Criminal Activities by Federal Bureaucrats and Others Involved in the Introduction, Protection and Spread of Wolves in the Lower 48 States
Beers, Jim. 2010. Criminal Activities by Federal Bureaucrats and Others Involved in the Introduction, Protection and Spread of Wolves in the Lower 48 States. Friends of the Northern Yellowstone Elk Herd, Bozeman, MT 16 May 2010.
Full text [here]
Selected excerpts:
Abstract:
The period 1967 to 1999 saw the passage of 3 Endangered Species Acts and a tightening of federal authority over a host of plants and animals formerly under the jurisdiction of state governments. Mr. Beers was employed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service in many capacities and locations during this period. He explains the growth of federal power, the shift in the sort of employees and agendas responsible for the federal growth, and the resulting subversion of state fish and wildlife agencies and any respect for law by increasingly powerful bureaucrats. The introduction, protection, and spread of wolves by federal decrees during this period are detailed and major violations that occurred are explained. The violations include the theft of $60+ of excise tax money by federal bureaucrats from state fish and wildlife programs to introduce wolves, Non-governmental organization entanglements with federal bureaucrats and federal funds, quid pro quo arrangements with state bureaucrats, failure to audit state fish and wildlife programs in order to maintain state compliance with illegal federal actions, failure of federal bureaucrats to describe and forecast the impacts and costs of introduced wolves, and the cover-up of millions of dollars of state misuse of federally-collected excise taxes.
Introduction:
The following two-hour verbal presentation is divided into three parts. This is so that the listener or reader understands three things.
First is the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) time of employment of the author and his competency concerning this subject. This is important for you to appreciate the competency of the author to speak about federal environmental/animal rights policies, federal bureaucracies and their operation, the changing nature of federal and state fish and wildlife programs, and the impacts that these changes are continuing to have on our American society.
Second are the political, scientific, and legal changes of the past 40 years and how their cumulative impacts have led to the corruption and disregard for both US law and the US Constitution described in the third part.
Third is a description of law violations by both those immediately involved in the introduction, protection, and spread of wolves in the Upper Great Lake States, the Carolinas, the SW States, the Upper and Central Rocky Mountain States and the resulting and ever-widening range of associated bureaucrats’, agencies’, and associated “partners’” activities continuing in disregard of federal laws.
Descriptions and explanations of the growing danger of wolf attacks; the purposeful lack of information about wolves as carriers of diseases that infect and kill humans, livestock, and wildlife; the annihilation of big game animals, big game hunting, and hunting revenues to state wildlife agencies; the widespread destruction of pets and working dogs; and the ruination of the tranquility of rural life where wolves exist are topics that are being addressed in detail elsewhere.
This presentation is intended to describe criminal activities by federal and state bureaucrats, lobbyists, and radical organizations associated with the establishment, protection and spread of wolves in the Lower 48 states. It is my belief that understanding this aspect of the wolf issue will enable all of us to better understand and work more effectively to solve the myriad problems that government bureaucrats, activist organizations, and politicians have caused by illegal actions disguised as wolf introduction and protection.
Part I – My Background
I have a BS in Wildlife Resources from Utah State and an MA in Public Administration from the U of No. Colorado. I worked for the Utah Fish and Game while in college and spent 3 1/2 years in the US Navy as a Line Officer on a ship in the western Pacific and as a Courier Officer stationed in the Aleutians at the Adak US Naval Communication Station.
I was hired by the USFWS in 1967 as a Wetlands Biologist in Devils Lake, ND. In 1969 I was transferred to the Minneapolis Police Dept, for 5 months of law enforcement recruit training and then became a US Game Management Agent stationed in the USFWS Regional Office in Minneapolis. In 1970 I was transferred to Grand Island, Nebraska as a US Game Mgt. Agent and then in 1972 I was transferred to New York City where, in two years as the only USFWS Agent stationed in NY City, I “made” two very large and publicized endangered species cases that involved both notoriety and large fines – the Vesely-Forte international fur smuggling case and the Cartier Jewelry endangered species sale case.
