December 3, 2023

Trump Administration Improves the Implementing Regulations of the Endangered Species Act

August 14, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Species recovery the ultimate goal

August 12, 2019

Contact(s):

Interior_Press@ios.doi.gov

Washington – In its more than 45-year history, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) has catalyzed countless conservation partnerships that have helped recover some of America’s most treasured animals and plants from the bald eagle to the American alligator. Today, U.S. Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt unveiled improvements to the implementing regulations of the ESA designed to increase transparency and effectiveness and bring the administration of the Act into the 21st century.

“The best way to uphold the Endangered Species Act is to do everything we can to ensure it remains effective in achieving its ultimate goal—recovery of our rarest species. The Act’s effectiveness rests on clear, consistent and efficient implementation,” said Secretary Bernhardt. “An effectively administered Act ensures more resources can go where they will do the most good: on-the-ground conservation.”

“The revisions finalized with this rulemaking fit squarely within the President’s mandate of easing the regulatory burden on the American public, without sacrificing our species’ protection and recovery goals,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “These changes were subject to a robust, transparent public process, during which we received significant public input that helped us finalize these rules.”

The changes finalized today by Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Commerce’s National Marine Fisheries Service apply to ESA sections 4 and 7. Section 4, among other things, deals with adding species to or removing species from the Act’s protections and designating critical habitat; section 7 covers consultations with other federal agencies.

The ESA directs that determinations to add or remove a species from the lists of threatened or endangered species be based solely on the best available scientific and commercial information, and these will remain the only criteria on which listing determinations will be based. The regulations retain language stating, “The Secretary shall make a [listing] determination solely on the basis of the best scientific and commercial information regarding a species’ status.”

The revisions to the regulations clarify that the standards for delisting and reclassification of a species consider the same five statutory factors as the listing of a species in the first place. This requirement ensures that all species proposed for delisting or reclassification receive the same careful analysis to determine whether or not they meet the statutory definitions of a threatened or endangered species as is done for determining whether to add a species to the list.

While this administration recognizes the value of critical habitat as a conservation tool, in some cases, designation of critical habitat is not prudent. Revisions to the regulations identify a non-exhaustive list of such circumstances, but this will continue to be rare exceptions.

When designating critical habitat, the regulations reinstate the requirement that areas where threatened or endangered species are present at the time of listing be evaluated first before unoccupied areas are considered. This reduces the potential for additional regulatory burden that results from a designation when species are not present in an area. In addition, the regulations impose a heightened standard for unoccupied areas to be designated as critical habitat. On top of the existing standard that the designated unoccupied habitat is essential to the conservation of the species, it must also, at the time of designation, contain one or more of the physical or biological features essential to the species’ conservation.

To ensure federal government actions are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of listed species or destroy or adversely modify their critical habitat, federal agencies must consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service under section 7 of the Act. The revisions to the implementing regulations clarify the interagency consultation process and make it more efficient and consistent.

The revisions codify alternative consultation mechanisms that may provide greater efficiency for how ESA consultations are conducted. They also establish a deadline for informal consultations to provide greater certainty for federal agencies and applicants of timely decisions, without compromising conservation of ESA-listed species.

Revisions to the definitions of “destruction or adverse modification,” “effects of the action” and “environmental baseline” further improve the consultation process by providing clarity and consistency.

In addition to the final joint regulations, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a separate revision rescinding its “blanket rule” under section 4(d) of the ESA. The rule had automatically given threatened species the same protections as endangered species unless otherwise specified.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has never employed such a blanket rule, so the new regulations bring the two agencies into alignment. The change impacts only future threatened species’ listings or reclassifications from endangered to threatened status and does not apply to species already listed as threatened. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will craft species-specific 4(d) rules for each future threatened species determination as deemed necessary and advisable for the conservation of the species, as has been common practice for many species listed as threatened in recent years.

From comments received during the public comment period in making these regulatory changes, concerns were raised regarding the lack of transparency in making listing decisions and the economic impact associated with determinations. Public transparency is critical in all government decision making, and the preamble to the regulation clarifies that the ESA does not prohibit agencies from collecting data that determine this cost and making that information available, as long as doing so does not influence the listing determination.

The final regulations submitted to the Federal Register can be found here: https://www.fws.gov/endangered/improving_ESA/regulation-revisions.html

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Filed Under: Endangered Species Act, National/World Tagged With:

Prescribing an Opioid for a Fatal National Law

March 17, 2019 by Leave a Comment

By James Beers:

My Inbox overflows with every variety of the following notice from those Congressmen and Senators that have been hiding under their desks (or having dinners with their favorite lobbyist) for the past several decades.  One even seemed to be an invitation.

RSVP –

Dear Sir:

Thank you for your Western Caucus Applauds Recovery of the Gray Wolf and Proposed Rule to Delist the Species notice.

If this were a movie, it would be appropriate at this point for the orchestra to burst forth with the 1812 Overture conclusion complete with the horns, drums, cymbals and cannons celebrating Napoleon’s defeat in Russia.

Substitute, in place of “Western Caucus” above, your favorite “conservation” organization; or your natural resource-dependent business lobbyist; or the names of your neighbors or relatives that have been harmed by wolves (dogs killed, cattle/sheep killed, hunting ruined, etc.); or “your” state wildlife agency that has been “helpless” before federal bureaucrats; or all those folks that think this is making “America Great Again” – but do not substitute my name.

Every one of the similar “news releases” are stuffed with every Tom, Dick and Harriet that was (and remains) AWOL in the tragedy of the federal government’s forcible imposition and ruthless protection of wolves (and grizzly bears for that matter) in the settled landscapes of The Lower 48 States.  These enthusiasts go on and on and on about how, “I look forward to the implementation of this rule so that the states can properly manage their own gray wolf population and alleviate the impacts this species has on our local farmers, their livestock, numerous family pets, and big game herds” and about how they and their colleagues tried and tried but their “proposals were challenged with frivolous lawsuits from extremist organizations who don’t rely on science or facts and seek to fundraise by keeping species on the Endangered Species Act in perpetuity”.  Like the bachelor relative that spent the War in Fort Dix, their tales of battles fought are but sad imaginings. If they were actually aware of and concerned about “the impacts this species (i.e. wolves) has on our local farmers, their livestock, numerous family pets, and big game herds” why did they not do anything about it for years?

