Suggested Wolf Solutions

[wolfbait]

Suggested Wolf Solutions, From Jim Beers

[Little Dave]

Thanks Wolfbait.  Here's what's in the file:
It's very long so I'll split it into a few posts for you...

Jim Beers:   - 1 -

BRAINSTORMING SOLUTIONS TO THE GROWING WOLF CALAMITY IN THE LOWER 48 STATES
(A talk by Jim Beers on 6 July 2010 in Hamilton, Montana)


Thank you for inviting me to speak about something that more and more
Americans are wondering about as wolves touch the lives of more and more
Americans each day.  Before we get to the all-important topic of solutions,
I would like to briefly mention my qualifications to speak on this matter
and then describe the current wolf situation in the Lower 48 states.

I have a BS in Wildlife Resources from Utah State University and an MS in
Public Administration from the University of Northern Colorado.  I served in
the US Navy as a Line Officer on an AKA in the western Pacific and as a
Courier Officer in the Aleutian Islands.  I am a graduate of the Minneapolis
Police Academy.  I served 32 years in the US Fish and Wildlife Service as a
Wetlands Biologist in Devils Lake, ND; a US Game Management Agent in
Minneapolis, MN; Grand Island, NE; New York City Port-of-Entry; and in
Washington, DC as a Special Agent, Program Analyst, Congressional Fellow,
Animal Damage Control Program Coordinator, Chief of Refuge Operations,
Environment and Endangered Species Administrative Officer, and as the
Wildlife Biologist responsible for the Multi-State Fish and Wildlife Agency
Wildlife Projects funded by the Pittman-Robertson excise taxes on arms and
ammunition.  During my final five years I represented the State Fish and
Wildlife Agencies on State Department and US Trade Representative
delegations negotiating with European Union bureaucracies issuing
regulations designed to eliminate trapping and the international fur
industry.  In 1998 the US Fish and Wildlife Service tried to force me to
retire through nefarious means and I testified twice before Congress about
the theft of $45 to 60M from the Excise taxes collects for State Fish and
Wildlife Programs by USFWS managers to introduce wolves into Yellowstone and
for other illegal purposes.  For a full description of how my career
intersected with Endangered Species and wolves, see my talk titled "Criminal
Activities by Federal Bureaucrats and Others Involved in the Introduction,
Protection and Spread of Wolves in the Lower 48 States" given in Bozeman
Montana on 16 May 2010.

I am a wildlife biologist that believes in "managing" and "using" renewable
fish and wildlife resources.  I believe in the sustainable management and
use of timber and forage resources.  I believe all such resources are for
the use of human societies to enrich human existence in myriad ways.  I
believe that the US Constitution and the American Society it has created are
the best human organization man has devised to date and that until something
better comes along, it should be nourished and protected.  Like you, I have
religious beliefs and political experiences that flavor my views.  I value
my family and I have no doubt that man is superior to other animals. I am
repelled by those that would equate men with the animals or even worse,
suggest that men should suffer harm because of claims that animals have
"rights" equal to or superior to men.  I also believe that it is a credit to
our humanity that we are concerned about encouraging biodiversity and
maintaining wild plant and animal communities in and around our human
communities.

Wolves in America as of June 2010
Wolves have persisted in Alaska since time immemorial. There is a constant,
decades-long battle between the State of Alaska and various consortiums of
Lower 48 States environmental and animal rights groups (like Defenders of
Wildlife) that constantly seek federal intimidation of State officials to
eliminate trapping of wolves, aerial control of wolves, and all other lethal
means of controlling wolves.  Alaskans have long recognized the depressing
effect of abundant wolf populations on moose, an important meat source and
hunting object for both residents and non-residents, as well as an important
source of revenue for the State Fish and Wildlife Agency.  Last winter a
group of four wolves killed and began consuming a schoolteacher jogging on a
gravel road near her residence in a village on the Alaskan Peninsula.
Wolves have also been attacking joggers and dog-walkers in and around
Anchorage and Fairbanks. Most Alaskans are very aware of the dangerous and
destructive effects of wolves and are allowed to kill wolves if and when
they threaten humans or their property like dogs.

