Responsibility

The following important question from a reader deserves a response.

"Is there any accountability expectation regards people like Rachael Carson,
the spotted owl et al eco gangsters who've brought such massive damage to
our land, water and human lives?"

Rachel Carson was a wildlife research biologist for the old Bureau of Sport
Fisheries and Wildlife, today's US Fish and Wildlife Service.  Her  personal
interests and professional specialty was birds.  As far as I know she was
always stationed in and around d the Washington , DC area.  Her book, Silent
Spring, was published in 1962 and has recently been published again as the
40th Anniversary Edition.  It is described by booksellers as a "book focused
on the poisons from insecticides, weed killers, and other common products as
well as the use of sprays in agriculture, a practice that led to dangerous
chemicals to the food source. Carson argued that those chemicals were more
dangerous than radiation and that for the first time in history, humans were
exposed to chemicals that stayed in their systems from birth to death."

The book is an icon and early "revelation" to environmentalists and animal
rights radicals and it is revered by practically all of those who "toil" in
the conservation/preservation fields.  I can feel the steamy wrath of a
million "believers" as I write this.

Her theses were mostly overblown hyperboles.  While reduction of compounds
like DDT as alternatives became available was certainly desirable, the
hysterical bans and alarmism regarding every useful new chemical were early
signs of the extremism and incremental expansion of legitimate concerns as
tools of radical agendas.   Very important and legitimate uses of chemicals
like DDT were outlawed.  A Cuban doctor once told me that the lice my kids
picked up in school could be better and more quickly cured by rinsing in a
weak DDT shampoo.   Then there are the MILLIONS of NATIVE People (aren't
they as "important" as the "NATIVE" plants, wildlife, fish, and ecosystems
we are told take "precedence?) in warm climates like Africa and Asia and
South America who were denied by international and US (shamefully)
restrictions the use of DDT to disinfect their homes by killing the
mosquitoes in and around their homes.  Those mosquitoes carry deadly
diseases and DDT was and remains the most effective and benign treatment to
save human lives from everything from malaria to sleeping sickness.  But not
to worry, these are the very same NATIVES that we believe are expendable to
overpopulated elephants and crocodiles and large predators that we (through
the UN) force them to endure for our imagined "pleasure" and "ecological
good".  While she (Carson) speculated about all manner of "eventual" harms
to humans, here we all sit.  While she and all of her followers and those
who utilized her for their own purposes prattled on endlessly about eagles
and falcons and songbirds, the truth is that sensible investigations and
careful use of many new compounds were foregone for things that were doing
OK and would have done better eventually anyway.

So manipulation of her work by zealous bird enthusiasts and government
bureaucrats (lots of Federal budgets were increased and even a new Agency
was formed), and environmental radicals both gave her the revered status we
see today and the constant notion that the path we have pursued since then
(Federal power and government controls designed by radical power-brokers) IS
THE ONLY PATH to reconciling man and his environment.

So in spite of being very responsible for the deaths of Millions and helping
to place animals on par with and actually above mankind (well at least
"some" of mankind) we see continuing book sales, stamps, education packets,
and teachers all extolling Rachel Carson and her work.

The spotted owl was an example of an animal being declared "Endangered" by
the "new age" Federal bureaucrats and their "partners" in the environmental
radical movements.  Clearly the "Listing" was simply overblown hyperbole
about a little noticed (and therefore easy to lie about) species IN ORDER TO
STOP LOGGING IN THE NORTHWEST.  For 20 years the Federal government claimed
that the owl "must have" "old growth" (more recently the radicals have begun
using the term "ancient forests" but you get my drift) and therefore ALL
LOGGING MUST BE STOPPED.  Since then the Lynx and Grizzly Bear have been
"Listed" with similar lies (that lynx are "Vulnerable to road traffic" and
Grizzlies "need" habitat unscarred by roads, trails, mankind, etc) IN ORDER
TO CLOSE MORE PUBLIC LANDS TO MANAGEMENT AND USE, but I digress. 

Recently, the venerable US Fish and Wildlife Service was forced by political
appointees, thank you very much, to finally publish a Recovery Plan after
the coastal communities of Oregon have been changed from logging and hunting
communities to art boutiques run by rich California refugees and new age
"artists".

Lo and behold, now the "reason" that there aren't "enough" spotted owls
(think about that for a moment) is NOT LOGGING (now that the loggers and
their experience and the mills are gone) but really COMPETITION FROM BARRED
OWLS.  "Scotty beam me up."  But the news release mentions that in the
meantime (the last 20 years) $200 Million has been "lost".  Too bad no one
can "find" it.  Now that $200 Million figure is way low, any fair and
educated estimate would exceed Billions and the losses to families and
American community structure in inestimable.

So is anyone "responsible"?  Of course not.  Like Rachel Carson they are
fondly remembered as "eco-warriors".  Bonuses, promotions, and retirements
were all greatly enhanced for destroying communities (like the infamous
observation about having to "break eggs" to make an omelet) to stop logging
and diminish hunting opportunities and grazing and ranches.  It has
generated millions for the Universities to eliminate any environmental
management coursework remnants and shift over to "satellite telemetry" and
"global weather monitoring".  Speaking of "Global Warming" could it be that
this sudden change of heart by the UN and the US about allowing NATIVES in
far off jungles to begin using DDT has anything to do with the worries about
these diseases (malaria and West Nile, etc.) being transmitted by mosquitoes
HERE as we get "warmer"?  If so, even an imagined dark cloud like "global
warming" can have a silver lining if it reinstitutes the recognition of all
human life, even those far-off and poor, as being worthy of more than ANY
plant or animal.