The wolf is no more “delisted”, “recovered” or its “management returned to the state” than Eastern European countries were “liberated” after WWII when Russia renamed them “Democratic People’s Republic of (fill-in-the-blank).  I say this is because:

1.    The Endangered Species Act with all its unconstitutional bureaucratic powers remains intact.  This means that when the current occupant of the White House leaves, the reassertion of the “need” to declare the (fill-in-the-blank) wolves of SE Colorado or the “remnant” blue/gray wolves of the Distinct Population Segment Pack in Northern Kentucky East of Hwy 65 will once more be on the table.  The new areas filling with wolves will “need” federal protection to guarantee “diversity” and “Alpha males”. The areas first forced to accept wolves and where states are now or soon will be “managing” “their” wolves will, according to some federal “expert”, be “overharvesting”, or failing to prevent hybridization with coyotes and dogs, or anyone of dozens of concocted and imaginary reasons be in “need” of federal authority.

2.    Wolves (and grizzly bears) are the federal and radical’s weapons of choice to disable Rural American economies and communities in order to control and vacate them.  If the last 40 years have taught Rural Americans anything; it is that politicians have profited mightily from passing laws that enable radical environmental organizations to utilize self-serving bureaucrats in order to destroy ranching, hunting, trapping, animal ownership and use, dams, forest management, range management, rural economies and rural “domestic Tranquility”.  This while the politicians are AWOL and blameless once again as they struggle to no avail to enact “proposals challenged with frivolous lawsuits from extremist organizations who don’t rely on science or facts and seek to fundraise by keeping species on the Endangered Species Act in perpetuity”.  Poor babies!

3.    If the current President is unable to replace and reduce the army of bureaucrat ideologues (the odds of that sadly being longer than Old Nellie winning the Kentucky Derby), the bureaucrats that established these unethical government activities and wrote the regulations underpinning them, plus the environmental/animal rights/anti-American extremist organizations they work for intermittently, remain ready to make the wolf and associated issues like Wilderness and grizzly bears once more front and center.

4.    In the meantime, state Treasuries and State Wildlife Agencies will pick up all the costs of maintaining what the federal government created and imposed and the future costs of all the places wolves spread to from livestock and dog compensation to resolution of human safety and wildlife disease problems.  Increased lawsuits by radicals based on spurious precedents of the past 30 years will be coupled with abundant “research papers” pointing out “new data” about wolves and their travails from unproven and undisputable claims about numbers, reproduction and presence to submergence in domestic dog and coyote DNA.  Add in the lawsuits about “inhumane” violations of wolf management (snares, dogs, poisons, lengthy seasons, etc.) and the amount of authority and money leftover in any state to “manage” other wildlife will be severely depleted.

Consider the sordid record of the ESA to date:

–       Wolves were “listed” despite numbers in the millions worldwide.

–       Wolves have thousands of years of written and reported history of killing humans, devastating rural peoples’ families, economies and their communities. Like so many disagreeable historical facts of late, these facts are denied and ignored.

–       Wolves were exterminated at great time and expense throughout the settled landscapes of Europe and the Lower 48 States in the past 200 years when time, manpower and technology made it possible.  This is treated today as a genocide of greater concern to urban society than abortion or “mercy” killing.

–       When US Fish & Wildlife Service requested money and authority to re-introduce wolves into the West in the late 1980’s, Congress refused to grant either. Despite Congressional refusal, in the mid 1990’s, USFWS secretly took $45 to 60 Million out of state wildlife agency funding from Excise Taxes and trapped wolves somewhere in Canada, imported them clandestinely, and released them in Yellowstone Park – a federal enclave with “Exclusive Jurisdiction” meaning a place where NO State Jurisdiction or Authority exists.  Once released, the wolves spread to surrounding states and then to the states that surrounded them and as they continue to do. 

–       When, four years later Congress was made aware of the theft of the State Funds by Government Accounting Office Auditors to conduct an unauthorized act, no one was even admonished much less punished and those mainly responsible were promoted and went on to very high-paying jobs with the extremist organizations they enabled as bureaucrats.

–       No Governors were ever asked if they would allow, much less wanted federal wolves, nor told who would pay for the wolves’ maintenance and damage.  Therefore no Local communities or Counties had any say in their role of hosting any and all wolves.

–       State wildlife agencies’ corruption and collusion in the entire affair from start to finish was exposed since they never even requested that Congress replace the stolen state wildlife program funds.

–       Unbeknownst to those passing Acts like the ESA and Wilderness Act, the concept of “Native Species” and “Native Ecosystem” have become recurring words in the federal regulatory lexicon.  That is a smokescreen for all manner of mischief and it will be all over bureaucrat and court demands of “State” wolf management.  Why do wolves or grizzly bears or bison “belong somewhere they were centuries ago?  Think about that.  Do bison “belong” once again in the fall-plowed fields of western Minnesota?  Do grizzly bears “belong” in Spokane suburbs?  Do wolves “belong” in the settled landscapes of The Lower 48 States, or on Isle Royale National Park for that matter?  What is a “Wilderness” or a Marine “Sanctuary” other than an expanding acreage of unused and unmanaged land that is not even a model of what it can increase dramatically like fires or a control-site for applied research to resolve management and use of similar natural resources?  That these terms and concepts have seeped into federal environmental operations is worrisome.  The terms and concepts should be eliminated from the governmental while being put back into applied biology and history books for serious references as to where we have been and where we are headed.

–       Because traditional funding sources from hunting licenses and permits have declined due to wolf predation on game species; and because wolf issues diverted more and more funding to lawsuits, surveys, political justification research, public media campaigns and indoctrination of children – state wildlife agency employment became more precarious and dependent on blind instructions and obfuscated explanations of the effect of wolves. Agency goals shifted 180 degrees from the management and use of renewable natural resources for human benefit to the suppression and elimination of human welfare for imaginary benefit of an imaginary environment and animals given the status of human citizens that had become a blight on the land.

Would you trust these bureaucrats to babysit your kids with a record like this?

Some facts about the “Recovery of the Gray Wolf and Proposed Rule to Delist the Species” in the three states indicate what lies ahead.  It took about 5 years for all three states to wade through radical lawsuits and recalcitrant federal bureaucrats to obtain what federal lawmakers in Congress “gave” them – not because of any “Recovery” or concern about rural America – due only to simple political pressure that the more conservative residents of those three states were insisting on.  Minnesota, a more liberal and ideological “environmental” state was supposed to get the gift with those three states but due to their political reluctance to offend the urban centers that run the state (like Chicago runs Illinois), Minnesota was dropped from the list when the backlash became too hot.  Since the three states have had wolf “management authority” “returned” (considering they had claimed no resident wolves for 50 years and then federal control was imposed with forcibly inserted wolves; “returned” is a strange word about something you never wanted and had exterminated at great expense over a long period) their experience is worth noting.

