THE LEOPARD’S SPOTS

The e-mail below just came across my desk. Attached was an article from the 20 January Washington Post titled “Its time to restore protection for wolves” by Jamie Rappaport Clark.  Since I do not send attachments, allow me to summarize the article:

1. Bush was a rotten President.
2. Mrs. Clark (a top manager of the “Defenders” of Wildlife”) is disappointed by the Obama Administration policy of allowing wolves to be killed under state fish and wildlife agency authorities and therefore is joining other environmental extremist groups to sue the federal government to continue wolf protection ad infinitum.
3. There is not the least mention or slightest acknowledgement of the mounting havoc being wreaked by the ever-increasing wolf populations that are killing livestock and domestic dogs, reducing big game herds and big game hunting, and spreading numerous diseases that are killing and debilitating rural Americans and their livestock and wildlife.

My response to the Idahoan that sent this to me follows his e-mail.  Please note the request.

The e-mail:

20 Jan 2010 17:28:10 -0700

The enclosed article appeared today in the Twin Falls Times News - its is a reprint from the Washington Post

The author Jamie Rappaport is a former Director for the USFWS Service (1997 – 2001) a position for which she is obviously proud and using to bolster her credentials in her efforts to justify her pathetic stance on wolves.  She is currently A VP for Defenders of Wildlife and couldn’t be more out of touch. 

The views espoused by this lady are a sad commentary, and a sad commentary for the type of people attracted to the USFW Service.  There are many, many others like her in the USFWS that have infiltrated the rank and file of this agency, which was supposedly was established to look out for the well-being of the wilderness and of all Wildlife.

Considering the recent developments about the massive spread of disease for which these “re-introduced” wolves are responsible, and the irreversible harm they are inflicting on other wildlife and other species - this organization, this USFWS is likely responsible for the single biggest environmental catastrophe facing the West in recent history.  This organization was solely responsible for the justification and implementation of the wolf program.  They found willing partners in our own States fish and game departments and together they are responsible for creating this unabated ecological disaster.  The USFWS no longer serves or cares about its fiduciary responsibility to its constituents, and has been relegated to nothing more than a puppet organization and facade to further the agenda of the extreme, self serving environmentalist groups like Defenders of Wildlife.

It’s time for all Sportsmans Groups to rise up and voice their opposition to this insane, out of control organization.  Its time for all States to ban together and sue for enforcement of their constitutionally protected 9^th and 10^th amendment rights, and for exclusive control and management of the resources and wildlife within each states boarders’.

The USFWS needs the same wake-up call that the electorate in Massachusetts delivered to the proponents of the out of control government sponsored health care initiative.

Its time that the USFWS, this bumbling, misguided, bureaucratic quagmire of a government agency be disbanded.   

Tony Mayer

SaveElk.com

IdahoForWildlife.com

My Response:

To All (Please Forward Far & Wide to Every Hunter and Fisherman You Know):

This woman was the last Director of the US Fish & Wildlife Service that I served under.  She was the Director when AT LEAST (according to a Government Accounting Office Audit) $45 to $60 MILLION hunting and fishing dollars were STOLEN by USFWS appointees (of Clinton) and their "sock-puppet" USFWS managers FROM THE PITTMAN ROBERTSON AND DINGELL-JOHNSON EXCISE TAXES.  (The taxes collected from arms, ammunition, and fishing tackle that BY LAW may ONLY be used by state fish and wildlife agencies for hunting and fishing programs).

The STOLEN funds were used to give USFWS appointees and their "sock-puppet" managers bonuses AND for two things Congress had refused to approve: 1. INTRODUCTION OF WOLVES INTO YELLOWSTONE and 2. OPENING A CALIFORNIA OFFICE TO ALLOW THE USFWS AND CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL AND ANIMAL RIGHTS EXTREMIST GROUPS TO BED DOWN TOGETHER.

The state fish and wildlife agencies never even asked for the funds to be replaced since they were already in bed with USFWS.  The California Office was placed under the newly-hired daughter of US Senator Ted Stevens which discouraged any further Congressional interest and this woman went on to fame and fortune with the National Wildlife Federation and the "Defenders" of Wildlife when the "crooked" Republicans "stole" the 2000 Presidential Election.

