underlings have fought just
as
surreptitiously and savagely for Federal Invasive Species authority and
"strengthening the ESA" and cooperating with UN bureaucrats and
expanding
Federal authorities and allowing bureaucratic excesses as any Administration
in recent years. This latest "touchy-feely" about playing
"matchmaker" with
DOD and TNC is disgusting. Anyone remember how the ESA was strangling
military readiness and training just the other day? Giving the likes of
the
Secretary of the Interiors "secret" sisterhood that perpetrated the
Ivory-billed Woodpecker chicanery an "in" with the Pentagon and DOD
lands,
much less other federal lands is just plain nuts.
Maybe they are right and politically they are positioning themselves for
future election victories. I think they are fooling themselves but then
again I never ran for office so what do I know? All I know is that as
this
window of opportunity (a year from mid-term elections in a second term)
closes back up, hope for the future is in short supply. If this is the
best
we can hope for now, the future will be merely surges and pauses with no
stop or reversal as the Nation plunges headlong into the continued growth of
Federal power and arrogance; increasing harm to individuals, communities,
and the Nation; increasing socialist systems; and a steady decrease in
States rights, Constitutional freedoms, traditions, and rural America.
Right now the choice seems to be between two parties, one of which simply
gets all of us to a socialist Nirvana quicker than the other. The
combination of bureaucratic lust for a secure and rewarding future, the
radical agendas of powerful organizations, politicians trying to maintain
perpetual power, States and professors seeking Federal dollars, and
international desires to pull the US down to the level of other nations
while surrendering our freedoms and assets has tied us in knots. If the
management of the environment and species continues as a
"throw-away",
"bread and circuses" issue for government, such "legacies"
may eventually
spell our doom.
Jim Beers
29 August 2005
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