–       Initial sale of wolf licenses and the increase in wolf revenue is wearing off.  Wolves are hard to find and “sport kill” are less than hoped for (to say the least).  The novelty of purchasing a wolf license is best shown by a powerful federal legislator that when I was introduced to him he smiled, dug out his wallet to show me his wolf hunting license.  I wonder if he still has one and if he ever got a wolf?

–       Federal estimates of 5,000 wolves in the Lower 48 States is a low ball number; the numbers are closer to 8,000.  Think about how many wolves you would have to kill annually to just keep the populations steady (it doesn’t really work this accurately in good old Mother Nature but humor me).  At a minimum it would take in the neighborhood of 2,000 wolves throughout the range of the wolves.  One of the states got 43 wolves, another got about 35 last year.  In other words, “managing” wolves is a farce.  Between federal bureaucrats hiding until a change of Administration and state bureaucrats using the wildlife new math of lowballing some estimates and highballing other “estimates” there will be no numbers resolutions when radical lawsuits hit state managers.

–       In the meantime, livestock depredations will increase or at best stay steady with compensation being something no state can long support.  Big Game numbers will also continue to decline as the same number of wolves will need to eat and if ranchers and dog owners can shoot (or at) threatening wolves it does not take a rocket scientist to expect ever heavier predation on elk, moose and deer.

–       To foresee a recovery of big game or a reduction in livestock depredation, the number of wolves in the neighborhood would have to be reduced 40 to 70% and kept there, ad infinitum!  Anyone telling you that ANY state can or would even envision such a scheme, given the continued existence of the ESA and the now accepted precedent that any wolf anywhere has been “recovered” so a drastic reduction in wolves would be perceived as extermination and it would provoke a federal National Emergency (under the next President to be sure) and possibly the use of federal troops like Ike sent into Alabama.

–       Dense wolf populations where they currently exist are and will continue to cause expansion into outlying areas and states, as well as suburban and in some cases urban environments.  Since wolves are so difficult to control, the increasing costs of wolf control will quickly exceed the revenue pittance they will soon bring in.  Hello, state tax increases.

–       Increasing the annual take of wolves by revenue-producing (i.e. affordable) means and private citizens in every state desiring to do so involves innovation and constant change as the ability of wolves to avoid danger goes on display.  Pack animals learn quickly as a trap goes off or a bullet hits one as they come to some sort of bait.  States and the federal government will not allow this innovation: states because of fear of federal bureaucrats and the federal bureaucrats because they work essentially for radical causes and their career success depends on radical favor. Aerial hunting (periodically necessary in Alaska and Siberia) will be found “Unfair” and a violation of the Airborne Hunting Act.  Fur sale and import/export will be attacked and its use or display will be discouraged by socialists and the politicians seeking votes in the next election.  M-44’s and deadfalls will be prohibited.  Upland, bear and cougar hunting (especially rabbit hounds, bird dogs, bear hounds, etc.) will continue to emit their last screams as their owners struggle to get to the site where wolves have bush-wacked them.  Placement regulation of baits, traps or other devices will be designed to make them ineffective. Breeding and use of wolfhounds that were bred and used in Ireland to eliminate the last wolves on that island centuries ago will be forbidden.  As will the sale of expensive guided chases made available to wealthy sportsmen interested in a unique and effective chase.  Private property, especially owned by non-resident urban wealthy folks, parks and other non-hunting public lands will be closed to “management” controls of predators, especially wolves.  Unless the State is willing to impose forcible access (as some Counties do for thistle control) to known wolf denning or other such wolf habitats for controls like denning and aerial hunting, the limited access to control operations will be very discouraging when outlined on a map. Wolves will learn these areas before the “experts will even admit their role in protecting wolves. This is only a short rundown of the problems facing anyone thinking they will reduce depredations, predation and dangers from wolves once “management is returned” to their state.

–       The only possible beneficiaries of states financing this expanding federal debacle will be the occasional (too frequent instances will require those harmed to change their lifestyle) rancher or dog owner or parent that will be able to kill a wolf in the pasture or yard where family members are present.  State enforcers and prosecutors will be more lenient in most states than their federal counterparts and the penalties will, or should be, lessened after federal control is abandoned.

–       Any thoughts of large reductions in wolf densities to protect property like cattle, sheep or dogs; or to allow large ungulates to recover and maintain hunt-able populations are pipedreams.

In conclusion, this “Recovery”, “Delisting” and “Returning Wolf Management to the States” are like prescribing an opioid to kill pain while the underlying malady increases the inevitable likelihood of a very bad outcome.  The phony “Recovery” levels are now established and the States must pay to keep them there.

Lest you think I am only whining here: chew on this.

The only path I see to be a valid solution to this growing problem is:

1.    Amend or Repeal the Endangered Species Act.

2.    If amended, it MUST REQUIRE any Federal Action in any State of the United States to:

A.   Be described in a 10 Year Proposal that specifically describes the reason for the proposal, the proposed federal expenditures and actions required, and any expected ancillary effects of the proposed action to save and or protect a Species (and no lesser biological entity) determined to be Endangered.

B.   Such Proposal shall be submitted to the Governor of the affected State for his review and written concurrence or rejection.  The federal agency should fund a public meeting in the Capital of the State, if so desired by the Governor, before he decides on the Proposal.

C.   Such Proposal, if approved by the Governor should be opened to the public in two Public meetings in the affected state and the findings of those meetings shall be attached to the Proposal and submitted in the Annual Federal Budget for Congressional Review, Approval and Authorization.

D.   Any work needed beyond 10-years would require a New Proposal and a repeat of the above process.

Rural communities should have a strong say in what sort of environment they live in.  Ultimately, in a just system of governance the basic framework and what constitutes a just environment should be decided by Local government.  Local governments should be protected and honored by State governments.  State governments should be protected and nourished by the federal government.  In other words, if the Local community wants NO WOLVES, that should be it, no matter what state or far-off federal politicians say or do on behalf of urban voters or those that covet control of rural landscapes.  This will never be renewed (yes it once existed to the great “domestic Tranquility” joy of rural people) as long as states are bound and threatened by federal overseers beholden to unaffected voters with no dog in the fight. “Returning Wolf Management” should be treated like Clint Eastwood’s infamous observation to his political boss who screamed in his face asking, what do you think?” to which Harry (Eastwood) simply snarled, “Your breath mints ain’t cutting it”.  It is only designed to give everyone dreams while things fall apart.