Wolves were purposely and continuously exterminated from settled lands in
the current Lower 48 States from Colonial times until the 1930's.  After the
1930's wolves occurred only in northern Minnesota and as occasional
stragglers from Canada into western Montana. Like coyotes, deer, turkeys,
and other such animals; wolves were always under the primary jurisdiction of
State governments and, other than as landowners (like any other landowner)
of federal lands (with the exception of Yellowstone Park), the federal
government had no authority over wolves.  Then in the midst of the 1960's
social upheaval in the US, things began to change.

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.

1967 - The ESA is amended to allow "Listing" of foreign species. 
1973 - The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES, 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.  Almost within days after US Senate
ratification and Presidential signature on the "Convention", a revised
Endangered Species Act (on steroids regarding new federal authority,
property rights, and a wide range of other Constitutional assaults) was
introduced in Congress to be passed quickly with nothing but adulation and
signed by President Nixon (as Watergate was coming to a boil).  Since the
"Convention" was considered a "treaty" and therefore "the supreme Law of the
Land" per Article VI. of the US Constitution; development of laws,
regulations, and precedents by federal bureaucrats and environmental and
animal rights "cooperators" established not only total federal hegemony over
any "listed" plant or animal but also five other very damaging concepts. 


In total disregard for the US Constitution, and the basis on which the ESA
was "sold", the ESA:
1.   Defined Endangered SPECIES as endangered SUBSPECIES, RACES,
POPULATIONS, DISTINCT POPULATIONS, and DISTINCT POPULATION SEGMENTS (in
other words ANY plant or animal flock, band, or stand of plants anywhere so
designated by federal bureaucrats.
2.   Authorized "taking' of private property by the government from
privately-owned real estate uses by owners to uses of privately-owned animal
property like dogs and livestock "without just compensation" as demanded by
the 5th Amendment of the Constitution.
3.   Replaced the Constitutional primary legal authority and jurisdiction
of State governments over the plants and animals within the state with
Federal primary legal authority and jurisdiction over any plant or animal
"race, population, etc. designated by federal bureaucrats and the
academicians they employ with the "cooperation" of various select
non-government organization (NGO) "partners".  "Friendly" lawsuits and
changing "targets" perpetuate this federal authority beyond any "delisting"
or "transfer to state authority" as future bureaucratic and NGO whims
dictate.
4.   Evolved the arbitrary and un-American concept that bureaucrats could
determine where and when any "Listed" plant or animal could be
"re-introduced" in total disregard for any State or Local concerns or
objections.  Is it any wonder that considering bureaucrats and their
"partners" could "List" what they want, did not have to pay for "taking",
and were not required to consider any State or Local concerns that the ESA
has grown into the rural "Godzilla" we are dealing with today?
5.   Established the selective use by federal bureaucrats and their
"partners" of Listing various "races, populations, etc." to selectively: 
- Close public lands (public property) to uses and access.
- Stop water projects, defeat bridge and road projects, breach dams, etc.
- Impede energy developments and use.
- Eliminate public land grazing allotments and timber management.
- Destroy all forest, range, and wildlife management and use.

[Little Dave]

Jim Beers:    - 2 -

Wolves, termed a "charismatic megaspecies" (like bald eagles, elephants, et
al) by Endangered Species enthusiasts, were "Listed" from the time of the
first ESA.  While wolves have always been very abundant throughout Asia
(probably over a million), periodically abundant in Europe and North Africa
(thousands), and very common in Canada and Alaska (100,000?): concern about
their "numbers" always belied the hidden but clear intent of giving the
federal government authority over wolves. 

Wolf introduction and protection in the Lower 48 States would "replace"
hunters and weaken hunting programs and hunting support by both killing big
game animals and making hunting, fishing, trapping, camping, hiking,
picnicking, etc. (especially by the young, elderly, and individuals) much
more dangerous.  Also, wolves would make ranching, farming, and rural living
by families, retirees, and others more dangerous, expensive, and precarious
thereby weakening rural opposition to environmental and animal rights
agendas while lowering property values thus making rural lands more
susceptible to easement and purchase offers by federal agencies and their
environmental "partners" like The Nature Conservancy.  Finally, since wolves
were reputed to have inhabited each of the Lower 48 States federal
bureaucrats and their "partners" anticipated the possibility that as wolves
might inhabit more and more of all of rural America federal authority would
replace State authority over everything from property rights to the human
management and use of both renewable and non-renewable natural resources.
Given these likely outcomes, the precedent that would authorize the federal
bureaucrats to "List" an animal (the wolf) that is abundant both worldwide
and nationally (Alaska) AND then to selectively "introduce" it ("them") in
arbitrary locations from which they would surely spread under federal
protection.

