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Wolf Delisting Effort is at a Critical State in the U.S. House of Representatives...WE NEED YOUR HELP!
The letter below will give you information regarding the situation and exactly how you can help! It's easy to help!
Please take a moment to make the difference that only your effort can!
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!
Friends-
As many of you know, flaws in the Endangered Species Act make it almost impossible to remove species from the list and return their management to the individual states once their populations have met recovery goals. No other species besides the Gray Wolf is a better example of this. In Minnesota, this is especially true, with wolves having been at their targeted population levels since the 1970's. The population of Wolves in MN is greater than the rest of the lower 48 states combined!
There is a critical bill in the house, H.R. 1819, sponsored by Representative Candice Miller and Cosponsored by Minnesota’s own Rep. John Kline to remove wolves from listing under the Endangered Species Act and return wolves to state management. In its original form, this bill would fully remove the Gray Wolf, and all it’s subspecies, from the ESA and place its management in the hands of individual states. Unfortunately, new wolf language that has been included in the new interior appropriations bill has been weakened and fails to address important aspects of wolf delisting for Minnesota. The committee meeting to finalize the language of this bill is on July 12, 2011. We strongly support the inclusion of new language in this appropriations bill while also encouraging that it be amended in committee to provide for full delisting of all wolves in Minnesota, it’s going to take your support, through emails sent and calls made in the next three days.
We tend to think that as individuals we can’t influence public policy, but nothing is farther from the truth. While many of us complain about our elected officials, very few of us actually contact them. When gauging public opinion on issues, the standard formula is that each phone call received represents 10,000 voters and it takes as few as 2,000 emails received on a single issue in a week to make that issue the number one issue for that official’s office.
SO WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?
Congress is justifiably preoccupied with the budget right now. But, we need to make sure this issue doesn’t fall through the cracks.
The Congressman in charge of the committee that will finalize the language of this bill is Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho (T: 202-225-5531 F: 202-225-8216). We need each of you to contact Congressman Simpson’s office and let him know that:
I support the passage of immediate delisting of all wolves in Minnesota such as represented by H.R. 1819 in its original form. I strongly oppose any efforts that would: (1) delist only portions of the United States wolf population; (2) leave the door open to ongoing legal challenges by anti-grazing and anti-hunting groups that could further delay needed wolf control activities; (3) delist only some wolf populations within a state (such as Canis Lupus), while leaving endangered species act control over other wolf populations (such as Canis Lycaon); or (4) that would otherwise undermine the authority of state fish and game agencies to manage wolves or other wildlife populations.
This same message needs to be given to all of Minnesota’s Representatives and Senators.
If you want to email your Representative and Senators quickly and easily, you can go the Big Game Forever website and do so. Simply click on this link, http://capwiz.com/biggameforever/home/, then enter your zip code. You will then have the option to email all of your Representative and Senators at the same time. Feel free to cut and paste, or you can write your own. Just make sure you reference bill H.R. 1819.
Better yet, pick up the phone and call. Make your voice the voice of 10,000 voters.
Senator Amy Klobuchar: (612) 727-5220 / (202) 224-3244
Senator Al Franken: (651) 221-1016 / (202) 224-5641
Rep. Tim Walz: (507) 388-2149 / (202) 225-2472
Rep. Erik Paulsen: (952) 405-8510 / (202) 225-2871
Rep. Betty McCollum: (651) 224-9191 / (202) 225-6631
Rep. Keith Ellison: (612) 522-1212 / (202) 225-4755
Rep. Michele Bachmann: (651) 731-5400 / (202) 225-2331
Rep. Collin Peterson: (218) 847-5056 / (202) 225-2165
Rep. Chip Cravaack: (651) 237-8220 / (202) 225-6211
Rep. John Kline
952) 808-1213 / (202) 225-2271
The squeaky wheel truly does get the grease. And sportsmen have been the silent majority, much to our detriment, for too long. So please, take a couple of minutes in the next few days and make your voice heard!
Regards,
Peter Hunt, President, MN SCI
Mark Johnson, Executive Director, MN Deer Hunters Association
Don McMillian, President, MN Outdoor Heritage Alliance
Ryan Benson, Big Game Forever
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Welcomes Public Comments in Regards to Wolf Delisting
The stated goals for wolf recovery have been achieved in the great lakes states…now it is simply time to delist the wolf!
Please make your voice heard!
You can make your comments at the Federal eRulemaking Portal by clicking HERE. Follow the instructions for submitting comments to Docket No. (FWS-R3-ES-2011-0029)
Audience Shows Support for Wolf Delisting
At a meeting in Grand Rapids on Tuesday, June 14th, support was strong for removing endangered species protections for wolves in Minnesota.