For these reasons and more I do not regret I will not be able to attend the celebration of the “Return of Wolf Management to the States”.  My wife and I play cribbage on that evening of the week.

Jim Beers

16 March 2019

If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others.  Thanks.

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 Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.

Jim Beers is available to speak or for consulting.

You can receive future articles by sending a request with your e-mail address to:   jimbeers7@comcast.netIf you no longer wish to receive these articles notify:  jimbeers7@comcast.net

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Filed Under: Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, National/World, Predators Tagged With: , ,

The Rotten, Cheating Government and Their GI Wolves

March 15, 2019 by Leave a Comment

Because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is a division of the Department of Interior (DOI) and is a government entity, there’s no need to mince word but to cut straight to the chase. They are a bunch of crooked, lying, cheating, stealing, evil, rotten bastards that don’t deserve the time of day. But we give it to them anyway. Go figure.

The lying, evil bastards stole money, cheated, lied, gamed the system, broke their own laws they will enforce against citizens, and dumped diseased wolves throughout the United States – Northern Rockies, Southwest, Southeast (many of these wolves hybrid semi-wild mutts paraded as pure wolves) and even Isle Royale (all done illegally), and now, after contaminating the land with disease and inflicting millions of dollars in losses to private property, these worthless bastards want to walk away from responsibility and force the states and tribes to pay for their Valentine’s Day Massacre-like escapade, while at the same time tolerating wolves and “learning to coexist” with them.

I say, take your wolves and shove em!! In case you can’t tell (politicians are incapable of any sort of perception toward their CONstituancy. They are not even human.) I’m a little bit mad and very disgusted with government and those who enable the cheating bastards by going along with their house of cards con games, i.e. turning “management” over to the states.

We know these criminal sons-a-bitches play games like this in order to pave the way for their PALS at selected Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to pad their coffers by filing lawsuits. It’s a no brainer if you have one at all. The USFWS/DOI go public with their proposals and within hours the environmental NGOs lick their chops and move in for the money kill. Then the case is tied up in court while hand-selected fascist judges rule to stop the delisting process. The rigged system, complete with crooked, brainwashed judges, provides millions of dollars for the NGOs to continue their criminal enterprises and in the meantime the business of wolf destruction remains intact.

It’s bad enough that the USFWS/DOI is either so damned crooked they are emboldened so deeply they don’t give a hoot anymore or they know exactly what they are doing. Regardless, it’s a direct kick, right between the legs, when ignorant “anti-wolf” groups think they’ve won a battle because the Feds have placed the cost and responsibility for their terrorist act in the laps of the very people whose backside they had the wolf shoved up in the first place. Can’t you see this?

This is typical government BS and you keep voting for these criminal bastards who never change.

WHY DO YOU INSIST ON REMAINING INSANE?

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Filed Under: Commentary/Opinion, Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, National/World, Predators, True Lawfulness Tagged With: , , ,

Delisting Wolves: Going Down the Rabbit Hole

November 17, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Going Down the Rabbit Hole

By James Beers:

My Inbox this morning had 5 separate copies of the news article, House of Representatives to vote on gray wolf delisting Friday from the Spokane newspaper.  Two of the senders asked what I thought, while the other three sent it for my information.  My following comments and the news article that follows them are provided for your consideration.)

Re: Wolf De Listing

This is only a temporary fix for everyone.  The basic authority for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, under the ESA, to relist and reintroduce wolves is not limited by this. 

So “they” (a temporarily benevolent Congress) make a law that wolves either in the Lower 48 or in certain States are not Endangered or Threatened and even that full management and authority over wolves (it cannot do this as long as the ESA authorizes federal bureaucrats and “scientists” to inform us that wolves are once again on the cusp of extinction in … and that the ESA “directs” and authorizes them to “save” the wolves.  Thank you, President Hillary or Alexandria Cortez or Jeff Flake or whoever wins the next electoral recounts.  Thank you as well to the next simultaneous House and Senate bursting with Dems, Socialists (but I repeat myself) and “get along” RINOS.  Do I believe that the Dems in the incoming or even current House will pass this?  Who, in Washington, will push this in the most toxic national political climate since 1860? What Dems or Republicans will fight for something Trump (think WALL, Ryan and OBAMACARE here) might possibly get any credit for?  The only thing really going for it is a blip in rural support for Washington mischief in the future (before reality is reintroduced about federal authority in such matters).

Imagine, that Wyoming (or NC or NM or ID, etc.) says “whoopie” now we can eliminate wolves in 21 0f our 23 counties (or even that they might think they could exterminate all their wolves).  Under a spineless governing class and with every rural resident back asleep because “wolves are delisted”, do you really think USFWS and that pack of hyenas they employ and even all those closet tinker belles now working in state “wildlife” agencies wouldn’t scare all the urban women and kids about the imminent demise of wolves everywhere and how they need to intervene quickly to “save” them under the provisions of the ESA?

Raise your hands if you really believe that Washington politicians would come out from under their desks to straighten things out.  What would stop it?  Some judge whose wife and daughter “love animals”? Some “scientist saying it’s all humbug” (how many of them have you seen lately)?  The same old line of XY&%# would be resurrected and plugged into the ESA’s un-Constitutional, unjust and destructive blather (but very real federal authority/jurisdiction/power grab that it wrought) about how federal bureaucrats and “scientists” trump (a great word) any delay or argument about private property rights, human health & safety, economics, liberty, domestic Tranquility, etc. etc.

States will try to respect federal and environmental demands using the rationale that “we can all get along, but that has never worked because the wolves are doing what they are supposed to do from wrecking ranching, shrinking hunting and destroying animal ownership like dogs.  Nearly all state agencies realize their bread is buttered by federal bureaucrats and national NGO’s, so challenging the status quo results in only a temporary respite much like “De-Regulation” enthusiasm.  They all know that any attempt to manage wolves as the people of the state want or most particularly the desires of those LIVING WITH WOLVES want will eventually meet with disaster for those attempting such impertinence.

