Critters
The other day it was the State Department - senior officials quitting after their efforts to prevent their beloved nation from making ridiculous and obvious mistakes were stopped by Junta political appointees. Now, it's the Bureau of Land management (BLM). It seems that they won't let the professional biologists out of the office to observe the wildlife they're supposed to be managing.
Instead, they are forced to spend their days caged up like zoo biologists doing paperwork to approve drilling in national forests:
The officials and documents say that by keeping many wildlife biologists out of the field doing paperwork on new drilling permits and that by diverting agency money intended for wildlife conservation to energy programs, the BLM has compromised its ability to deal with the environmental consequences of the drilling boom it is encouraging on public lands.
Here on the high sage plains of western Wyoming, often called the Serengeti of the West because of large migratory herds of deer and antelope, the Pinedale region has become one of the most productive and profitable natural gas fields on federal land in the Rockies. With the aggressive backing of the Bush administration, many members of Congress and the energy industry, at least a sixfold expansion in drilling is likely here in the coming decade.
Recent studies of mule deer and sage grouse, however, show steep declines in their numbers since the gas boom began here about five years ago: a 46 percent decline for mule deer and a 51 percent decline for breeding male sage grouse. Early results from a study of pronghorn antelope show that they, too, avoid the gas fields.
Yet as these findings have come in, the wildlife biologists in the Pinedale office of the BLM have rarely gone into the field to monitor harm to wildlife.
"The BLM is pushing the biologists to be what I call 'biostitutes,' rather than allow them to be experts in the wildlife they are supposed to be managing," said Steve Belinda, 37, who last week quit his job as one of three wildlife biologists in the BLM's Pinedale office because he said he was required to spend nearly all his time working on drilling requests. "They are telling us that if it is not energy-related, you are not working on it."
Belinda, who had worked for 16 years as a wildlife biologist for the BLM and the Forest Service, said he came to work in the agency's Pinedale office 20 months ago because of the "world-class wildlife." He has quit to work here for a national conservation group, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, as its energy initiative manager.
One of my great fears is that when Americans are able to take back their government, the Junta will have changed too much for them to reverse. Not just in volume of destructive and treasonous policies, but in obscurity. I fear that there are 100 stories like this for every one that gets published. Is there an 'undo' button for government? Obviously, we're not going to pay back the historic debt any time soon, and the economy may never be what it should have been.
But how many BLM's have been compromised across the federal government? How many irreplaceable herds of antelope have to be wasted as tribute to the over-privileged? And what other dumping or environmental ravagement is going on without anybody knowing about it?
Instead, they are forced to spend their days caged up like zoo biologists doing paperwork to approve drilling in national forests:
The officials and documents say that by keeping many wildlife biologists out of the field doing paperwork on new drilling permits and that by diverting agency money intended for wildlife conservation to energy programs, the BLM has compromised its ability to deal with the environmental consequences of the drilling boom it is encouraging on public lands.
Here on the high sage plains of western Wyoming, often called the Serengeti of the West because of large migratory herds of deer and antelope, the Pinedale region has become one of the most productive and profitable natural gas fields on federal land in the Rockies. With the aggressive backing of the Bush administration, many members of Congress and the energy industry, at least a sixfold expansion in drilling is likely here in the coming decade.
Recent studies of mule deer and sage grouse, however, show steep declines in their numbers since the gas boom began here about five years ago: a 46 percent decline for mule deer and a 51 percent decline for breeding male sage grouse. Early results from a study of pronghorn antelope show that they, too, avoid the gas fields.
Yet as these findings have come in, the wildlife biologists in the Pinedale office of the BLM have rarely gone into the field to monitor harm to wildlife.
"The BLM is pushing the biologists to be what I call 'biostitutes,' rather than allow them to be experts in the wildlife they are supposed to be managing," said Steve Belinda, 37, who last week quit his job as one of three wildlife biologists in the BLM's Pinedale office because he said he was required to spend nearly all his time working on drilling requests. "They are telling us that if it is not energy-related, you are not working on it."
Belinda, who had worked for 16 years as a wildlife biologist for the BLM and the Forest Service, said he came to work in the agency's Pinedale office 20 months ago because of the "world-class wildlife." He has quit to work here for a national conservation group, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, as its energy initiative manager.
One of my great fears is that when Americans are able to take back their government, the Junta will have changed too much for them to reverse. Not just in volume of destructive and treasonous policies, but in obscurity. I fear that there are 100 stories like this for every one that gets published. Is there an 'undo' button for government? Obviously, we're not going to pay back the historic debt any time soon, and the economy may never be what it should have been.
But how many BLM's have been compromised across the federal government? How many irreplaceable herds of antelope have to be wasted as tribute to the over-privileged? And what other dumping or environmental ravagement is going on without anybody knowing about it?
posted by fiduciary at 9:29 AM
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