Nearly 200 people attended the meeting, which was organized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to learn more about the latest plan to delist wolves.
For the third time, the federal government is trying to remove gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region from the Endangered Species List. The last two times, conservation groups challenged the idea in court, and won.
For wolves living in the Rockies, political pressure has brought an end to their special protections. In April, Congress inserted wording in a budget bill to remove most of them from the list.
Grand Rapids veterinarian John Howe said he gets panicky calls all the time about wolf attacks on pets.
"We had a lady call with an 84-pound yellow lab sitting on her deck in the middle of the day, and her 5-year-old son sitting on a tractor 50 feet away," Howe said. "The wolves killed the dog in a matter of seconds, drug it off in the woods. And I'm thinking, what if the 5-year-old was sitting there petting the dog when this happened?"
Many of those in attendance were ranchers who wanted to know whether they'd still be able to get help when wolves kill their livestock.
Once wolves are removed from federal protection, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will manage them. The DNR plans to continue a federal program that traps and kills problem wolves, but no one is sure where the money will come from.
The DNR also plans to ease restrictions on where and when people can kill wolves to protect pets and livestock. But there would be no hunting season for at least five years.
Perhaps the only person in the audience who opposed delisting the wolf was Sandra Skinaway, a member of the Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa.
"We were taught that the wolf and the original man were together. We had our lands taken just like the wolf," Skinaway said. "The populations may be growing, but in the end it's a natural selection, you know how they manage their own populations."
In addition to removing endangered species protections for the gray wolf population in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will study a newly recognized species — the eastern timber wolf.
Until recently, the eastern timber wolf had been classified as a subspecies of the gray wolf. The Fish and Wildlife Service scientist who wrote the delisting plan, Laura Ragan, explained that recent studies suggest they may be separate species.
"Techniques for looking at genetics of species — those techniques have become amazing, the types of detail they can look at now regarding genetics, these are not techniques that we had five years ago," she said.
Ragan said her agency will review how many eastern wolves there are and where they live, and then will determine whether eastern wolves should be listed as endangered. The answer will come at the same time the gray wolf is removed from the list.
Conservation groups see this new wrinkle as a reason to slow down the delisting process. Ralph Henry, an attorney with the Humane Society of the United States, said the designation of eastern wolves as a separate species raises a lot of questions: Is the interbreeding good or bad for either species? If one is endangered and the other isn't, how should wildlife managers handle control efforts when it's impossible to tell the two apart without DNA tests?
"We think the delisting rule in the Great Lakes should at least await the status review for the eastern wolf, so the [Fish and Wildlife] Service can really look at the cumulative impacts to both species in the region," Henry said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking public comment on its plan until July 5, and hopes to have a final decision on gray wolves by the end of the year.
______________________________________________________
IF YOU DO NOT TAKE ONE MINUTE TO TAKE ACTION NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT WOLVES AGAIN! ONLY 108 OF THE 5000 MEMBERS THAT RECEIVED THIS MESSAGE TOOK ONE MINUTE TO SEND THIER REPS A QUICK EMAIL. THAT IS THE LEAST YOU CAN DO! THE LINK IS BELOW IN THE MESSAGE. PLEASE DO IT NOW!
Critical wolf delisting bill being reveiw right now!
Currently, USFWS is reviewing public input regarding proposed delisting of the wolf in the Great Lakes Region. Wolves of the northern Rocky Mountains were delisted previously this year thanks to Congressional legislation that dictated delisting and insulated against more frivolous lawsuits. Currently, language in from the US House of Representatives is attached to the House version of the Interior Appropriations bill providing the same delisting provision and protection for the Great Lakes Region. But, reportedly some Senators are fighting to remove the provision from Interior Appropriations Conference Committee compromise language. They will succeed in killing this delisting effort unless our US Senators and Representative act on our behalf to stop them.
In 1989 Minnesota had 1500-1750 wolves and they have expanded ever since. In 1992 the federal population criteria for delisting wolves in MN was 1251-1400 wolves by the year 2000. Minnesota has been patient, perhaps too patient, but no more. The endangered species act was enacted to return endangered species to recovered status. The wolf has recovered, but the "antis" will keep mounting legal challenges to keep it listed unless we convince Congress to act.
It is time to speak out, today! Contact your US Congresspersons and Senators today and direct them to contact Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Jack Reed and lobby for the Senate to accept the House wolf delisting language in the Interior Appropriations bill.
This is our time to act!
Mark Wm. Johnson
Executive Director
Minnesota Deer Hunters Association
Click HERE FOR LEGISLATOR EMAIL CONTACT INFORMATION
Better yet, pick up the phone and call. Make your voice the voice of 10,000 voters.