The same goes for the Animal Welfare Act as a secondary tool of rural tyranny.  For instance, say North Carolina finds (as most states will) that you can neither count or “control” wolves satisfactorily and that:

  • Trapping.
  • Denning (the killing of wolf pups).
  • Year-around taking by a few shooters and young guys that enjoy shooting, hunting, etc. (exactly the young men and boys most affected by teachers, public pressure, recent laws, etc. feminizing American males).
  • Running dogs bred to run and kill wolves (in the Lower 48 States with a hodgepodge of private property?) as was the case centuries ago when the British, Scots and Irish invented and ran Wolfhounds to extirpate wolves when other methods were found to be inadequate.
  • Aerial control in certain areas.

Are the only methods that would really work but that no one dares even suggest for fear of reprisal.

Then when it sinks in that it is necessary to routinely use effective methods to maintain “tolerable” wolf levels and that whether on a local, state or Regional basis it is prohibitively expensive if attempted by government employees, and somewhat less expensive if done even by license-purchasing hunters given all the lawsuits, controversies and demands meant only to make any control impossible: enter the Animal Welfare Act as backup.

“Welfare” (as in “Animal”) folks, in collusion with the “environmental” folks will go to court; make arrests; charge; fine; and incarcerate those using “IN-humane” methods as decided by a judge or some Washington bureaucrats paid to enforce the AWA.  Grants and research will flourish and provide fodder for prohibitions.  “The ammunition is lead and eagles are dying.”  “Wolves are being wounded by inadequately trained gun owners”.  “Traps and dogs are ruled IN-humane and are prohibited”.  “Shooters are killing too many immature wolves because …”.  “Trapping during calving season is causing suffering to wolf pups still in the den”.  “There is insufficient ‘data’ to allow indiscriminate shooting of wolves’ impact on the family structure of packs in crowded habitats or in packs that roam vast areas”.  “Aerial control is cruel and unusual”. Etcetera, Etcetera.

All the while the wolves will increase, habituate, and continue to learn how to exist in the settled and artificial landscapes of the Lower 48 States. Expansion into ever-broader landscapes will occur as harassment increases, livestock is somewhat better protected, and wolf densities make roaming more and expanding their range to where wildlife, livestock and dogs are more available a likely outcome.

It is a much bigger mess than anyone admits or realizes.  These ramifications and problems are only increasing with time as wolf advocates imagine a success thus far, and wolf realists and Constitutionalists look to “De-Listing” as a solution for something that is only being covered up and kept out of site until favorable conditions return.

Pardon me if my unmentionables aren’t wadded up and my eyes all teary.

Jim Beers

16 November 2018

If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others.  Thanks.

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 Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.

You can receive future articles by sending a request with your e-mail address to:   jimbeers7@comcast.net

If you no longer wish to receive these articles notify:  jimbeers7@comcast.net

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Filed Under: Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, National/World, Predators Tagged With: , , ,

Panic-Stricken “Left” Sleepless Over Thought of Removing Wolves From ESA

November 15, 2018 by Leave a Comment

The Echo Chambers across America are doing the bidding for Environmental groups, looking to raise more money for their wages and retirement plans. The Media is echoing that the Republican-led House is trying to pass a bill that would remove federal protections from wolves in the Lower 48 states. And of course, WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE if that happens.

What’s interesting with these “fake” media outlet echo chambers is they talk a big talk but NEVER do they provide their readers, and I mean NEVER, with a link to the actual bill proposal. Why is that? Is that because they don’t want anybody to read the words of these proposals and thus discover their BS lies they use to rob money from animal-loving ignorant people? I think so.

One outlet perhaps committed a “Freudian” slip when they wrote: “Republicans are furiously pushing legislation that would remove gray wolves in the 48 contiguous U.S. states from the list of threatened and endangered animals protected under the Environmental Species Act…” (emboldening added) I contend that this title is more exact in the practice than using the Endangered Species Act. Because it is money hungry, rabid environmental groups who “sue and settle” and are in cahoots with the Federal Government, calling it the Environmental Species Act is tell-tale.

For those who care, which I know are very few, here is the link to H.R. 6784, Manage Our Wolves Act.

From my perspective, this bill will not pass. And if it does pass, over the long haul doing so will be a big mistake because of the precedence it will set. Remember policy and precedence become the law of the land. What’s good for one group is good for another…just saying.

But then again, the Feds dumped their toxic, disease-ridden, hybrid dogs on us and now it appears the only reason the House Committee wants the bill passed is so the Feds won’t have to pay to continue protections and management of the canine mongrels.

And as I’ve said countless times:

DON’T GO LOOK!

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Filed Under: Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, National/World, Predators Tagged With: , ,

Frog Jumping Over and Around the Endangered Species Act

October 18, 2018 by Leave a Comment

A sensible person – there are so few left in this world – can see that the Endangered Species Act of 1973 is ancient, outdated, ineffective, and draconian – if you are of the rare breed of man who thinks man’s existence is at least a tick above that of an animal.

But it matters not how many people scream and yell and how often that something needs to be done about the Endangered Species Act (ESA), nothing ever gets done, except perhaps a bit of window dressing as the Trump Administration has been trying to do; also often referred to as smoke and mirrors.

Nothing will change with the ESA because man’s social and cultural demise in this country is so deeply embedded that animals, wild or domestic, deserve much more protection than the existence and well-being of man. This might be shown to us in a Patriot Post opinion piece written by Terence Jeffrey.

He suggests that San Francisco, California should consider declaring portions of the downtown as critical habitat for the grizzly bear. Why?

Because the mindset of the perverted culture of the U.S. citizen is that of favoritism to the animal and disdain for the people. According to some man’s history lesson, grizzly bears once “lived almost everywhere in California.” With today’s thinking, that is reason enough to force all people to learn to “coexist” with grizzly bears and because they once “lived almost everywhere” they should live there once again regardless of the practicality or even that habitat any longer exists to support such a creature. This is one of the stupid results of a bastardized, outdated, and a fascist/totalitarian administration of a law designed specifically for that purpose (but don’t go look).

In this same opinion piece, we read of what is taking place in Louisiana, where the U.S. Supreme Court might soon decide whether the ESA can rule over the welfare of mankind for the purposes of attempting to protect and restore a species that is biologically impossible to exist in habitat that no longer is supportive of the species the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) intends to protect.

The USFWS declared nearly 5,000 acres as critical habitat for the dusky gopher frog, even though those acres will no longer support the existence of the frog.

It seems Weyerhaeuser owns some of that land yanked away from them by the ESA’s designation of “critical habitat.” Weyerhaeuser has had to stop their logging operations because of the designation, which shows us how the ESA is used in the destruction of private enterprise, particularly logging and ranching. Weyerhaeuser has sued the USFWS.