I say "them" because there is another bit of bio-political chicanery making
the wolf program almost immune to any non-government influence.  We are told
there are "timber" wolves and "red" wolves and "Mexican" wolves and "gray"
wolves "listed" as endangered and in need of "re-introduction" throughout
the Lower 48 States.  In fact, wolves breed successfully with and create
viable offspring with coyotes, dogs, dingoes, and jackals. 

"Red" wolves, recently claimed to be extinct were "rediscovered" in
"captivity" and, in spite of having large amounts of dog and coyote DNA,
were "re-introduced"  into the Carolinas in the late 1980's and then into
Tennessee.  These medium-sized and mostly solitary wolves have since been
killed by local folks and have bred with and been bred by dogs extensively.

"Mexican" wolves were "re-introduced" into a swath of Arizona and New Mexico
in 1998.  In that desert environment these wolves have killed livestock and
big game herds extensively and quickly adopted the habit of stalking school
kids at bus stops and the routes to and from their homes.  Children are now
waiting for school buses in cages that their rural parents drive them to and
from.  These smaller wolves demonstrate a strong tendency to kill dogs in
yards and to rapidly become very brazen around rural homesteads.

Minnesota wolves (whatever the most recent "science" calls these
medium-sized wolves) have spread throughout Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula
of Michigan, and have recently become established in the northern part of
Lower Michigan.  These wolves straggle at present into Iowa, Illinois, and
even Indiana.

The wolves dumped into Yellowstone in 1995 were captured in northern Canada.
These large wolves exhibit both solitary and large-pack behavior (when food
is abundant)  and are now established in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.  They
are spreading into Oregon, Washington, Utah and reportedly Colorado.  They
have decimated big game herds of elk as well as moose and deer.  Livestock
losses and ranching costs are mounting as the packs increase and wild food
decreases.  Dogs are routinely being killed. 

As we speak here, there are government plans for wolf "re-introduction" into
the Grand Canyon and there is a pending request to establish wolves in New
England.  This latter request would ban by federal fiat any taking
(shooting, trapping, etc.) of coyotes throughout New England and the
trapping of bears (the most effective tool for bear management in Maine).

A word on wolf "species" is in order.  Before the ESA, wolves were
considered by many biologists to be one species worldwide and many even
considered wolves, dogs and coyotes to actually all be one species.  ESA
grants, politics, and hidden agendas made it convenient to use old local
names (red, Mexican, gray, timber, etc.) as rationales for the "importance"
of each of these areas to "need to restore" these "different" animals. 

Whether in Asia or North America or in Europe/Africa; most Northern
Hemisphere mammals that occur widely from North to South exhibit size
differences in addition to behavioral differences.  White-tailed deer in
Saskatchewan are large animals while white-tailed deer in Southern Florida
(Key Deer) are small.  Diet and the fact that small bodies take heat better
and large bodies take cold better contribute to this. Wolves share this
trait.  Additionally, wolves that live on open tundra or those that live in
deserts behave differently than those that live in wooded mountains or on
plains or in areas where all manner of food (livestock, dogs, dumpsters,
farmsteads, goats, foals, big game, etc.) is available as in the current
Lower 48 States.  So the fiction of these four or five wolf species
"needing" to be here and over there, etc. is just that - fiction. 
 

Since the period of the first ESA, federal and state fish and wildlife
agencies began to change their programs from managing fish and wildlife to
"protecting" all plants and animals.  This change began an evolution of
personnel from wildlife biologists, foresters, and range managers to an
assortment of personnel whose primary qualifications were a "belief" in
"saving" things and a righteous "higher" purpose of eliminating any human
uses of natural resources by growing the power and scope of the federal
government. While the agencies would never have been formed or financed
originally for such programs, current state and federal bureaucrats largely
believe in a future where renewable natural resource management and use, as
well as private property rights, will not exist and they will be paid from
federal coffers for childish "environmental" activities.  In this
environment, wildlife biologists like foresters and range managers have
become unqualified and untrustworthy sources of information about things
like wolves. 

