White House expands hunting, fishing lands

[Kadie]

White House expands hunting, fishing lands

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press


Last Updated: August 30, 2004, 04:35:00 PM PDT


WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration said Monday it will give people who hunt and fish new access to hundreds of thousands of acres of lands and streams within 17 national wildlife refuges and wetlands.
The decision as the Republican National Convention was opening in New York was announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Asked if it might help President Bush's re-election efforts, the agency's director, Steve Williams said, "This is just another example of the president's commitment to sportsmen."

snip...
Officials said the agency was not adding money to the budget to help with managing the additional activity in the newly opened areas.

Betsy Loyless, a vice president and lobbyist for the League of Conservation Voters, called the decision a blatant attempt to sway voters.

"I do think politics are at play," she said. "The areas they've chosen play to the base. What this means in terms of conservation is questionable."

more...
http://www.modbee.com/24hour/politics/story/1609451p-9279540c.html

[nosmokes]

1. he has no shame at all.

i'm not necessarily opposed to the move, but tthe method he uses when he does things like this, and allocating no money for it, and the timing, it just doesn't pass the initial smell test. but then the entire administration doesn't pass the smell test.

[Viking12]

4. Yes, the timing sucks.

I'm an avid angler and have been working some fishing BBs trying to sway folks against *. This release doesn't help my efforts.

[nosmokes]

5. here's a link that might help ya out...

it's a piece from my local paper by a republican outdoorsman lamenting the bushco enviro policies. it's a worthwhile read. i posted it here a few days back when it came out.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=69777

so are y'all getting the ads for landsense.us? it's a RW pac/timber industry front that's pushing for bushco's "healthy forest" initiative? shows homes burning up and talks about how many people died and tells you we hafta cut down our forests to save em? i'm having trouble finding out anything about em.

[BeFree]

2. Refuges

Yeah, these are the last places you can find good hunting or good fishing. And pretty soon, they won't have any game left in them, if boosh has his way.

Better that the government bring the rest of the environment back to health, than invade the last refuges of the dwindling wildlife.

[burrowowl]

3. Yeah after the fracing

drillers have gone through and ruined everything.

[sandnsea]

6. Coincidentally, all in red states!!

They'll just sell out anything for a vote. This is sick and disgusting and won't go over as well as they think it will. People are funny about what goes on in their own back yards and I've never known people not to appreciate the wildlife refuges in their states and want them managed correctly. I'm betting this will stink like the political ploy that it is.

[Dr Fate]

7. It'll be the only way some people will be able to afford food...

...if Bush wins!

;)

[DaveSZ]

8. Misleading headline

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2004/08/25/ed.col.beagle.0825.html

August 25, 2004

Guest Viewpoint: Hunters, anglers: Beware of the GOP

By Mike Beagle



The list of public lands abuses by the current administration is long. It ranges from trying to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (designated by GOP President Dwight Eisenhower) to clear-cutting the Tongass National Forest in Alaska to opening of public lands along the Rocky Mountain front to oil and gas development, to stopping the reintroduction of the grizzly bear in central Idaho to the dismantling of the U.S. Forest Service roadless rule. Hunters and anglers are taking note of a party leadership and president who have absolutely no idea what wild, public land means to the American sports- man.

Take, for example, the Forest Service's roadless rule. After countless town hall meetings and accepting a record 2.5 million public comments over a three-year period, 90 percent of which favored protection, the current presidential administration has gutted this popular and fiscally conservative administrative rule. Promoting the "strenuous life'' in the tradition of Roosevelt? Absolutely not. Ignoring direct democracy? No question.

Under the mantra of allowing "input" from the states, the current administration has given the management responsibilities of more than 58 million acres of our publicly owned and roadless heritage to the states for their retention. All Americans own these lands, not just the residents in which these lands are located.

-snip

Mike Beagle is a Republican and chairman of Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. He lives in the Rogue River basin in Southwestern Oregon.

-more

[dArKeR]

9. Hundreds of salmon rot near the Cleveland Wall of the Klamath River

Oct. 1, 2002, near Klamath, Calif. Scientists, Indian tribes and government agencies gathereed Monday, Aug. 30, 2004, to discuss the current state of Klamath River salmon two years after more than 30,000 fish died in low water conditions.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040831/480/cajc80108310653