In addition to Weyerhaeuser’s logging operations, some of this same land is being earmarked for development of housing to get people out of the path of destructive hurricanes when they blow ashore. Should any animal take precedence over men? Should any animal be given ESA protection and critical habitat designation when such habitat will never support the appointed species? And even if the habitat is supportive, at what lengths will the government go to halt the existence and pursuit of happiness of private citizens?

That’s perhaps what the Supreme Court will decide. In arguments concerning the frog, it has been brought out that the elements needed in a habitat to support the frog no longer exist. Why then is the USFWS extending their fascist reach to shut down Weyerhaeuser and stop the protection of the human species?

Maybe, there is a light of some interest in this matter when the U.S. Supreme Court heard this case (no decision has been rendered yet). According to Jeffrey, Justice Roberts was quoted as saying, “…if you have ephemeral ponds in Alaska, you could build a giant greenhouse and plant the longleaf pines and the frog could live there.”

The system we are forced to operate in is a rigged system. All facets of the U.S. Government operate in unison with this rigged system – that’s one reason it is rigged. If it is decided that the real purpose of the ESA is to be used to shut down private enterprise and take over land regardless of its purposes for a man, then that’s the way it shall be. From time to time, the government positions their smoke and mirrors in attempts to mislead the insane public into thinking they really give a shit. This could be one of those cases, but…

The government doesn’t care. I look for a ruling from the SCOTUS that their hands are tied because the ESA gives the Federal Government the authority to administer the Act and that the Service is granted their deference based on “Best Available Science.”

Business as usual.

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Filed Under: Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, National/World, Rights Tagged With: , ,

Slate of ESA Amendment Bill Proposals to Pass Out of House Committee

September 28, 2018 by Leave a Comment

Here’s a list of bills that passed through the House Committee on Natural resources that would, if passed by Congress, amend the Endangered Species Act. Whether any of these amendments are worthy of much of anything, I’ll leave up to you.

I will provide a Summary of the proposal and a link at the end where you can view the entire bill proposal.

HR 3608 – Summary

H.R. 3608 amends the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA) to require public availability on the Internet of the best scientific and commercial data available, which is the basis of each decision to list a species for protection under the ESA. It requires the federal government to disclose scientific information used in making listing or critical habitat decisions to States, tribes, and local governments and ensures the inclusion of data submitted by those governments as part of the best available scientific and commercial data.

Further, this bill requires U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to report funds expended by the federal government in response to ESA litigation, full time employees tasked with ESA litigation, and attorneys’ fees associated with ESA litigation and settlements. This annual report will be submitted to the House Natural Resources Committee and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Lastly, to protect taxpayer dollars, this bill caps the attorney fees for ESA litigation and settlements at $125 per hour, consistent with the Equal Access to Justice Act. <<<Read More>>>

HR 6345 – Summary

H.R. 6345, the “EMPOWERS Act,” introduced by Rep. Steve Pearce (R-AZ-02) on July 12, 2018, amends the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to gives States and local governments the ability to provide meaningful feedback and information concerning major ESA decisions that affect their communities. The ESA currently provides opportunities for States to provide input, but imposes no special requirement to consult with States. This bill ameliorates this omission by requiring federal agencies to consult with States before making decisions on ESA petitions and to provide an explanation when their decisions diverge from the findings or advice of States.<<<Read More>>>

HR 6346 – Summary

H.R. 6346, the Weigh Habitats Offsetting Locational Effects, or “the WHOLE Act,” is a bipartisan bill that requires that the totality of conservation measures and planned conservation measures be considered before taking federal actions that impact species. This legislation will reduce costs associated with consultation, allow important projects to move forward while safeguarding listed species, and incentivize private conservation efforts to benefit endangered and threatened species.<<<Read More>>>

HR 6355 – Summary

H.R. 6355, introduced by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-AR-04) on July 12, 2018, amends the Endangered Species Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to declare a petition backlog when frivolous petitions overburden the scientific review and evaluation process. It also ensures all necessary protections for legitimate species listing requests, which contain sufficient duly collected scientific information, remain in place. Finally, this legislation would create a public database of listing petitions and accompanying information.<<<Read More>>>

 

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Hocus Pocus Voodoo Science: Proposed Replacement of the Regulations for the Nonessential Experimental Population of Red Wolves

August 11, 2018 by Leave a Comment

The purpose of the proposed action is to incorporate the most recent science and lessons learned related to the management of red wolves to implement revised regulations that will better further the conservation of the red wolf. We propose to establish a more manageable wild propagation population that will allow for more resources to support the captive population component of the red wolf program (which is the genetic fail safe for the species); serve the future needs of new reintroduction efforts; retain the influences of natural selection on the species; eliminate the regulatory burden on private landowners; and provide a population for continued scientific research on wild red wolf behavior and population management.<<<Read More>>>

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Filed Under: Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, Predators, Wildlife Science Tagged With: ,

An Open Letter About the Insanity of Wolf Protection Over Livelihoods

July 27, 2018 by Leave a Comment

The Merciful Bullet

By Len McIrvin, Partner Diamond M Ranch Laurier, WA 99146

As I looked into the dark, pain filled, pleading eyes of the calf lying on the ground in a dense thicket, many thoughts flashed through my mind. This had been a strong, healthy heifer calf (in human terms, she would have been a 5 or 6 year old girl-halfway between birth and puberty, with-hopefully-her whole life ahead of her)
As I looked at the calf’s ripped and torn, blood-soaked body; with her shoulder ripped from it’s joint, her hindquarters and her back and upper leg deeply punctured and lacerated with dozens of wolf bites – I had to ask myself, “Why?” Why is this becoming a common place event for cattlemen and sheepmen all over the West as they see their herds ravaged by wolves?
The mother cow mournfully bellows to her unmoving, fatally wounded calf. Her udder is swollen with milk but is never again to be suckled by her baby. Showing her love and concern, the mother cow stands watch over her calf all day long; refusing to leave the area where it was attacked by wolves. Her grief-stricken cries haunt me as she continues to call to her dying baby.
Once again I ask myself “Why?” Why this terrible waste to satisfy the desire of a few people who just hope to hear a wolf howl?
I couldn’t help but think “Why” once again as the Fish and Wildlife Officer asked my grandson if he could dispatch the victim, stating that he would then transport the body to the dump. What a waste of a healthy, young calf to end up in that place where she will rot or be eaten by scavengers.
I looked again at those dark, pain filled, and pleading eyes of the calf as my grandson compassionately placed the Merciful Bullet between them. Even though this is an experience I have lived through over 100 times, I still cannot accept this merciless killing of our herd by wolves.

