Under The Invasive Species Rock

Invasive Species Proposals Hide Many Agendas

by Jim Beers

Recently some unnamed Senator dropped wording in the $3Billion+, 1,000-page
plus National Transportation Bill (named SAFETEA) to authorize the Federal
government to exercise jurisdiction over all Non-Native (i.e. INVASIVE
SPECIES) plants on or near road right-of-ways.  This is the first step in a
long and calculated (by Federal bureaucrats in the Departments of Interior
and Agriculture and University professors that receive grants and UN
bureaucrats) to establish Federal INVASIVE SPECIES authority just like
Federal Endangered Species authority.

As with Federal Endangered Species authority, States (whose authority is
thus usurped) are largely silent as the bait of Federal grants is trolled
back and forth over their noses.  As with Federal Endangered Species
authority, a high purpose such as Native Species and a Native Ecosystem
(along a highway??) are conveyed to the public in slick brochures, news
releases, and solemn "scientific findings".  As with Federal Endangered
Species authority, this has all been carefully orchestrated by Federal
bureaucrats whose visions of future power, budgets, and career benefits will
be made boundless based on the perverted history of the 35-year old
Endangered Species Act model.  Unlike Federal Endangered Species authority,
the extreme harm to natural resource managers and users like ranchers,
farmers, rural landowners, State governments, hunters, dog owners, horseback
riders, fishermen, trappers and a whole host of others will be swift,
unbelievably harmful, and (compared to Endangered Species) 10 to 50 times as
devastating.

The game plan is to say the Federal government has a responsibility to
eradicate and not use INVASIVE SPECIES both harmful (a minority) and
beneficial around roads.  This, regardless of costs, maintenance, erosion
control properties, beauty, fire resistance, wildlife cover, or any other
considerations.  You don't have to have to have a college degree to know how
nuts it is to mandate $400/lb. native grass seed that requires 1,000's of
dollars upkeep annually when a $4.50 ground cover with minimal maintenance
that has been developed specifically for roadsides is available.  National
Wildlife Refuges, National Parks, National Forests, and BLM Lands are
already spending money on brochures and make-work and "education" and
"outreach" and budget requests to Congress saying ALL NON-NATIVE (i.e.
INVASIVE SPECIES) are BAD and need to be eradicated.  The truth is that the
vast majority of NON-NATIVE plants and animals are some of the most
beneficial and enjoyable cogs in our environment.  But hey, this isn't about
what is really good or bad, nor is it about Federal bureaucrats and Federal
laws "improving" the national ecosystem (think Wilderness and fires or
wolves and big-game disappearances).

The Federal government has all the authority it needs today to eradicate
HARMFUL plants on almost ½ the nation which they own.  The Federal
government has all the authority today to prevent importation of HARMFUL
(called INJURIOUS) WILDLIFE at ports-of-entry.  These long-standing
responsibilities and authorities of the Federal government, like the
sensible management of Federal lands, are poorly done and increasingly
ignored as Federal bureaucrats and their allies plot and scheme for new
power, new budget authority, and more luxurious lifestyles and retirements
for themselves under the flag of "purifying" the environment.

But this isn't about all that, it is about a newly discovered hidden agenda
in all this INVASIVE SPECIES manure being dropped into the legislative well
at night.  A recent Circuit Court decision in the 9th District (that's good
old San Francisco where Tony Bennet "left his heart" for those who don't
live there) has declared that the EPA has primary jurisdiction over the
"biological matter" in ballast water discharge in US waters.  If that doesn't
raise a general quarters alarm for you, here is something to think about.

The EPA has always thought of themselves as the new wave advance guard of
Federal intervention for any and all manner of environmental pollution or
contamination.  They have been laying in the (excuse me for saying this)
"weeds" as Interior and Agriculture appointees and bureaucrats have connived
with certain US Senators and UN bureaucrats to set a precedent for US
Federal INVASIVE SPECIES authority to lead up to a UN Conference and (of
course) a UN Treaty on INVASIVE SPECIES/NATIVE ECOSYSTEMS.  Such a document may soon to be drafted (like Kyoto on Global Warming and CITES concerning Endangered Species) and once signed by the US it will become "the Law of the land" as mentioned in our Constitution.  Then like Endangered Species and a proposed UN Treaty on Small Arms and Ammunition we are, as witnessed by the Endangered Species Act, "off to the races" (with only Federal bureaucrats as "winners").  But back to the EPA.

