*Editor’s Note* – Below is the content of an email I received about a formal complaint filed with the Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Interior and the Special Agent in Charge, Professional Responsibility Unit of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The complaint essentially claims an animal that government labeled a red wolf was released into the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge (PLNWR) and was to be managed there under the Endangered Species Act, including the PLNWR habit.
The formal complaint alleges that Refuge managers decided to flood the habitat used by red wolves to make way for protection of migrating water fowl. Since the flooding was done, all red wolves have evidently vacated the Refuge at the same time red wolves were showing up on other Public Lands as well as private lands. Some of those wolves were shot and killed.
The complaint charges the actions of the red wolf recovery agents and managers of the PLNWR violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by deliberately causing harm and death to an endangered species.
I understand the complainants expose that appears to show deliberate disregard for the ESA – a Federal Law that private citizens are expected to adhere to. However, perhaps we should thank these agents for what they have done, even though they may have violated federal law.
In the first place the animal government fascists dumped in the woods, was not a red wolf – if the species even ever existed. At best it was a cross-bred, hybrid that resulted in a semi-wild canine that is of no use to anybody or anything.
But what should rise to the surface in all of this is the fact that fascist government agents are above the laws the rest of us are required to follow or we suffer ridiculous, draconian consequences the like of which was never intended by the ESA….or were they. In other words, Government does as it wishes and always will because there is no accountability or consequences for anyone’s actions. American fascist Government has morphed into an ends is justified by means form of power.
One has to wonder what is expected to be accomplished in filing such complaints when the leaders of this government are the biggest crooks in the world. Presently we have a president who disregards the rule of law, dictating his own ideals onto the servitude, while our elected officials go along with it out of fear of many things, money is not the least of them. We have a candidate for president that lies and cheats regularly, is a murderer and has been caught red-handed breaking laws in this country geared to protecting national security, and yet, nothing is being done about it. Yes, there’s a lot of lip service but WE continue to allow it to be.
Having pointed this all out, should we really believe complaining about two-faced, fascist government actions concerning fake red wolves is going to even be looked into? The only actions that will be taken will be those to save one’s ass.
Here is the content of the email:
Shepherdstown, WV 25443
Special Agent John Hast
U.S. Department of the Interior
Office of Inspector General
1849 C Street NW – Mail Stop 4428
Washington, D.C. 20240
Mr. Hast and Mr. Toomey,
I would like to report the “take” of multiple endangered Red Wolves by USFWS as a direct result of USFWS significantly altering (flooding/saturating) the wolves’ habitat on the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. As maps I present here clearly document, breeding pairs of wolves were once prevalent on PLNWR, the Refuge is now completely devoid of any pairs of wolves.
THE LAW
Section 3(18) of the ESA defines “take” to mean “to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct.”
FWS regulations (50 CFR 17.3) define “harm” to include “significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding or sheltering.
http://www.fws.gov/endangered/
See also:
Under §7(a)(2), no federal agency may authorize, fund or carry out any action likely to threaten or harm the existence of an endangered / threatened species (or harm their habitat).
https://www.law.cornell.edu/
https://www.law.cornell.edu/
*This is very important. It should be noted the nonessential experimental population of Red Wolves in North Carolina receives the full protection of endangered species status as long as it remains on the Federal refuges.
THE VIOLATIONS
In September of 2007, USFWS Refuge Manager Howard Phillips and USFWS Project Leader/Refuge Manager Mike Bryant submitted the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan stating:
“All refuge management actions would be directed toward achieving the refuge’s primary purposes (i.e., conserving wintering habitat for waterfowl, providing production habitat for wood ducks, and helping meet the habitat goals of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan), while contributing to other national, regional, and State goals to protect and restore migratory bird populations.”
Page 270
*Please note the Red Wolves were promised this in 1993 by the USFWS Refuge Manager Jim Savery:
?
So what is the primary focus of the PLNWR? Is it to be managed for ducks as Refuge Managers Bryant and Phillips state in their 2007 “Conservation” plan? Or is endangered species management the number one objective as declared by USFWS Refuge manager Jim Slavery when the wolves were to be released on the refuge?
As I have learned, USFWS biologists say whatever suits their purpose at the time, whether it is to their neighbors or even the wildlife they are charged to protect. I guess it was beneficial to be an endangered wolf in 1993, but better to be a duck in 2007.
To be clear, in the 2007 Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan it is stated:Under HABITAT MANAGEMENT for 61,288 acres of pocosin.
Successful maintenance or management of the pocosin will require restoration of hydrology to hold the water table at the surface of the soil.
