Bills fail to protect endangered species The Altoona Mirror Anti-conservation lawmakers are taking aim at Pennsylvanias endangered and threatened species. Pennsylvania HB 1576 and SB 1047 would diminish the Pennsylvania Game Commissions and Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commissions ability to protect endangered and threatened species in our state. The commonwealth has a long and proud tradition of independent fish and game agencies. Politicians shouldnt mess with it. These bills would send the Commissions endangered and threatened species lists to the Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC), an agency dominated by the legislature, for additional scrutiny. The IRRC does not have scientific expertise or standards to evaluate species listing proposals. Proponents of the bill claim that this is just like asking for a second opinion on a medical diagnosis. That claim is absurd. Second opinions on a diagnosis are rendered by another physician, not by political appointees with no science background. These agencies biologists are better judges of the threats to wildlife than political appointees would be. The agencies make decisions regarding proposals for protecting rare, threatened, or endangered species in an open, transparent manner. As if we needed more reasons to oppose these bills, their passage would likely mean the loss in up to $27 million in federal wildlife restoration funds, representing up to a third of the budgets of the Game Commission and the Fish and Boat Commission. These federal funds would be lost because managing threatened and endangered species in the fashion proposed by this bill would demonstrate our states incompetence in wildlife management. In addition, these bills could encourage more federal involvement in species protection. One of the criteria utilized by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in determining whether to pursue listing of a species is the sufficiency of state resource protection laws. By curtailing the authority of the Commissions, this proposed legislation could prompt a more active federal role in species protection. Juniata Valley Audubon asks that conservationists oppose Pennsylvania HB 1576 and SB 1047. Stan Kotala, Juniata Valley Audubon, Tyrone
Posted on: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 12:34:20 +0000
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