Another USFWS Cover-Up
by Jim Beers
The White House is determined to make Dan Ashe (the former political partisan at the heart of the USFWS theft of $45 to 60 Million from the Pittman-Robertson excise taxes on arms and ammunition during the 1990’s) Director of the USFWS.
This is very bad news because there was no justice when the General Accounting Office reported an Audit documenting that theft to the US House of Representatives Resources Committee a decade ago. No one in USFWS was held accountable and the state fish and wildlife agencies never even asked for the funds to be replaced. In other words, state fish and wildlife agencies and state hunting and fishing programs were and are probably more than $60 Million dollars poorer thanks to the unholy alliance between the “New Green” USFWS and the state agencies that are steadily more dependent on a federal mammary.
* Mr. Ashe and the current FWS managers are the ones responsible for the wolves and grizzly bears that are decimating elk, moose and deer herds.
* They are responsible for the state agencies becoming more and more like federal subcontractors in the drives to kill hunting, fishing, gun ownership and private property up to and including the redefinition of federal “Navigable Waterways of the US” to include every periodically damp spot and its watershed throughout the US.
* They are the driving force to give federal bureaucrats primary jurisdiction over all “Invasive Species” that are pictured as killer bees and kudzu but in reality will be pheasants, brown trout, Great Lakes salmon, Hungarian partridge, west coast striped bass, Russian Olive trees, and myriad other plants and animal species that are desirable and useful parts of the American environment circa 2010.
* They are the driving force behind the movement to give the federal government the overarching job to restore “Native Species” and “the Native Ecosystem” to the great detriment to rural economies, rural families, private property rights, and American liberty.
* They are the linchpin for environmentalists and animal rights radicals to implement their extremist agendas.
* They are the federal agency doling out public funds to give all of the above a patina of “science” that is simply Middle Ages alchemy, a combination of lies and mirrors meant to enrich those thought to be “wizards” and impoverish the populace by making impossible promises in return for money and power.
For all of the above reasons and a few more I have attempted to generate opposition to this appointment at this time. I wrote a list of questions that concerned Senators could ask (the USFWS Director appointment requires Senate confirmation) him during his confirmation hearing. Those were published on 12 December and consisted of 21 questions under the title “What Do You Think” [here]. To all that I must add the following.
Last weekend (18-19 December 2010) the White House and the Senate Leadership tried to clandestinely confirm this appointment but were unsuccessful due to “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, the “Start Treaty”, a $Trillion++ Budget, and a host of other things they were “too busy” to do during the “Non-Lame Duck Congress” of the past 2 years. When and if the Senate takes up this confirmation is problematic but they will probably try to ram it through soon.
The reason they are trying to ram it through is startling. The White House and the Department of the Interior and the USFWS plan to stop all funding from the US Army Corps of Engineers to USFWS fishery management of US Army Corps of Engineers’ reservoirs and waters in 2012. This will close nine Fishery Facilities and eliminate 65 fishery managers, and the USFWS does not want it to become public knowledge until it is too late (sound familiar?).
The danger of this being leaked and jeopardizing the confirmation is currently giving USFWS managers fits as I write this. While it may sound good to trim government, this is a clear example of federal chicanery.
* Republicans don’t know about this and thus there have been no public hearings or discussion about how this fits with anything else.
* As US Army Corps of Engineer reservoirs are no longer to be managed for fishing (the states have no money and are reluctant to be polygamous handmaidens to the Corps as they are to USFWS, especially without money) several other agendas come into play. Fishing license sales by state agencies will decrease further increasing reliance on state agencies for federal funds. Fishing opportunities for youth will decrease further diminishing recruitment to the ranks of fishermen thereby making animal rights groups happy. Support for flood control and irrigation will be weakened as environmental efforts to destroy dams (they’re “un”-natural don’t you know) and resource recreation profit from the disappearance of fishermen, much like 2nd Amendment advocates disappear as hunting disappears.
* As federal land managers retreat from supporting fishing; Refuges, Parks, ands National Forests increase in size annually and break promise after promise for land they own. From forest management and forage management to hunting, fishing, camping, and safety (wolves, grizzlies, etc.) on federal lands purchased supposedly to be “managed for people and local communities” as mentioned in nearly all Authorizing Legislation; federal owners get more and more as they do less and less. A comprehensive review of all federal lands and whether they should be divested to states or to private individuals (instead of these piecemeal, clandestine cuts to implement hidden agendas) is what is needed right now as we struggle with a bloated federal bureaucracy that can’t cope, high unemployment, skyrocketing deficits, and partisan tax debates.
These things should not be done under rocks and rotting tree trunks. They should be open to comment and to explanation by elected officials about how they fit with anything other than the radical agendas that have been enriching federal politicians and federal bureaucrats for too long.
So here is one more question (#22) for any vertebrate US Senator to ask in the hearing to confirm a “New Director” of USFWS.
Question: What plans does USFWS have to close fishery facilities and eliminate fishery managers that support fishery management at US Army Corps of Engineers’ reservoirs and other waters? If it is true that US Army Corps of Engineers funding to USFWS for Corps’ waters is to be eliminated, will fishery management disappear or be replaced? Please explain.
Jim Beers, 21 December 2010
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.