In 1974 I was transferred to Washington, DC as a USFWS Special Agent where I concluded several NY cases that required trips to Canada and Europe as well as cooperation with foreign law enforcement agencies and agents.
I remained in Washington for 25 years and served in a series of USFWS positions. After two years as an Agent, I became a Program Analyst and then spent a year as a Budget Analyst. This was followed by a year working on Capitol Hill, first in the House and then in the Senate as a Congressional Fellow. Upon return to USFWS I served as the Animal Damage Control Program Coordinator and then I spent 7 years as the Chief of Refuge Operations overseeing Refuge operations, maintenance, law enforcement, budget development, and information management. In the early 1990’s I was moved to the role of Administrative Officer over the Environmental Divisions of the USFWS, including the Endangered Species Office.
In the early 1990’s I was offered the position of Wildlife Biologist overseeing the use of excise taxes collected on arms and ammunition (Pittman-Robertson funding) that were, by law, intended only for designated state fish and wildlife agency activities. These funds were generally in the neighborhood of 1/4 $billion per year and were, by law, distributed to each state annually based on population, size, and hunting license sales. The law clearly states they (the funds) were only to be used by state fish and wildlife agencies for wildlife restoration programs and that the USFWS was to audit each state’s use of the funds every 5 years. A small percentage (8% max but never more than 5% until the late 1960’s) was reserved for the USFWS to “administer” the disbursement, oversight, and 5-year audit of the funds. Truthfully 3 to 4% of the receipts were sufficient for the federal “administrative” role called for in the Act. Other than this, the funds could be used for NO other purpose. …
It was in the midst of the Clinton Administration. The second Director of the USFWS appointed by Clinton (the first one had resigned due to a fatal illness) was holding “secret” meetings with various environmental and animal rights groups that were strongly and historically opposed to USFWS activities (HSUS, API, AWI, Greenpeace, etc.). …
I was home for about a week when I was contacted by staff from the US House of Representatives Natural Resources Committee. They had heard about my situation and we had a long talk about what it was about. In the course of that conversation there was mention of the strangely changing levels of Pittman-Robertson (excise taxes) going to state agencies. Shortly thereafter I was again contacted by them and asked to come up to their offices. They had requested the receipts and disbursements (including those within USFWS for the “up to 8%” administrative fees) for the P-R excise taxes for the past 2 completed budget years. USFWS had told them it was not possible to break out those expenditures in USFWS books (this was a lie) and thus they (USFWS) had sent up 19, 2′ high, boxes of computer printouts of ALL USFWS expenditures for the past 2 years. …
I volunteered to go through the printouts. Using colored magic markers, colored pens, and my budget experience I spent long days for more than 2 weeks in those Congressional offices going through those 2 years of records and discovering, marking, and explaining the millions of dollars in excise taxes (over and above the legitimate excise tax “administrative” expenses) being used to do 2 things that Congress had refused to fund or authorize (introducing wolves into Yellowstone and opening an environmental liaison office in California). Additionally, millions were being used to pay increased bonuses to USFWS employees in Washington, Regional Offices, and field stations that had no role in “administering” the excise taxes but many of whom would have been aware of the “funny” and prohibited use of excise tax money for the California Office and the Wolf introduction that had been turned down by Congress. …
The all but defunct 5-year audit cycle of state use of the excise taxes by USFWS mandated in the law were fired up and a large audit firm was hired to do the audits. Within 2 years (less than 1/2 way through the 5-year cycle) they were fired (for being “behind schedule”) in reality because they had already found over $130 Million in excise tax misuse by state fish and wildlife agencies and they (the auditors) were not amenable to covering it up. USFWS then “hired” the US Department of the Interior INSPECTOR GENERAL (appointed by Justice and confirmed by the Senate to oversee, among others the USFWS) to audit state programs with $3M per year of the excise taxes. Today, the $130+M are forgotten and the current IG is way more “behind schedule” than the former auditors were when they were fired. As another aside, that former IG is now Vice President Biden and President Obama’s IG or “Czar” “overseeing THE Stimulus Funding”! …
When the leading critic of USFWS thievery (Congressman Pombo) became Chairman of the Committee after the election, he was defeated in the next election by a very dirty campaign conducted by a coalition of environmental groups led by The Defenders of Wildlife (DOW). The very same DOW that the USFWS Director (when the funds were stolen to introduce wolves) went to work for after a short, high-paying stint with The Wildlife Federation and the very same DOW that the same Director had commissioned to compensate livestock owners for stock that it could be proven were killed by wolves and the very same DOW that is currently (2010) spearheading an environmental lobbying coalition that is reportedly spending millions to defeat former Congressman Pombo who is seeking reelection in another California District.