In truth, wolves cannot be censused reliably.  Wolf control is very
expensive to government and is not something that hunting quotas can
accomplish.  Wolves are very difficult to kill and they routinely cover 20
or 30 miles a day and can wander hundreds of miles on occasion. The use of
traps is more and more limited as a management tool by state agencies and
emotional ballot initiatives.  Airplanes are ineffective in timbered and
broken country and are tightly controlled by the Airborne Hunting Act.
Poisons (an effective tool) are prohibited.  Basic beliefs about predator
control for human ends are as stubborn as political or religious beliefs in
most people. Federal impositions on state management of wolves make killing
a wolf to protect stock or dogs or even humans a very dangerous act for
anyone suspected by bureaucrats or environmentalists or animal rights
advocates of being susceptible of being made "an example" to others
contemplating killing a wolf.  Documenting wolf damage has been "outsourced"
to an Animal Rights NGO (Defenders of Wildlife): this is somewhat akin to
outsourcing the documentation of terrorist damage in the US to Al Qaeda.
Wisconsin "counts" wolves by listening for howls along regular routes (a
totally inadequate estimation tool for such wide-ranging animals) and then
to add insult to injury uses "volunteers" from wolf advocacy organizations.
Believing most of what state agencies or certainly federal "experts" say
about wolves is a fool's errand.  Modern state and federal natural resource
agencies are like a US Defense Department composed of only Quakers or
Education Departments composed entirely of unmarried and childless political
appointees.

[Little Dave]

Jim Beers:  - 3 -

A quick review of why we are asked to believe that introduced wolves
"belong" in our communities and why we must "learn to live with them" tells
us much:
-   Wolves are "part of the native ecosystem".
-   Wolves are "apex" predators.
-   Wolves "move around" (notice they don't KILL) deer and elk, thereby
restoring plants.
-   Wolves "create' a "natural" environment.
-   Wolves provide "eco-tourism".
-   Wolves are a "wilderness value".
-   Wolves "were here (?) first".
NOTE: Each of the above is based on a popular myth and provides NO
justification for any federal action.  Note also that there is no talk of
how they are "in danger of extinction" - the reason we were given as
justifying the "need" for an all-powerful ESA.
The REAL reason for the current wolf situation in the Lower 48 States today
is - "it's the law and we (bureaucrats, politicians, professors, and radical
environmental/animal rights NGO's) control the imposition of this law".

