TRANSLATION

News Item:  "The Fish and Wildlife Service has drawn up a list of 113 birds
it is proposing to exclude from protection under the Migratory Bird Treaty
Act.  As required by the 2004 Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act passed by
Congress in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill, FWS will exclude non-native
birds from protection under the law."

Translation: Federal bureaucrats and appointees in the Departments of the
Interior and Agriculture want what the environmental radicals want.  That is
Federal authority to embark on a Federal program of mammoth proportions that
will dwarf the Endangered Species Act in so far as growing the Federal
bureaucracy.  They want to transfer the remaining State jurisdiction over
plants and animals to Federal agencies, and in the name of Native Ecosystem
restoration (which is synonymous with Invasive Species eradication) generate
unimagined new Federal authority over citizens and property owners.  The
abuses and results of this will be the harms of the Endangered Species Act
times 10.

Every time the subject of Federal Invasive Species or Native Ecosystem
legislation comes up, it is rejected on the facts.  United Nations
bureaucrats are involved in such efforts as they look for an opening to
convene a UN meeting to discuss a Treaty or Convention to give the UN
bureaucracy and US Bureaucrats who would implement such a Treaty the same
sort of Constitution-trumping Federal authority as was done with the
Endangered Species Act.

So what do the Federal bureaucrats do?  Why they draft legislation to set
the precedent that they can exclude Non-Native birds that have been
protected by Federal law and an international Treaty for nearly a century
from Federal protection because the bureaucrats don't think they should be
managed or protected.  So, without any hearings as is customary in a
democracy or any open warning of what was afoot, the bureaucrats slip an
accommodating Congressman a copy of their "bill" and he or she drops it into
a must-pass Omnibus spending bill at midnight just before Congress adjourns
at the end of it's Session.  The president must sign such a "Bill" (buried
in the massive spending bill) to keep the Federal government going so,
(voila!) you have the "Migratory Bird Treaty Reform Act" and 113 species of
birds deemed unworthy of protection because of their purported arrival date
according to some professors and bureaucrats. On what factual basis other
than the personal wishes of bureaucrats catering to environmental extremists
is there ANY justification for certain animals to be exempt from Federal
protection simply because they are purported to have arrived since 1492 or
1776 or 1812 or some other arbitrary date?  Who are these bureaucrats to
tell us that a mute swan is less deserving of federal protection AND
Management than a tundra swan or a trumpeter swan or what bird at our feeder
is "better" than another?

I can't begin to count the times I have heard recently that I should not
mention Endangered Species Act REFORM.  I am told it is merely ammunition
for the environmental radicals (another word that I shouldn't mention at
this time because it is inflammatory) as they protest ANY modification of
the Endangered Species Act.  However, I notice that Congress has no
compunction about passing a "Migratory Bird Treaty REFORM Act" without
notice or hearings at midnight before they adjourn for that Session of
Congress.  Perhaps that is how we should REFORM the Endangered Species Act!

Even those of you that don't give a hoot about this Invasive/Native thing,
better wake up and think about this.  The Federal establishment has taken a
big step through subterfuge to get what they are unable to get openly and
honestly in our Republic. Most disturbing, what about the precedent they are
setting?  At the end of the next Session of Congress all the agencies should
draft wording for "REFORM" Acts that they can't get passed otherwise.  How
about a "Native Ecosystems on Public Lands REFORM Act"?  Think about that
one you hunters and fishermen and trappers and ranchers and loggers and
public land users.  How about an "Invasive Species Eradication REFORM Act"?
Why not even an "Invasive Species on Private Lands REFORM Act"?  Remember,
Non-Native and Invasive Species include not only brown trout and rainbow
trout and Great Lakes salmon and pheasants and chukars and Hungarian
Partridge but also a lot of recently established turkeys and a whole host of
other critters we all like and use.  What do we know (based on the
Endangered Species Act) will happen when the professors see that they can
get grants for feeding this Federal monster act by pronouncing species and
subspecies and races and populations as "Not Native" or "Invasive" in this
State or that County or that valley or that watershed?  How about an
"Invasive Landscaping Plant REFORM Act" for the homeowner?  How about a
"Hunting and Fishing Species REFORM Act"? The mind boggles at the potential
for Federal growth and citizen oppression possible in the dead of night by
ethically-challenged bureaucrats and one pandering politician that can stay
up late once every two years.

If the Federal bureaucrats can con a politician to engage in such subterfuge
and you consider the ruthlessness of the environmental extremists and the
animal rights radicals, there is nothing that is impossible.  The
Constitutional protections we thought we had are being shredded right before
our eyes. A Republic depends on an informed citizenry.  An informed
citizenry depends on information and openness within both the bureaucratic
and political wings of the government.  Sadly both of these things are
evaporating.

When we are forced to accept wolves, to watch our State agencies become
Federal representatives, and to see our rights and freedoms from private
property to animal use and management given to bureaucrats that lock them
away and rule us like subjects, the time for REFORM is past.  We are forced
to play by the Federal rules for all the harms they are generating but they
can be selective about who they prosecute, what species they will choose to
protect and do it all in the dark of night as they make "Laws" with all the
secrecy of a communist directorate.  (I apologize to all who are offended by
this comparison but it is true nonetheless).

Jim Beers
5 March 2005

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This article and other recent articles by Jim Beers can be found at
http://www.allianceforamerica.org/bb/viewforum.php?f=91