The hunters and fishermen of the United States probably lost as much as $70 or $75M worth of hunting and fishing improvements (the $60M figure did not include any fund transfers to the Canadian Wildlife Service or Provincial agencies for salaries, travel and equipment like helicopters, etc. used in the capture and transportation of wolves from Canada for Yellowstone). The misuse of funds by state agencies that arose during the period of no State fish and wildlife audits probably persists and is probably worse today as sham audits and failure to prosecute diversions of the funds at the state level remain the rule in the absence of any real oversight by USFWS. The magnitude of these losses to US hunting and fishing opportunities are probably staggering, annual amounts. …
Part II - Factors that created the situation where wolves became a deadly societal and Constitutional menace.
… Let us begin to chronologically consider this 40 year period and what has happened to bring us to the absurd wolf situation we face today.
1966 - The first Endangered Species Act (ESA) is passed by Congress. Only US animals are mentioned. The Federal function is simply to “List” “species” so that purchase of habitat from willing sellers can be requested. The only wolves officially recognized in the Lower 48 are in Minnesota and federal intrusion on Minnesota’s jurisdiction over Minnesota wolves begins.
1967 – The ESA is amended to allow “Listing” of foreign species. …
1968-1972 – USFWS in Washington DC, first under Johnson and then Nixon (who ironically was purposely and publicly excluded from the first Earth Day Bacchanalia by Democrat politicians and organizers) began to see an opportunity for exploitation to begin expanding their power and budget in the environmental and animal rights movement. … But where to get such Treaties to use as a basis for putting Endangered Species and Marine Mammals under unchallenged federal authority like Migratory Birds? Thus was born the US/European campaigns at the UN for a “Convention” (i.e. a “Treaty” according to US Courts) to “regulate Endangered Species”. Primary authority for the federal government over all Marine Mammals was also sought through either a Treaty or Convention of some sort. It was during this period that the term “charismatic megaspecies” or “megafauna” (i.e. eagles, wolves, elephants, baby seals, sea otters, etc.) came into vogue as propaganda “poster children” for all of the new laws and federal power being planned by federal agencies, national and international environmental/animal-rights organizations, and federal politicians. By 1971, even wild horses and burros on federal land (today they would be vilified as “Invasive Species”) were not only claimed by federal power expanders, a multi-million dollar annual program of federal capture, maintenance, auction, and permit oversight for “excess” animals is a forgotten but expensive and never-ending cost for a government takeover of a state responsibility much as wolf “control” has become. …
1972 – A Migratory Bird Convention (Treaty) with Japan was negotiated and all US hawks, owls, cormorants, and pelicans are wrenched from state authority and placed under US federal control. …
The Marine Mammal Protection Act was introduced and passed swiftly by an environmentally and animal-rights oriented Congress and electorate soaked in films of Canadian immature seal harvests and Japanese whalers taking whales. … While the new Act promised to allow active management of these animals when “Optimum Sustainable Populations” (OSP) were achieved, such was never to be the case. Exactly like the Wolf “Targets” stated in introduction documents and promises of “Delisting” at Level X and “returning management to “approved” states with “approved” plans…
1973 – The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (termed a “comprehensive multilateral treaty’ by lawyers) was signed (after intense US drafting and lobbying) by the US and a coterie of European countries and “developed” nations. …
1974 – A Migratory Bird Convention with the Soviet Union was signed and ratified to further solidify any question of the new federal authority over what was now all but a few remaining resident birds like grouse, pheasants, and quail. …
