Video Cross-Posted From WWPBlog
More below...
The Livestock industry and other extractive industries in the West have had a strangle-hold on Western political organization since the beginning of the American acquisition of the West.
Federal public lands have been used to subsidize this political arrangement ensuring its perpetuity. Industrial dollars extracted from federal resources siphoned into Republican coffers and campaigns in exchange for federal representation that ruthlessly opens these federal places to further exploitation (exhibit A ~ one among many), usually under the guise of localized control.
The break-up of this local control and "use" based paradigm of federal public land is in the interest of progressives' hopes for political incursion into the West.
Thus far, litigation has been the best way at disrupting these arrangements ~ the adversarial approach ~ and more importantly best advocate for wildlife and wild habitat that recognizes the wisdom of holding our public environmental heritage and federal public lands in trust for generations to come.
Despite a widespread movement trading effective advocacy for "collaboration & compromise" ~ an approach which as far as I can tell is premised on begging for political crumbs in exchange for widespread green-cover for extractive interests ~ there are still a few organizations willing to demand the full application of law and take extractive interests to court - the existing law and public environmental interest still matters and has been almost single-handedly carrying the water for conservationists during this lawless administration's reign.
Of successful litigation forcing FWS to reconsider listing of the Greater Sage Grouse Rocky Barker of the Idaho Statesman notes:
Listing would likely have the impact on public land ranching that the listing of the spotted owl had on logging in the Pacific Northwest in the late 1980s. It also could slow oil and gas development, affect utility transmission line placement and affect real estate development on the edge of cities like Boise.
Which is perhaps why politicians and industry have been tripping over themselves attempting to avoid the consequences and effective retribution (see: ESA) of their commercial pursuits. The litigation was not "popular" with the 'collaborate over conservation' crowd, but it's a striking barb in Big Oil, Livestock, and their political prostitutes of both parties' sides.
Wolves
Now, with little more than a year of Bush Administration control over your public lands in the West, the State of Idaho and Bush's Department of Interior hope to remove federal protection of the West's most publicly salient hope for re-establishing healthy ecosystems and wildlife communities in the West - namely, The Rocky Mountain Gray wolf.
The history of the re-introduction of the wolf has kindled the hopes and dreams of conservationists the world over. By re-introducing the wolf, Western watersheds and wildlife have known what it is to be wild again and the wolf's restorative effect throughout ecosystems has been well documented in Yellowstone and Idaho.
As the video demonstrates, the process of delisting has been less than legitimate, though Western media continues it's benevolent coverage of ranchers and hunters who warn of the day when little children will be taken by wolves at bus stops throughout the rural West. It's not true, nor has it ever been true ~ but that's MSM.
Ultimately, the hastened delisting will have the effect of ensuring that control of federal public lands resides in extractive industry's hands - livestock and Big Game (an emerging industry --> commercialization of wildlife - see: Cabella's) will have supreme right to maul watersheds and grow their docile stock on your land. Idaho state management "controls" wolves who dare inhabit land near these agricultural uses (pretty much all) and, if successful, will snub the hopes of wildlife advocates the world over by reducing wolves numbers in Idaho from over 600 to not below 104.
For political activists and progressive supporters in the West, this industrial use of Western federal public landscapes threatens efforts at changing the political landscape in the West by continuing to use your tax dollars subsidizing the right wing interests who hold power.
Send comments to the Idaho Department of Fish & Game expressing your wish that wolves and diverse wildlife ought have priority over the agricultural production of livestock and industrially contrived Big Game numbers on your federal public lands. Support local and regional organizations with the backbone to lean into controversy, dispel myths, and afford wolves & wildlife suitable habitat by removing the conflict that public lands ranching brings upon your federal public land. And if you're in Boise or know someone who is ~ forward this information and more and encourage them to participate in these public forums.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has released a draft wolf population management plan for public review and comment and has set a series of public meetings on the plan.
Meetings are planned on the following dates and locations:
· Boise: 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, December 13, in the Trophy Room at Fish
and Game headquarters, 600 S. Walnut St., Boise.
Written comments will be accepted through December 31 online at
http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/...; by mail to Idaho Fish and Game,
Wolf Plan Comments, P.O. Box 25, Boise ID 83707; by fax to 208-334-2148 or
208-334-2114, attention Wolf Plan Comments; or in person at any Fish and
Game office or wolf management plan public meeting.