Listening to her about wildlife or politics is like listening to John Dillinger about banking!

Jim Beers – Whistleblower, three-times Congressional testifier, and retired (with a secret cash settlement to assure silence) USFWS biologist, Agent, Refuge Manager, and Congressional Fellow.

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Interior Department's decision imperils wolves, Endangered Species Act

A gray wolf in Yellowstone National Park. (National Park Service)

By Jamie Rappaport ClarkJanuary 1, 2010

"[T]oday, I've signed a memorandum that will help restore the scientific process to its rightful place at the heart of the Endangered Species Act, a process undermined by past administrations. . . . For more than three decades, the Endangered Species Act has successfully protected our nation's most threatened wildlife, and we should be looking for ways to improve it -- not weaken it."

-- President Obama, March 3

I felt distinct relief upon hearing those words. I was at the Interior Department in March when President Obama made this promise to an audience of conservationists on the 160th anniversary of the agency's founding. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was by his side.

After eight years of conservation groups fighting tooth and nail to protect America's imperiled wildlife against the plans and rulings of the Bush administration, it looked as though the Obama administration would renew our commitment to conserving endangered species and biodiversity for future generations.

But this relief was short-lived.

Just three days after the president pledged to strengthen and restore scientific integrity to implementation of the Endangered Species Act, Secretary Salazar removed federal protection from gray wolves in the Northern Rockies. In making this decision, he adopted the plan developed by the Bush administration, relying on a flawed legal opinion crafted by that administration. His decision has undermined the protection of the gray wolf and countless other threatened and endangered species.

This misguided action places wolves squarely in the cross hairs of their opponents across the Northern Rockies, allowing as many as 1,050 of Idaho and Montana's estimated 1,350 wolves to be legally killed and jeopardizing the 30-year recovery effort to restore wild wolves to the region. As a result of Secretary Salazar's action, wolves in the Northern Rockies are being hunted prematurely. Already, 210 have been killed, and there are still three months left in the Idaho hunting season.

I work with an organization that is among the 13 conservation groups that have taken this issue to court. In September, a federal judge indicated our case is likely to succeed on its merits, although a final ruling will not come until later this year.

As a former director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, I find it hard to understand why the Obama administration made this decision and why it justified it by relying on a legal opinion that has been criticized by a range of people, including academics and members of Congress. Worse, this decision affects more than the Northern Rockies wolf population. It also sets an alarming precedent for future listing and delisting decisions.

The Bush administration's legal opinion overturned more than 30 years of interpretation of the Endangered Species Act. By this reasoning, protection of species can now be determined by political boundaries and manipulation, not biology. Adjusting populations in this unscientific way -- carving out areas along state lines, as Salazar did in exempting Wyoming from the areas in which wolves were no longer to be considered endangered -- makes the act subject to political manipulation. This legal sleight of hand is in direct contrast to Obama's pledge to restore scientific integrity to decisions about endangered-species conservation.

Salazar should not have allowed the gray wolf to be delisted without first engaging in a clear and transparent public process and without exploring the ramifications of relying on this flawed legal opinion. Defenders of Wildlife reached out several times to work with the Interior Department to craft a plan that would ensure continued wolf recovery while returning management of wolves to state fish and wildlife agencies. Our efforts were ignored.

Because of my intimate involvement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone, I was very much looking forward to the day when the wolf population would no longer need federal protections. But wolves and endangered-species conservation now face an uncertain future. If the president's pledge to restore scientific integrity to the Endangered Species Act, and to improve the law, is to be fulfilled, action must be taken immediately. The interior secretary should withdraw the flawed legal opinion on which his delisting relied, restore federal protection to gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and engage all stakeholders in developing a plan to ensure that one of our nation's greatest conservation successes, the restoration of gray wolves to Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies, will not be lost.

The writer is executive vice president for Defenders of Wildlife, which has worked on wolf conservation for more than three decades. She directed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from 1997 to 2001.