In these late 1970’s “new” USFWS powers led to speculation and precedents of an enormity unimaginable 15 years earlier. For instance, the Bald Eagle was protected since 1917 by the Federal Bird Treaty with Canada; in the 1940’s a Bald Eagle Act was passed to give them “more” (actually duplicative) protection. Yet, as a truly “charismatic” species they were the numero uno “charismatic species” “Listed” in each ESA. (While the 1st Endangered Species Act was passed, I was taking a photo of about 25 bald eagles at one Aleutian Island dump, wondering how they could be nationally “endangered”.) Never was it imagined that such “Listing” would eventually authorize the federal government to declare a large area around some tall and/or dead tree on Private Property as a zone of no use or disturbance for the landowner or others WITHOUT COMPENSATION! Yet that became common once the CITES was signed and the new ESA was passed to “be the supreme Law of the Land” (as a “Treaty”) per Article VI of the Constitution. Suddenly, the 5th Amendment “nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation” no longer limited USFWS on their endangered species mission. …
“Science” became a propaganda tool of the alliance of bureaucrats and activists bent on creating central government controls that enriched the bureaucrats and imposed activist demands on all citizens. Just like the recent “Global Warming Science” scandal, “science” supportive of government and ideological goals is twisted and tortured privately for hidden purposes. For instance, biological classifications heretofore unknown and indefensible like certain “subspecies”, “races”, “populations”, “population segments”, and “distinct population segments”, became unchallengeable legal bases for private property takings, public land closures, and budget expansions. “Secret” Appropriations were made to search for a bird last seen 70 years ago (the Ivory-billed Woodpecker) on the word of “experts” to close public lands, but private lands, and threaten wildlife uses like hunting and fishing –- for a bird that is still extinct. Wolf justifications like “gene pool” and “balanced ecosystem” were legally accepted justifications while in reality being meaningless terms. …
At some point around the 1994 election or as the Republicans took power in early 1995 USFWS decided to (take? steal? use?) the excise tax dollars to introduce wolves before their plans were usurped by the Republican House. An expedition to Canada was made in the winter of early 1995 and the captured wolves were “acclimated” and released in Yellowstone Park very shortly thereafter. The significance of this wolf introduction to such hidden agendas as increased public land closures, the demise of ranching (grazing) and logging, the weakening of rural economies, increasing the availability and decreasing the cost of rural lands for government and Native acquisition, the further weakening of hunting and fishing availability to citizens, and even a weakening of gun advocates’ numbers were all things that were evident from the start. …
As nearly as I can figure, increasingly larger excise tax money (meant for states) amounts were withheld secretly by USFWS in 1993 and 1994 and added to one or more, larger chunks withheld in 1995 and 1996 after the capture and release with the excise taxes was “approved” within USFWS. Since these amounts were what are termed “no-year” funds they were carried over without notice (excise taxes are constantly being received quarterly and distributed annually and charged subsequently by states so illegal “carryover” bookkeeping in the flow of funds is easily perpetrated). They were then made available over a year or two or more to USFWS managers by USFWS money managers when the decision was made by USFWS management to fund the wolf introduction, the California Office, and “Santa Claus” bonuses for USFWS Washington and Regional Office personnel out of the excise taxes. …
Part III – Violations of Law associated with and generated by Wolf Introduction and Protection.
… The following alleged criminal activities are divided into two groups. First are those violations directly associated with the introduction and protection of wolves. Second are those violations that were attempts to cover up past criminal activity and assure future support from all those associated with federal wolf activities.
A. Violations directly associated with wolf introduction.
1. The theft (misappropriation, diversion) and misuse by USFWS Administrators of at least $60 Million from the Pittman – Robertson excise taxes in Fiscal Years 1995, and 1996. …
2. Supplementing federal Appropriations with illegal funds. …
3. Introducing wolves from Canada into Yellowstone National Park after the US Congress had refused to Appropriate funds for or to Authorize such action. …
4. Failure to file Wildlife Importation Forms (Form 3-177) upon importing wolves from Canada into the United States for release soon thereafter in Yellowstone National Park. …
5. The failure of USFWS to describe the impacts, costs, and dangers to be expected if and when wolves were introduced and protected as Listed Endangered Species in the Lower 48 States. …
* Historical records of wolves attacking and killing soldiers, children, homesteaders, and Natives (as mentioned in Stanley Young’s Wolves of North America) were ignored.