Wolves kill whatever they want to kill, but death by wolves is slow, and horrible, and a long time coming. In the case of this calf, she could have lived for days, or lived until the wolves came back and started eating her alive. With tears in my eyes, I am asking all the good friends, neighbors, and citizens in our area, state, and nation for help in ending this situation.
God has said He put man on earth to have dominion over the animals. For those of you who believe there is a Lord, you must assume this responsibility and demand that this terrible carnage ends and that our predators are managed to the point that our herds and flocks, our pets, and our wonderful herds of game animals can survive.
There are only 3 factors involved in controlling the population density of wolves:
1. The first factor is disease and parasites, which invariably come when wolf population reaches its saturation point. (these are transmittable to humans)
2. The second factor is starvation. The starvation factor kicks in at the point when there is no food source available. At this point, they become cannibalistic and start eating each other, thereby controlling their own population.
3. The third factor and the most viable and effective population control of wolves is man; but in today’s political correctness, man has been taken out of the equation. This is the scenario we are facing today.
As a cattleman who has been involved with cattle all my life-nearly 3/4 of a century, I am asking for your help as we deal with the consequences of an exploding wolf population. Local control is the only answer. Let’s do everything possible to assure that each County Sherriff has complete control and is totally in charge of all the wolf predation that affects his citizens and their property.

Len McIrvin, Partner Diamond M Ranch Laurier, WA 99146

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Filed Under: Endangered Species, Endangered Species Act, National/World Tagged With: , , , , , ,

An Opportunity to Make the ESA Benefit People

July 27, 2018 by Leave a Comment

*Editor’s Note* – I have the utmost respect for Jim Beers. His experience and his knowledge, along with a willingness to share makes him a standout in today’s world of programmed automatons. However, it is my belief that there is insanity in thinking that just one more attempt at instituting change can happen if we vote in the “right” people to serve in Washington. The System is far too big, far too powerful, and far too corrupt to think that any person or group of persons can change that. Thinking so is explemplary to the ignorance of the Global Power Structure.

Inserting another “however,” we shouldn’t throw out the baby with the bath water. Beers latest writing contains many accurate and powerful facts that we shouldn’t forget.

Having said this, I cannot offer any solution that will cause real change in our governmental structure, especially the criminal aspects of it. In the years that I have spent in this work, which involves uncountable hours of read-searching, it has become extraordinarily clear that in government absolutely nothing has changed – only the allowed rhetoric to rile and divide the masses. 

As to the history of the Endangered Species Act, all the promises, all the talk, all the hype over the past 20 years and, like all government establishments, nothing has changed. Beers has it right in warning us not to be fooled by false promises – promises for action in exchange for your vote. This has been the history of real criminal politics and there is no hope that it will change or that you and I can actually do anything about it…short of changing ourselves and how we perceive things.

My only suggestion is to do as we have been instructed in the Scriptures to not be a part of man’s government – “Come out of Her my people” (the Whore of Babylon). Our Creator knew and knows the corruption that would rule man’s crafted cesspool of lying, cheating, and stealing. 

Put your faith and belief in God the Almighty instead of man-gods and your perspective will change. Government will not.

By Jim Beers:

As this old wildlife bureaucrat sees the “Deep State” wriggle and squirm like a nightcrawler on the hook of the President I am encouraged that there may be a remedy on the horizon for all the damage and abuse that rural America is absorbing from environmental and animal overreach by federal bureaucracies.  “Endangered” “species” from Wolves and Grizzly Bears to Mountain Yellow-Legged Frogs and Tooth Cave Spiders can be changed from tools forged by bureaucrats to decimate animal husbandry, grazing, hunting, logging and other rural pursuits necessary for rural American communities into animals that decimate such communities for a wide range of nefarious hidden agendas.

The possibility of changing this has come to mind as I have followed the political battle between the Congress, and the FBI and DOJ about if and to what extent the FBI and DOJ meddled in the last Presidential election.  Furthermore, the vitriol spewed by certain members of the last Administration, particularly in the intelligence arena, toward the President and everything he does up to and including calling him a traitor is not only stunning but suggestive of a possible remedy for Endangered Species, Wilderness and other environmental laws that use power-seeking bureaucrats as unanswerable and irresponsible tools of vote-seeking politicians that pass and protect unjust laws they then disavow as being administered by “scientists” and “experts”.

Consider the following examples.

1.) When terrorism first became a major national concern, the law enforcement “experts” made the logical case that new “secret” courts (FISA courts) were necessary to issue “secret” warrants to search and investigate the profusion of cells and individuals suspected of plotting and carrying out terrorist acts. Despite misgivings by many legal historians, Congress passed a law establishing these FISA courts.  So, what happened?

We find that the FBI, DOJ and CIA tapped phones of Congressional staff, conducted secret surveillance of the Trump election campaign, and then lied to Congress and stalled only to dribble heavily redacted documents to Congressional Committees.  When called to appear before these Committees the contempt and disdain displayed toward Congress and the Administration was stunning.  The forecast that FISA would create a Star Chamber form of “justice” wherein proceedings were secret, rulings were arbitrary and tyrannical, and there was little difference between the “Kings” enforcers and the “Kings” judges became a fact. When an investigation is launched against the President, it lasts for years while being made up of lawyers strongly opposed to the President.  The wife of an FBI official is given thousands of dollars to run for an office by the Party opposing the President.  “Lost” emails, a private server containing highly classified information kept in a private residence basement are dismissed as acceptable.

2.) When the federal government sought to “equalize” tax advantages for all political lobbying organizations under President Obama, IRS employee Lois Lerner engaged in serious discrimination against conservative groups while favoring tax exemptions for liberal groups.  When that was exposed by a Congressional Committee, Ms. Lerner took the 5th and her boss, Mr. Koskinen lied to Congress when he said her emails were lost to a computer glitch.  Ms. Lerner skated free and retired: her boss did a double arabesque and pirouetted off stage right into infamy.

