Below these brief
observations appears two news items:
Number 1 is a link to a Federal Register Notice
describing a rejection by the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
of the detailed and justifiable appeal from the Governors of Idaho, Nevada,
North Dakota, South Dakota and Utah for the federal government to stop any
further attempts to subvert state authority, Constitutional property rights and
land closures based on the specious claims of sage grouse status. State
governments recently presented lengthy and detailed descriptions about the
status, state programs and private property management efforts to manage and
maintain sage grouse. The federal government’s own US Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS) was unaware of these activities and found without question that the
current state management of THEIR (state) wildlife to be more than adequate in
this regard and the status of these birds to be healthy. Despite this, the BLM
declared their intention to close 10 Million acres to mineral development. The
Federal Register is purposely difficult to understand but the arrogant and
dismissive tone of federal bureaucrats toward elected Governors and State
Constitutional jurisdictions is unmistakable.
Number 2 is the actual Proposal to close 10 Million
acres to mining based on “USFWS findings that mining causes sage grouse
‘habitat fragmentation.’”
Thus; no matter
the status of any animal under state jurisdiction, no matter what state
governments do in cooperation with local landowners, no matter what one
agency tells you, no matter that two federal agencies under the same
appointee say and do diametrically opposed things, and no matter that
the steady closure of public lands to any natural resource use from logging and
grazing to hunting and fish & wildlife management and access resulting in
catastrophic fires; the federal government’s avowed and apparent goal is
the destruction and conquest of rural America from residences and towns to
small businesses and human benefit.
The Declaration of
Independence described this sort of government abuse as a cause for war, and
the US Constitution was designed to prevent it. Our prosperity and laziness
brought about the current situation and cowardice and self-interest have
allowed it to fester into what we have today.
This is the classic
old good-cop/bad-cop routine. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) says that “listing the greater sage-grouse is not warranted
at this time.” Because proclaimed primary threats to sage grouse were found
to be non-existent due to state, and local conservation efforts and the
American public is told by the media, “see how nice and smart and respectful of
Governors, State Agencies, hunters, ranchers and other rural people those nice
people at USFWS are? Don’t listen to those nasty extremists that say they are
not to be trusted and they will eventually create new authorities and controls
(along with EPA and the rest of the Washington alphabet of bureaucracies) over
all of Rural America.”
Then along comes
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a sister agency in the Department of the
Interior proposing to “withdraw from mineral location and entry federal lands
identified as “sagebrush focal areas” in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah,
and Wyoming” but not to worry, no big deal since “The proposed withdrawal area
covers (ONLY) approximately 10 million acres.” Both agencies are under the lady
Secretary of the Interior (an appointee of the guy in the White House). She is
known as an outdoor supply executive and fervent environmentalist.
Truth be told, the
Secretary, the Director of BLM and the Director of USFWS (who incidentally was
responsible for the $45 to 60 Million in State Wildlife Funds stolen in the mid
1990’s by USFWS to introduce wolves and open a California Liaison Office for
Radicals – both of which Congress had refused to authorize or fund) are no more
to be trusted or respected than that old lady at EPA that claims jurisdiction
over all waters (and watersheds) of the US.
This is
particularly galling at this moment since I just heard (on a Sunday morning
newscast no less) that Army deserter Bergdahl will be released (with a bonus or
scholarship or Rose Garden ceremony no doubt but that went unsaid.) Are there
any less attentive moments for horrendous, scandalous news like this than an
American’s week on Sunday morning?
Perhaps his folks should be given another
Rose Garden ceremony and Mrs. Bergdahl given another back rub by the President
like Biden Gave Ashton Carter’s wife while Ashton was sworn in as Secretary of
Defense? Those disgraceful Army Generals that did the bidding of the White
House regarding Bergdahl violated laws, military justice and the ancient and
proven rules of military necessity. May they all live in infamy. That this
happens on the heels of the release of those 5 Islamic
Radical/Extremist/Killers that are already getting back on the battlefield
after being traded for a deserter only makes this federal legacy even more
notorious and disgusting. At the very least Bergdahl deserved the fate of Army
Lieutenant Phillip Nolan in the 1863 Civil War classic The Man Without a
Country by Edward Everett Hale, and those Moslem Killers deserved only to
be buried in Guantanamo.
Sage grouse, rural
American business, the USA economy and the USA national defense/foreign policy
are reminiscent of the “tooth of wolf”, “lizard’s leg and owlet wing”, “eye of
newt” and “baboon’s blood” that the three witches stirred in their cauldron as
they foretold Shakespeare’s Macbeth’s future that he failed to understand at
his own peril and to his own destruction. By describing the Macbeth
witches in this manner, Shakespeare was asking an age-old question: are our
lives already mapped out for us or do we have a hand in what happens to us? At
the end of the play the audience is forced to consider the extent to which the
characters have control over their own lives. President Obama, his appointees
and self-serving bureaucrats are our current three witches brewing a cauldron
of rot and telling us that rot will lead the way to goodness. They are phonies
just like those three witches in Macbeth and unlike Shakespeare’s audience we
know the right answer because we once had control over our own lives. We know
that by disregarding our three witches we can once again assume the
responsibility for and control of our own lives as well as the fruits of our
own actions within the freedoms and rights we once enjoyed. Shakespeare posed
the right question and thus far we have refused to recognize the right answer.
2.) Mining on 10Million Acres in Six States Impacted by BLM’s Proposed Withdrawal (sage-grouse) Western Mining Alliance ^
On
September 24, 2015, the federal Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) published a
Notice of Proposed Withdrawal (“BLM notice”), proposing to withdraw from
mineral location and entry federal lands identified as “sagebrush focal areas”
in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming. The BLM notice commences
a two-year temporary segregation period, prohibiting location and entry of new
mining claims on BLM and U.S. Forest Service lands in these sagebrush focal
areas. If the BLM decides to withdraw the area at the end of the segregation
period, the withdrawal will last up to 20 years, but could be extended in the
future. The proposed withdrawal area covers approximately 10 million acres.
The
BLM’s proposal aims to protect the greater sage-grouse and its habitat from
adverse effects of mineral exploration and mining. The BLM issued the proposed
withdrawal in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“USFWS”)
announcement that the greater sage-grouse does not need protection under the
Endangered Species Act. In support of its determination, the USFWS stated that
“listing the greater sage-grouse is not warranted at this time” because its
primary threats were reduced by federal, state, and local conservation efforts.
This proposed withdrawal is one of those efforts.
According
to the BLM’s Fact Sheet, the USFWS has identified hardrock mining as a threat
to the sage-grouse because mining can cause habitat fragmentation. During the
two-year segregation period, the BLM will prepare an Environmental Impact
Statement to study the long-term impacts of the proposed withdrawal on
sagebrush habitat. The BLM is accepting public comments until December 23,
2015. (Excerpt) Read more at westernminingalliance.org ...
_______________________________
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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.net
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