Responsibility? 

What about the Federal bureaucrats that "planted" lynx hair
on census posts to "get the lynx listed"?  What about the Federal
bureaucrats introducing and protecting grizzly bears that then kill people?

What about the National Park Service personnel that lied to the state fish
and wildlife agencies of New Jersey and Pennsylvania about allowing trapping
if they "got" a National Park on the Delaware Water Gap?

What about all the folks involved in the Ivory-billed Woodpecker scam in four (or is it six)
states?  What about the US Fish and Wildlife Service personnel that
"promised" they would allow hunting on the Panther Refuge if they got it?

What about the bureaucrats that have purposely buried any mention of the
diseases wolves carry and transmit?  Or the same ilk in the agencies and
Universities that "Disneyfie" grizzlies and sharks and wolves and mountain
lions?   

What of the state bureaucrats that make a show of managing hunting
and fishing opportunities while selling them out for future funding from the
US Congress?   

What about the state fish and wildlife agencies THAT NEVER EVEN ASKED FOR THE $60 MILLION STOLEN BY THE US FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE FROM HUNTING AND FISHING EXCISE TAXES TO BE REPAID?   

What about the US Fish and Wildlife Service theft of $60 Million from funds destined for state hunting and fishing programs TO FUND THINGS LIKE INTRODUCING WOLVES INTO YELLOWSTONE AND OPENING AN ENDANGERED SPECIES OFFICE (TO CATER TO RADICALS) IN CALIFORNIA - EACH OF WHICH CONGRESS HAD REFUSED TO FUND? 

What about the National Park Service, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, and DC Government, and EPA, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and State of
Maryland, and the US Army Corps of Engineers who knew about and ignored the
20 plus years of nighttime dumping of tons of very toxic wastes INTO THE
POTOMAC RIVER - ON THE SOLE SPAWNING GROUND OF THE ENDANGERED SHORTNOSE STURGEON AND THE MOST CONCENTRATED BOATING AND FISHING STRETCH OF THE RIVER?

The waste was from the residue from DC soils (where toxic chemical weapons
were developed and tested during WWI) and the effluent from the DC Water
Treatment Facilities.  What about the top USFWS managers who fished there
and still remained silent as rocks were etched and cormorants fled the toxic
plumes in the River? I could go on but you get the picture.

Finally, lest you think there is no responsibility involved in all this
eco-mania, rest assured that there is LOTS of RESPONSIBILITY involved.
There is the rancher shooting the grizzly in his yard.  There is the hiker
who "failed to puff up" or who "ran" from an introduced and/or protected
predator "in their (i.e. the critter's) habitat".  There is the poor boob
that picked up an ivory accessory or a jungle fowl feather on a trip outside
the country.  There are the two Michiganders that shot wolves and were
sentenced to jail.  There is the private property owner told that his
property is "Critical Habitat" for some slug or mouse. There is the coyote
hunter unaware that a wolf has just headed toward him.  There is the logger
asking why there is no longer any logging on the Millions of acres in
National Forests and is told if he can "get" millions of dollars to conduct
the necessary "biological assessments" (as Florida hunters were also told
about why there was no hunting on a new refuge) it "might" be considered.
There are the ranchers and farmers being forced to lose stock and dogs to
wolves.  There are the grandparents babysitting their grandkids where wolves
have been seen or grizzly bears have been reported.  There are hunters who
"selfishly" want to preserve game herds of hunt birds with dogs where
government introduced and government protected predators run rampant.  There
are all the hunters and fishermen who "just don't give the state fish and
wildlife agencies 'enough' money so that they don't 'have' to shift to
Federal funding and Federal objectives."  They are ALL RESPONSIBLE and all
suffering consequences from fines and even jail time to loss of property and
elimination of their freedoms, traditions, and heritage.

The fault for all this lies with each of us.  Unless we can elect
politicians to bring the bureaucracies under control and reorient
Universities, and stop the political pandering to these radical groups and
agendas, things will only get worse and effective remedies will necessarily
become more extreme.  Otherwise expect to see more refuges named after
politicians, more tax bills to man the bureaucracies that no longer generate
anything on government lands except enormous and unmanageable fires, and the
continued reduction of natural resource-oriented pursuits.  But not to
worry, there will no doubt be a "Fiftieth Anniversary" Stamp for Silent
Spring and the bureaucrats will continue to capitalize on whatever it takes
to feather their own nest: and you, well you are RESPONSIBLE and rest
assured we are all very proud of you.

Jim Beers
19 May 2007

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- Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist,
Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow.
He was stationed in North Dakota , Minnesota , Nebraska , New York City , and
Washington DC .  He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western
Pacific and on Adak , Alaska in the Aleutian Islands .  He has worked for the
Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security
Supervisor in Washington , DC .  He testified three times before Congress;
twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60
Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to
expanding Federal Invasive Species authority.  He resides in Centreville ,
Virginia with his wife of many decades.