3.) Gun control advocates here and in the UN began accusing American gun dealers of supplying Mexican drug lords and foreign revolutionary movements with illegal guns and ammunition early in the Obama Administration.  Soon thereafter, ATF and DOJ began a secret operation they labelled Fast and Furious.  Two thousand automatic weapons, including over 30 .50 caliber rifles, were placed in the purported flow of illegal guns into Mexico to ostensibly discover the identify of traffickers.  The guns promptly disappeared and popped up in such widespread places as Mexican drug-related executions and the personal gun collection of drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, as well as one being the murder weapon of an American Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry.  Simultaneously, the US State Department was negotiating an unmentioned “Small Arms Treaty” at the UN that supposedly would replace the 2nd Amendment when ratified by the US Senate and signed by President Obama.

When Fast and Furious became public, the DOJ refused to give Congress, or anyone else, any information.  The Attorney General was exceptionally arrogant (shades of Strzok, Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and McCabe, et al of recent vintage) and was found in Contempt of Congress.  The UN “Treaty” ploy was abandoned and since then guns from this ATF debacle continue popping up in both US and Mexican crime scenes.

4.) When I worked for the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington in the 1990’s I saw the same arrogance and hubris emerge in top managers.  They began to feel the power at their fingertips and what it could do for themselves.  Contempt for hunters, ranchers, loggers, shepherds, private property rights, animal ownership, and renewable natural resource management was what the environmental laws had become.  Successful bureaucrats were those that saw themselves as accumulating power and the financial rewards and gravitas it created.  By the mid 1990’s USFWS appointees and top bureaucrats were placing beholden women and minorities in top management positions as endangered species came to the forefront and the entire concept of managing wildlife for people became bureaucrats managing people and their rights for wildlife.

This led to Budget Requests to Congress to introduce wolves into the Upper Rocky Mountains and to open an unnecessary new office in California to seal a close alliance with radical environmental and animal rights’ organizations.  When Congress refused to authorize or fund either;  USFWS simply “diverted” (either “took” or “stole” is more accurate) $45M to $60M from the Excise Taxes that by law could only go to state wildlife agencies and then surreptitiously captured and imported Canadian wolves, released them into the Upper Rockies, opened the California office, and gave the leftover funds to USFWS managers in bonus packages.

When this theft was documented in a General Accounting Office Audit and presented to the House Resources Committee, the Director was absent at the Hearing she was requested to attend.  When she and her underlings finally testified, the arrogance and contempt for American law and the American electorate was a copy of that noted in 1, 2, and 3 above examples.  Any prosecution or reprimand or accountability for the perps was lost in the approaching Presidential election. Any deterrence for other bureaucrats about ever losing a bonus or retirement for any transgression was not only foregone; the opposite or “we are untouchable” was the message sent to the “Lerners”, “Comeys” and “Holders” of the “Deep State”.

Recommendation

Each of these examples has 2 things in common:

  1. Excessive central government power in the hands of unelected political appointees and bureaucrats.
  2. Legal backing by elected central government politicians to enact and federal laws that implement political agendas disguised as “feel-good” goals such as “saving” species and wilderness, gun control, tax “fairness”, and fighting terrorism.

There is an approaching federal mid-term election coming upon us.  Some forecast the House and Senate ceding the majority to the other Party, while some forecast the opposite.  The majority Party is apparently shedding the bloc of politicians that fight the President and his proposals at every turn and the minority Party is putting forth a radical-socialism, mix based on Venezuela and Cuban governance.  It will be a tumultuous election with no guarantees.  That tumult is what has created an opportunity.

The harms and damage of the Endangered Species Act (and the Wilderness Act, FISA, and similar federal overreaches for “feel-good” purposes) can be greatly, if not entirely reduced by telling your federal politicians running for office and the incumbents that you want to amend the ESA.  Tell them you are concerned about having an environment as hospitable to truly endangered plants and animals AS CAN BE ENCOURAGED IN THE SETTLED LANDSCAPES OF THE LOWER 48 STATES WHERE YOU LIVE, WORK AND RAISE YOUR FAMILIES AND THIS DEPENDS ON LOCAL SUPPORT!

Then tell them “the problem has been and remains that there is no responsibility or accountability for the success or failure of these programs in either federal politicians that support the programs or the federal bureaucrats that administer them”.

Therefore, you want to amend the ESA to require that as of the following fiscal year, all endangered species actions other than listing must have the written concurrence of the Governor of the state in which any action shall be proposed to take place.  Such permission by the Governor should be a signed agreement for each species and include the end-point, funding to be available annually, compensation for likely negative impacts like cattle, sheep and big game losses and human and property losses due to  government actions or lack thereof.  Tell them if they won’t support this, you either won’t vote for them or you will vote for the other guy.  AMEND THE ESA is the sign you should put along the road for the local paper to run.

Do not be fooled by offers to “return management of this or that species to the state”: such “offers” disguise the precedent that what the feds “give” they can later take away under a future political situation.  Don’t be fooled by legislative proposals promising more “transparency” or “participation”: such things are meaningless smoke and mirrors.  Nothing, short of taking primary authority and jurisdiction for all non-treaty wildlife and plants from federal control and placing it back at the lowest (and therefore most responsive to people) level of government will work.  Two hundred years of American life proved no less.

I could go on, but your time is limited.  Suffice it to say that the Governor (include the state legislature if you will) is an official actually close to the impacts of such federal action and he (they in the case of the Legislature) can be recalled or voted out of office when things go south: that is not true with either federal politicians or bureaucrats when sheep are killed by “GI” (Government Issue) grizzlies or elk/moose hunting is destroyed by “GI” wolves.  Governors and state legislatures are more responsible and responsive than any federal politician or bureaucrat in nearly every state.

If you think this too hard to do, just picture Strzok or Comey smirking at the camera, or Holder defending the indefensible, or the discredited Koskinen explaining how the “computer ate my homework”.  Then think about your kids and grandkids in ten or 15 years when a President Elizabeth Warren and Vice President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are telling Secretary of the Interior Cameron Diaz to let those fires burn over onto private property and get rid of those ranchers, farmers and sheep herders so we can consolidate and expand federal land ownership.  If they still have the authority over these unjust federal laws solely in their hands without any check or balance, it can happen in a New York nanosecond, with or without Congress.

Either we get this under control soon or we can just say goodbye to the American experience.

Jim Beers

25 July 2018

If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others.  Thanks.

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 Eagan, Minnesota with his wife of many decades.

You can receive future articles by sending a request with your e-mail address to:   jimbeers7@comcast.net

If you no longer wish to receive these articles notify:  jimbeers7@comcast.net

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Filed Under: Endangered Species Act, National/World, Politics in General Tagged With: , , , ,