Ah, Vindication

 

Five short days ago I wrote a piece called "The Wildlife".  It began with an
account of how State fish and wildlife agencies have been changing their
names to signal solidarity with the environmental and animal rights
organizations and the Federal agenda of jettisoning hunting, fishing, and
trapping to be replaced with all the new hoopla of the radicals agendas.
The article concluded with the prediction that the State agencies are
becoming and will become little more than State agencies that aim to collect
Federal dollars to do whatever the Federal bureaucracy dictates while
ostensibly remaining a "State" agency under "State" control.

Both Federal and State bureaucrats have disagreed with me (to put it
mildly).  Since I do not get paid for writing when I get lots of nasty
feedback and don't hear any compliments other than from guys like me that
are retired I tend to get down in the dumps.  Every time that happens
however, it is only a short time until I get affirmed and cheered up to pick
up my stuff and head on down the road.  Today has been one such day.

Three things have come to my attention that confirm, and then some, just
where the State fish and wildlife agencies (and the hunting and fishing and
trapping and plant use Constitutional authorities they were formed to
"protect and affirm") are headed.  It isn't pretty and you don't have to
have a college degree to understand it.

1.)    Page B4 of the 7 July Washington Times pictures the young lady
"associate director of the (sic Maryland) Wildlife and Heritage Service at
the Department of Natural Resources" shepherding a flock of molting
(flightless) resident Canada geese.  The Headline reads, "Migratory geese
tested for bird-flu virus".  While they are really "resident" Canadas and
testing them at this time is like testing wild turkeys (they also don't
migrate so exposure to bird flu before the migration next fall is nil) but
gives the impression of a knowledgeable State agency utilizing "federal
money" when it "became available".  While the Federal agencies avoid any
mention of the hard issues (what to do about wild migratory bird
concentrations that are found to have the flu or the Refuges or wetlands
they are using or just the decades-long issue of resident Canada goose
health and environmental feces contamination of playgrounds, schoolyards,
ballfields, municipal parks, golf courses, water sheds, etc.) that go
unnoticed, unmentioned, and undocumented.  But hey, here is "your" State
agency at work for the Federal masters that are working to implement the
agendas of the environmental and animal rights radicals.  Who says, he who
has the money (Federal appropriations in this case) doesn't dictate the
tune?

2.)    The International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (IAFWA)
is the national lobby group in Washington for the State fish and wildlife
agency Directors (and assumedly hunting and fishing and all the other uses
of natural resources not yet absorbed by the Federal government).  The
IAFWA - "has recently established two new committees focused on Energy and
Wildlife Policy and Invasive Species. Under the Energy and Wildlife Policy
Committee there are two different subcommittees that focus on Wind Energy
and Global Climate Change."  This is the refocusing of "your" State fish and
wildlife Director's agenda.  This is "your" State falling in line with the
Federal agencies (in this case the US Fish and Wildlife Service) and not
necessarily with any President but with the long-held socialist leaning of
the Federal bureaucrats and their radical "partners".  What better guarantee
of future Non-Game (or the million and one misnomers it goes by) funding
form the US Congress via the US Fish and Wildlife Service grant-givers?
While un-stocked rivers and lakes and dwindling deer herds (except in the
cities) and unmanaged pheasants will be noted for a time, we can all take
consolation that "our" State agency will be pushing global warming
initiatives, eradicating every species some professor can profit from
declaring "Invasive" from introduced turkeys to bass in the West and last
but not least pushing windmills when artic or offshore drilling is being
mentioned while asking for "more money" to "investigate" all those fat
predators living under the windmills where birds are "never" (like wolf
attacks) killed.

3.)    The IAFWA just announced its' new Executive Vice President (head
honcho).  To put this in perspective, a word about the past 25 years is in
order. The first Executive Director I knew in the late 1970's was a former
US Fish and Wildlife Service Chief of Animal Damage Control that I had known
as an Extension professor at Utah State University many years before.  When
the radicals first went after control of US Fish and Wildlife Service they
savaged (and I mean really savaged) this fine man and the Animal Damage
Control Program and forced his retirement.  He was hired as IAFWA Executive
Director where he defended state's rights and brooked no interference from
the Federal bureaucrats that had sacrificed him.  He was succeeded by the
retired Chief of the US Forest Service who got along with everybody and when
the US Fish and Wildlife Service was found to have stolen millions from the
States' excise taxes he chose the "don't rock the boat" response and never
even asked for the funds to be replaced.  He was replaced by a former State
fish and wildlife agency head that built the staff on Federal money (a Lobby
Group?) and worked hand-in-glove withy the Federal bureaucrats (see # 1
above and a long list of "accommodations" and my writings about State Rights
over the past 5 years). And the latest choice?  A former lobbyist and
Congressional staff organization person that was given a manufactured job in
the US Fish and Wildlife Service 5 years ago. (A "political" Deputy Director
slot [like the "political" officer on the submarine in Das Boot} was created
for him at FWS and when he recently left for a higher appointed "temporary"
position in the Interior Department the Deputy slot disappeared behind him.)

If your concern is like mine in that you are worried about the direction and
independence (from Federal control) of "our" State fish and wildlife
agencies, the trend in leadership and the direction of "partnering" State
Directors and their committees, and the looming Federal and
environmental/animal rights presence and agendas that are stalking all of
these things; then the news is not good.  If your concern is future jobs;
the availability of public funding for promotions, bonuses, and retirements;
or the chance to get your picture in the paper shepherding "migratory" geese
in the middle of summer in Maryland then the news is all good.

Jim Beers
8 July 2006

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