Page 76
http://www.fws.gov/southeast/
From the 10/26/2007 Section 7 Biological Evaluation by USFWS Biologist Wendy Stanton for Watersheds 2 and 3:
“The hydrology restoration project would involve two steps; The first is to raise refuge roads two to three feet in elevation to maintain road accessibility and allow flooding adjacent blocks of land to surface levels or slightly higher to allow sheet flow.” “The second step is to install new and/or replace old leaking water control structures and culverts at every one foot change in elevation to manage water levels in the adjacent land blocks.” Stanton further designated these actions relative to the red wolf to “not likely adversely affect species or habitat”
Now let’s look at the 2005 Section 7 Biological Evaluation signed by USFWS Refuge Manager Howard Phillips found on pages 159 – 161 of the USFWS 2007 Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plan:
Yes, you are reading this correctly, USFWS is going to fully saturate (flood) 61,288 acres of the previously “ideal” red wolf habitat but this action will “not likely adversely affect the species”. How is it even conceivable that saturation of 61,288 acres of the wolves’ habitat to soil surface level or above will not likely adversely impact this species? I have learned that there is no room for common sense when it comes to this Red Wolf Program and its management or lack thereof.
The pond pine forests have long been drowned by USFWS “management and conservation actions”.
?Keep in mind the significant modification of habitat “take” violation described in the ESA: FWS regulations (50 CFR 17.3) define “harm” to include “significant habitat modification or degradation where it actually kills or injures wildlife by significantly impairing essential behavioral patterns, including breeding, feeding or sheltering.
I assure you a wolf does not and can not den and rear young under water or even on land that is saturated to soil surface levels or above. I further assure you the rodents, rabbits and upland game that once flourished on this refuge and served as a prey base for the Red Wolf are no longer here. This I can tell you and I am not even a red wolf biologist or refuge manager charged with the responsibility of protecting this species and determining the affects of this action on the endangered Red Wolf.
I know USFWS Refuge Managers Howard Phillips and Mike Bryant promised to monitor and coordinate with the Red Wolf Recovery Team any adverse impacts of all this on their endangered Red Wolf. But let me do it for them, since they obviously have not and will not. I took USFWS 2003 and 2014 Red Wolf Pair maps and overlaid them onto the PLNWR map. My findings are rather significant.
Here is a USFWS 2003 map of Red Wolf breeding pairs located on the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. The green area is the PLNWR. Red Wolf pair territories appear in red, coyotes in blue, and mixed pairs in black.
2003 Pocosin Lake Wildlife Refuge Red Wolf Map
?
In 2003, at least six Red Wolf pairs used PLNWR as part of their home territory. If you assume many of these pairs had offspring in their family unit, you arrive at the previously contemplated carrying capacity of 15 – 25 wolves on the refuge.Now, let’s fast forward to 2014 after USFWS Refuge Management decided to manage the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge for waterfowl and not the endangered Red Wolf. Remember USFWS Refuge Management was charged with the responsibility to monitor any impact on the endangered Red Wolf and also to coordinate efforts with the USFWS Red Wolf Recovery Team to protect the wolf.
?
Yes that is correct, not a single pair of Red Wolves located anywhere on the PLNWR.
It should be noted that during this time period, the USFWS Red Wolf Coordinator reported directly to USFWS Project Leader/Refuge Manager Mike Bryant. I want to understand why, as required under the Section 7 rules of the ESA, this adverse impact was not reported and acted upon.
IMPACT AND TAKE OF THE SPECIES
60 out of 64 gun shot wolves have occurred on private land as USFWS flooded the wolves’ protected Federal land and sought out dry land where they did not have the full protection of the ESA. To add insult to injury, USFWS also adopted an internal policy to not remove wolves from private land as mandated by their 1995 Federal Rules governing this nonessential experimental population.
In a text book violation of the take provision of the 1973 Endangered Species Act, USFWS knowingly and willingly significantly altered and modified the protective Federal Refuge habitat (saturation/flooding) of the Red Wolf forcing it onto private land. The USFWS Red Wolf Recovery Team then refused to remove the wolves from private land, as legally required, knowing the mortality rate was far greater off the protected refuge. Now as a direct result of these USFWS actions, the USFWS Red Wolf Recovery Program seems destined to fail as its population numbers have now precipitously dropped to the same number of breeding pairs (4) that the program started with almost 30 years ago.
Special Agents Toomey and Hast, please accept this as a formal complaint alleging take violations of the endangered Red Wolf as defined by the 1973 Endangered Species Act by USFWS.
Sincerely,
Jett Ferebee