A companion list of why the current wolf situation should not be allowed to
remain includes:
-   State authority and Local community Constitutional authority have
been captured by federal entities beholden to forces and agendas hostile to
State jurisdictions and Local community standards.
-   The very real danger of fatal human attacks on children, ranchers,
hikers, joggers, campers, fishermen, trappers, the elderly and rural
residents in general grows daily.  (Read Will Graves' book, Wolves in
Russia, for unvarnished and documented accounts of 150 years of wolf/human
interactions in Asia and Europe.  Read Stanley Young's book, The Wolves of
North America, for factual accounts of Indian/ settler/soldier interactions
with wolves from Colonial times to the 1930's by which time wolves were
effectively and purposely extirpated in the Lower 48 States.)
-   Livestock losses and ranching costs are rising as wolf numbers and
range increase.  Not only is there the outright loss of animals and the
significant loss of weight in survivors: costs of controls and compliance
issues plus things like the wild behavior of cattle towards dogs (harassed
cattle charge dogs during roundups that in turn flee to riders that are in
turn threatened with harm by semi-wild cattle endangering horses and riders
often in isolated spots) raise annual costs to hundreds of thousands while
decreasing profits as much or more for ranchers.
-   Big game herds of elk and moose are being extirpated by wolves
thereby destroying hunting and all the state and local revenue it generated
as well as the family traditions and culture it embodied.  Deer numbers and
other animals like bighorn sheep are likewise being reduced and may soon be
too few for hunting to continue.
-   The reduction of property values as ranching becomes uneconomical;
retirees and rich transplants like Californians no longer bid up land values
as the killing of pets and attacks on humans become more commonplace; and
even vacation properties are less enticing as attacks by wolves on
residents, hunters and fishermen (etc.) are publicized and discourage
vacations and traditional family get-togethers are no longer common.
-   Cafes and motels experience the current increasing decline in
customers as hunting and fishing decline.
-   Hunting opportunity reductions breed reductions in
gun-rights-defenders numbers that benefit gun control advocates.
-   State fish and wildlife agencies become more and more dependent on
and responsive to federal agencies as hunting and fishing license revenues
decrease and excise tax availability from excise taxes on arms, ammunition,
fishing tackle, archery equipment, and motorboat fuels disappear.
-   Watchdogs, house pets, bird dogs, bear dogs, rabbit dogs, cattle
dogs, and guard dogs are being killed throughout wolf areas and such
killings will only increase until rural people abandon dogs as pets, service
animals and as PROPERTY due to government introduction and protection of the
animals killing them.
-   Wolves as vectors of disease, is a topic that has been purposely
ignored and presents a deadly threat to rural and urban people and interests
alike.  Whether it is by FECES spreading tapeworm eggs, or SALIVA or BLOOD
left on objects of interest to dogs, or VOMIT of hair and bones of infected
prey, or PAWS or HAIR carrying Mad Cow or anthrax, or FLEAS or TICKS
carrying various plagues or typhus carried miles daily by wolves and spread
to many other animals, humans, and human habitations or rabid wolves biting
everything they see along a 25-mile swath (as has been documented in Russia)
- wolves are VERY dangerous vectors of disease. 
-   Wolves carry the following 31 serious infections.  Those known to
infect humans are followed by an (H).  Those known to infect other animals,
both wild and domestic, are followed by (OA)
1.   Rabies (greatly feared by American Indians, Settlers, early
Soldiers, etc.) (H) (OA)
2.   Brucellosis (H) (OA)
3.   Echinococcus granulosis (potentially deadly and debilitating
tapeworm) (H) (OA)
4.   Echinococcus multilocularis (a deadly tapeworm) (H) (OA)
5.   Anthrax (H) (OA)
6.   Encephalitis (H) (OA)
7.   Great Lakes Tapeworm (H) (OA)
8.   Smallpox (H) (OA)
9.   Mad Cow (BSE) (H) (OA)
10.   Chronic Wasting Disease (H?) (OA)
11.   Anemia (carried by ticks on wolves) (H) There are 10 serious
diseases in ticks carried by wolves.
12.   Dermatosis (carried by ticks on wolves) (H)
13.   Tick Paralysis (carried by ticks on wolves)  (H)
14.   Babesiosis (carried by ticks on wolves) (H)
15.   Anaplasmosis (carried by ticks on wolves) (H)
16.   Erlichia (carried by ticks on wolves) (H)
17.   E Coast Fever (carried by ticks on wolves) (H)
18.   Relapsing Fever (carried by ticks on wolves) (H)
19.   Rocky Mtn. Spotted Fever (carried by ticks on wolves) (H)
20.   Lyme Disease (carried by ticks on wolves) (H)
21.   Plague (carried by fleas on wolves) (H) There are 4 deadly diseases
carried by fleas on wolves.
22.   Bubonic Plague (carried by fleas on wolves) (H)
23.   Pneumonic Plague (carried by fleas on wolves) (H)
24.   Flea-borne Typhus (carried by fleas on wolves) (H)
25.   Distemper (OA)
26.   Neospora caninum (causes spontaneous abortions) (OA)
27.   Mange (3 types including Scabies) (H) (OA)
28.   GID (a deadly disease of wild and domestic sheep) (OA)
29.   Foot-and-Mouth (OA)
30.   Tularemia (H) (OA)
31.   Helminthes (flat-worms) 2 sp. (H) (OA)
Of the 31 diseases and infections carried by wolves and listed above, only 3
are not dangerous to humans and even those (especially foot-and-mouth and
distemper) are of great danger to the American Livestock Industry and the
American dog population. See my article on The Urban Threat from Wolf-Borne
Diseases.