* International records of human attacks and livestock and wildlife losses (as described later from available documents in Will Graves’ Wolves in Russia) were ignored. Human attacks were denied and ignored and it was even claimed that there were NO such attacks in North America.
* Human, wildlife, and livestock dangers from wolf-borne disease were ignored while the steady discovery of health hazards to people, wildlife, pets, and livestock from wolves has grown exponentially. Wolves carry and spread over 30 infectious diseases, nearly all of which are hazardous to humans.
* Expected Big Game animal losses were totally distorted and made into nothing while the results are catastrophic.
* Livestock losses were underestimated and the fact that any taking or harassment of wolves (except in only the most extreme and provable circumstances where a human life was in extreme danger) in protection of private property would be met with draconian – felony and extreme federal enforcement – penalties was not mentioned.
* Promises in initial documents to not allow any number over X by state have been disregarded and implied “return of management to states” in truth has and will only mean Federally “approved” (and changeable) Plans that “permit” State governments (only temporarily and under changeable goals and processes) to implement “approved plans” as changing federal political winds dictate.
* Control and management costs of expanding wolf populations to state and federal budgets received no realistic treatment.
* Current costs to farmers and ranchers, to say nothing of current total federal costs annually are not available and are downplayed when requested.
* Costs incurred by state governments and local economies due to the loss of hunting opportunity and all the revenue and wildlife management it generated were nowhere anticipated or described realistically.
* Anticipated loss of large-scale familial and cultural family hunting and other outdoor traditions was neither mentioned nor quantified in the impacts expected from the release and protection of wolves.
* The loss of ranches, livestock production, and the significant diminishment of rural economies were ignored and are still denied by those responsible.
6. The entire relationship, going back to the early 1990’s between USFWS and the Defenders of Wildlife (an organization that since its inception has been a foe of USFWS programs as evidenced by lawsuits and opposition publicly to Federal and State fish and wildlife management and use programs as well as the ownership and use of wildlife by US citizens) is one that bears close examination. …
7. Can items 1 through 6 be combined in whole or in part to indicate a Conspiracy either among federal employees or between federal employees and others, like DOW?
8. If USFWS empowers DOW to compensate livestock owners for provable loss of their property (livestock) how can it (USFWS) refuse to similarly compensate dog owners or other animal owners for the provable loss of their property to wolves? Similarly how can the federal government that introduced, protected, and spread the wolves not be liable for human attacks by wolves? What of the loss of huntable animal populations to federal wolves…
B. Violations resulting from and associated with a cover-up of past criminal activity associated with the wolf introduction or in furtherance of current and future cooperation to ensure the continued expansion of areas supporting wolf populations.
1. Fifteen plus or minus years (mid 1980’s to late 1990’s) failure of USFWS to audit state fish and wildlife agencies’ compliance with excise tax expenditures and other requirements to continue receiving such Wildlife Restoration funding. …
2. State audit discrepancy cover-up of State irregularities in excise tax expenditures and the illegal “hiring” of the US Department of the Interior Inspector General as a contractor by USFWS an agency under the purview of that Inspector General. …
3. Stolen excise tax dollars were never replaced. …
4. Using tax money to bribe a witness aware of government theft of funds to keep quiet. …
So there you have at least 12 actual or likely law violations associated with the introduction, protection, and spread of wolves in the Lower 48 states. I accuse federal bureaucrats, state bureaucrats, non-governmental organizations, Washington lobbyists, and even myself. It was a sordid affair and it has only grown worse. The “losers” thus far are ranchers, hunters, dog owners, rural residents (especially parents, children, and the elderly), local and state governments, and American Constitutional government. The “winners”, although many have gone onto higher salaries and more power, have yet to be determined. When those of us that have been “losers” to date turn this government excess train around we will be the “winners” because we will know where apathy led us and we will never let this happen again.
Jim Beers
May 2010