EPA's personal view of their mission as the #1 pollution/contaminant fighter
in the Federal government slips in nicely with the 9th Circuit finding of
EPA being responsible for "biological matter" in discharge (from ships) of
ballast water in the US.  The "biological matter" should be under the
authority of US Fish and Wildlife Service and The National Marine Fisheries
Service (in the Commerce Department) BUT and it is a big BUT, if EPA is the
#1 authority for "biological matter" in discharge water (a pollutant or
contaminant) why not for INVASIVE SPECIES that are commonly described by the UN and Federal bureaucrats and grant-hungry professors as "contaminating the environment" and "polluting the ecosystem".  If I had a nickel for every
time I have heard that sort of babble in Congressional hearings (hearings
that, like the ones for more Federal tax money for State fish and wildlife
agencies, always strike out when facts are put on the table and looked at
honestly) or read that jibberish in the glossy Federal brochures, I could
fish and hunt all the time.

Yes, EPA covets and will emerge high on the totem if and when Federal
Invasive Species authority is passed or a UN Treaty signed.  This is more
than an academic observation of a bureaucratic phenomenon.  Mark my words,
US Fish and Wildlife Service will still need "more" for all they do and want
to do.  National Marine Fisheries Service will also need "more" (are we
surprised?) to do all they do and will "have to do".  The National Refuges
and Parks and Forests and BLM lands will all still need "more" for what
INVASIVE SPECIES responsibilities they will conjure up under the "new"
legislation or UN Convention.  All that and EPA will probably emerge on top
and "have" to coordinate and organize and direct all those agencies and all
their "partners" (think Wilderness Society, TNC, Humane Society of the US,
Defenders of Wildlife, etc.) and all the grants to the professors that will
make unbelievably successful (financially and status-wise) careers out of
INVASIVE SPECIES.  Think the US Fish and Wildlife Service has been a pain in
the tush with Endangered Species authority?  EPA will make them look like
pikers when it comes to shutting things down and destroying communities in a
New York second.  Hunters, ranchers, dog owners, and the rest of us better
beware before it is too late.

I hope you will call, FAX, e-mail, or snail-mail your US Senator and
Representative and tell them to please take all reference to INVASIVE
SPECIES out of the proposed Transportation Bill called SAFETEA.  That is all
you need to say.  If you feel the need to say anymore, tell your duly
elected Federal politician that you believe all funding for INVASIVE SPECIES
in Federal agencies and for boards like the Federal INVASIVE SPECIES COUNCIL should be eliminated.  Tell them you support justified management and
eradication of HARMFUL plants and animals on public lands and the control of
imported plants and animals under current legislation.  Tell them you want
to see State authority over plants and animals strengthened, not whittled
away.  Tell them to propose legislation (since so many of them always "want
to do something") that admonishes all future US delegations to any UN
INVASIVE SPECIES or NATIVE ECOSYSTEM CONFERENCE to first and foremost preserve US State authority over plants and animals as established in our Constitution.  Finally ask them if they will support such things.  If they
say no or "I've got to go potty", tell them you will work to defeat them
next time they are up for election and you will work hard to find and
support someone that does support these things.

No matter how many bureaucrats will retire at higher pensions or how many
bonuses and grants bureaucrats and professor could get or how much grant
money is promised to your state fish and wildlife agency, Federal INVASIVE
SPECIES authority is not worth anything, in fact it is an even bigger
grenade than the Endangered Species Act.  I could go on about more hidden
agendas in this seemingly innocuous proposal for lofty purposes secreted in
a Transportation Bill in the dark of night by an unknown supporter of
radical environmentalism but I am told readers can only read so much at one
sitting.  The fact that such a wonderful-sounding program (restoring what
Columbus saw - a really impossible and stupid goal) had to be dropped
anonymously into a Transportation Bill the size of the budget documents at
the Department of the Interior tells you something and what it says should
alarm you.  Please don't let this environmental extremism continue to grow
and endanger our society, our property, our environment, and ultimately our
Nation.  Thanks for taking the time to consider this.

Jim Beers
8 April 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


Jim Beers is available for consulting or to speak.  Contact:
JimBeers7@earthlink.net