[Little Dave]

Jim Beers:  - 4 -

For those that understand the hidden agendas at work here and the
overwhelming need to put human community needs before environmental/animal
rights agendas, the political interests of career politicians, and
self-serving bureaucratic interests, the following suggestions are meant to
be SOLUTIONS that occur to an old bureaucrat trying hard to articulate ways
to resolve this growing national disaster.  While there are many valid and
hopeful ongoing solution attempts to the wolf problem like lawsuits,
cooperative processes, state defiance, and others: I believe that no lasting
(as much as anything is "lasting" in today's environment) solution is
possible until the authority and jurisdiction over plants and animals within
each state are returned to State and Local control.  It is with this in mind
that the following solutions are offered:

1.   In the current political environment (i.e. the possibility of
"repealing" national healthcare and a great deal of talk about throwing out
all incumbents, etc.) it is not unreasonable to consider repeal of the ESA.
As this law (like Prohibition, a Constitutional Amendment, that spawned
corruption and an atmosphere of defying and ignoring all law) harms more and
more people and more and more of our economy and American values, the
possibility of repeal of this bad law or even the UN Convention (CITES) we
once signed to authorize it is no more daunting or impossible than repeal of
a Constitutional Amendment.  The ultimate goal should be to return authority
and jurisdiction over ESA-encumbered plants and animals to State authority
and jurisdiction.  Control of these resources by a Constitutionally-limited
central government on behalf of far-away large-city constituencies and
radical organizations is deadly to rural America and should be repugnant to
all Americans.

2.   Absent repeal of the ESA, amend it to make Listing dependent on
Worldwide status and NOT National status.  Plants and animals of national
concern should be addresses by voluntary cooperation of state governments
with or without federal incentives.

3.   Amend the ESA by limiting it to only Listing SPECIES and not any
lower subdivision such as subspecies, race, population, etc. 

4.   Amend the ESA to force the federal government to once more PAY FOR
ANY TAKING OF PRIVATE PROPERTY and that such taking is ONLY FOR A PUBLIC USE
as stated clearly and succinctly for the past 219 years in the 5th Amendment
to the US Constitution.  Consider requiring annual payments to State
governments that show a persistent loss of revenue resulting from the TAKING
of State authority such as hunting license revenue and taxes from ranchers
and others put out of business. This proposal and the foregoing 2 proposals
(#'s 2 & 3) could be either amendments to the ESA or one or more separate
laws that redirect ESA activities in a more Constitutional direction by
superseding the ESA.

5.   The ESA; like The Marine Mammal Protection Act, Federal Invasive
Species proposals, and a host of environmental/animal rights proposals like
Wildlands, Corridors, Federal Wildernesses and Roadless Areas, and federal
proposals to give animals "rights"; ultimately are created by acceptance of
any federal law passed in the US Congress and these always entail a
concomitant loss of State and Local authority and harm to rural communities
and rural people.  Such laws would be all but impossible and ratification of
ruinous "Treaties" like the UN CITES, the currently proposed UN Treaty on
Small Arms, or other treaties like the proposed KYOTO Treaty IF there were
State's Rights' Defenders in the US Congress, especially the US Senate where
treaties are ratified.  At the risk of seeming the "wild extremist" I was
accused of being recently on a radio program, I will mention something I
have come to believe in recent years is a major cause of the drift from a
Constitutional Republic to a central oligarchy.  The 17th Amendment was
passed in 1913 and changed the way US Senators were appointed from being
"chosen by the Legislature thereof" to being "elected by the people
thereof".  I submit that not only are federal politicians hard to "un-elect"
compared to state politicians; they have become beholden to national and
international interests for money, volunteers, media support, and publicity
from these interests for their re-elections.  In other words, a US Senator
can pass and support a treaty or law that harms state residents and their
interests and still get re-elected but if he or she was "chosen by the
Legislature thereof" they would not only be beholden to the state
legislature (the bastion of the state's interests) but state legislators
that put such bums in or re-appointed them would be very vulnerable to the
state voter's wrath.  Repeal the 17th Amendment and thereby return the
composition of this important body (the US Senate) to true defenders of
their state as opposed the "Senator from such and such" in-name-only that
they have become.  Today's US Senators resemble arrogant Lords of bygone and
ancient oligarchies more so than anything described in our Nation's Founding
Father's papers, their discussions or the US Constitution.

6.   Elect state and federal politicians that will transform natural
resource agencies from bastions of environmental protectionism, animal
rights, and federal power-growers to educated managers of the environment
responsive to the public, the public-good, and Constitutional values.
Restore the Oath of Allegiance to the Constitution for new hires,
reinstitute stricter requirements for serving as wildlife biologists,
foresters, and range managers and eliminate programs that serve neither the
public-good nor the purposes for which the agency is funded or was founded.

7.   Elect state politicians that will work to reform state universities
to re-establish natural resource curriculums and Departments that support
state interests and to hire professors and others that support the
sustainable management and use of natural resources for the good of state
residents.

8.   Elect state and local politicians that are committed to strict
oversight of teachers and teaching in grades 1 through 12.  Where
environmental and animal rights matters are in conflict with state laws and
truth, teachers and curriculums should be either modified or eliminated.

9.   Form partnerships with others concerned with federal power grabs,
property rights, the ESA, animal use, natural resource management, and
Constitutional adherence.   Such groups might include - State Ranching or
Livestock Organizations; Wisconsin Bear Hunters; New Mexico Ranching and
Hunting Organizations; Hunting Dog Groups; San Joaquin Farmers; Klamath
Farmers; Private Property Owners threatened by Military Base expansions or
the expansion of Parks, Refuges, Forests, etc.; Rocky Mtn. Elk Foundation (a
very recent convert); Foundation for N. American Wild Sheep; Gun Groups;
Timber organizations; New Jersey Outdoor Alliance; Gamefowl Breeders; Big
Game (foreign) Hunting Groups; Trapping Groups; Property Rights Groups; Dog
Breeders; Rural Government Associations; and solid politicians running for
office in need of your support.

10.   Elect politicians that will work to reaffirm and protect state
authority over federal properties purchased within the state.  Federal
management of natural resources be it for "forest" as in Forest Service, or
"fish and wildlife" as in US Fish & Wildlife Service Refuge, or "cultural
values" as in National Park Service, or "land" as in Bureau of Land
Management should take into account local and state interests in the
management and use of these public lands.  From Payments-in-Lieu-of Taxes to
Revenue Sharing and management and use programs; federal lands should not be
simply places from which to destroy local communities and rural economies
(i.e. wolf introduction) like some foreign military base on our soil from
which to attack the country.

11.   Work to maintain the use of traps and dogs and baiting in State and
Federal regulations, on federal properties and in Federal laws to give every
opportunity for state governments to utilize a licensed and regulated
citizenry to maintain, control, or eliminate wolves, cougars, and bears in
line with state and local community standards.

12.   Openly advocate and support lethal and immediate control of
dangerous animals that invade towns or homesteads.  While there is a limited
place for trapping and removal, the costs and likelihood of returning
animals should always be considered first and foremost.  This also helps to
debunk the nonsensical myth that these animals are not REALLY dangerous and
there are always nearby "Wildernesses" where they can be dropped in and
forgotten (and if there is no nearby Wilderness the bureaucracy and radicals
will help you create one).

13.   Work with urban and youth organizations to explain these matters and
the rationale for your positions.

14.   Finally, talk to friends, relatives, associates, and co-workers
about these matters.  Publicize incidents and write letters to editors
suggesting solutions.  Appear before legislative committees and local
Boards.  Do not hesitate to hold federal bureaucrats, state bureaucrats,
teachers and other public servants accountable and demand their replacement
or firing wherever appropriate.  Encourage and support friendly bureaucrats
and academics.  If your elected officials balk, work to elect others.  Be
courteous, direct, informed, and outspoken.

If you think other things like annual Social Security increases or more pay
for public servants are more important than what we are discussing here, you
will vote accordingly.  Unless it is changed, this bad situation will simply
get worse and eventually become intolerable.  In my opinion, intolerable
means we will be forced to either accept this dark, new way of life
("learning to live with whatever government imposes on us") or we will have
to look to the only other alternative which was once described as too awful
to contemplate.  I vote for making the changes mentioned above before we
reach that intolerable point and the abyss beyond.

Jim Beers
6 July 2010
If you found this worthwhile, please share it with others.  Thanks.

This article and other articles written by Jim Beers since January 2009 can
be found at http://jimbeers7.blogster.com  (Jim Beers Uncommon Sense)

Articles by Jim Beers written from March 2006 to January 2009 can be found
at http://jimbeers.blogster.com   (Jim Beers Common Sense)

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 at   jimbeers7@comcast.net