Senator Amy Klobuchar: (612) 727-5220/ (202) 224-3244
Senator Al Franken: (651) 221-1016/ (202) 224-5641
Rep. Tim Waltz: (507) 388-2149/ (202) 225-2472
Rep. Erik Paulsen: (952) 405-8510/ (202) 225-2871
Rep. Betty McCollum: (651) 224-9191/ (202) 225-6631
Rep. Keith Ellison: (612) 522-1212/ (202) 225-4755
Rep. Michele Bachmann: (651) 731-5400/ (202) 225-2331
Rep. Collin Peterson: (218) 847-5056/ (202) 225-2165
Rep. Chip Cravaack: (651) 237-8220/ (202) 225-6211
Please take a moment to make the difference that only your effort can! It's easy to help!
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!
Wolf Delisting Effort is at a Critical State in the U.S. House of Representatives...WE NEED YOUR HELP!
The letter below will give you information regarding the situation and exactly how you can help! It's easy to help!
Please take a moment to make the difference that only your effort can!
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!
Friends-
As many of you know, flaws in the Endangered Species Act make it almost impossible to remove species from the list and return their management to the individual states once their populations have met recovery goals. No other species besides the Gray Wolf is a better example of this. In Minnesota, this is especially true, with wolves having been at their targeted population levels since the 1970's. The population of Wolves in MN is greater than the rest of the lower 48 states combined!
There is a critical bill in the house, H.R. 1819, sponsored by Representative Candice Miller and Cosponsored by Minnesota’s own Rep. John Kline to remove wolves from listing under the Endangered Species Act and return wolves to state management. In its original form, this bill would fully remove the Gray Wolf, and all it’s subspecies, from the ESA and place its management in the hands of individual states. Unfortunately, new wolf language that has been included in the new interior appropriations bill has been weakened and fails to address important aspects of wolf delisting for Minnesota. The committee meeting to finalize the language of this bill is on July 12, 2011. We strongly support the inclusion of new language in this appropriations bill while also encouraging that it be amended in committee to provide for full delisting of all wolves in Minnesota, it’s going to take your support, through emails sent and calls made in the next three days.
We tend to think that as individuals we can’t influence public policy, but nothing is farther from the truth. While many of us complain about our elected officials, very few of us actually contact them. When gauging public opinion on issues, the standard formula is that each phone call received represents 10,000 voters and it takes as few as 2,000 emails received on a single issue in a week to make that issue the number one issue for that official’s office.
SO WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO?
Congress is justifiably preoccupied with the budget right now. But, we need to make sure this issue doesn’t fall through the cracks.
The Congressman in charge of the committee that will finalize the language of this bill is Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho (T: 202-225-5531 F: 202-225-8216). We need each of you to contact Congressman Simpson’s office and let him know that:
I support the passage of immediate delisting of all wolves in Minnesota such as represented by H.R. 1819 in its original form. I strongly oppose any efforts that would: (1) delist only portions of the United States wolf population; (2) leave the door open to ongoing legal challenges by anti-grazing and anti-hunting groups that could further delay needed wolf control activities; (3) delist only some wolf populations within a state (such as Canis Lupus), while leaving endangered species act control over other wolf populations (such as Canis Lycaon); or (4) that would otherwise undermine the authority of state fish and game agencies to manage wolves or other wildlife populations.
This same message needs to be given to all of Minnesota’s Representatives and Senators.
If you want to email your Representative and Senators quickly and easily, you can go the Big Game Forever website and do so. Simply click on this link, http://capwiz.com/biggameforever/home/, then enter your zip code. You will then have the option to email all of your Representative and Senators at the same time. Feel free to cut and paste, or you can write your own. Just make sure you reference bill H.R. 1819.
Better yet, pick up the phone and call. Make your voice the voice of 10,000 voters.
Senator Amy Klobuchar: (612) 727-5220 / (202) 224-3244
Senator Al Franken: (651) 221-1016 / (202) 224-5641
Rep. Tim Walz: (507) 388-2149 / (202) 225-2472
Rep. Erik Paulsen: (952) 405-8510 / (202) 225-2871
Rep. Betty McCollum: (651) 224-9191 / (202) 225-6631
Rep. Keith Ellison: (612) 522-1212 / (202) 225-4755
Rep. Michele Bachmann: (651) 731-5400 / (202) 225-2331
Rep. Collin Peterson: (218) 847-5056 / (202) 225-2165
Rep. Chip Cravaack: (651) 237-8220 / (202) 225-6211
Rep. John Kline
952) 808-1213 / (202) 225-2271The squeaky wheel truly does get the grease. And sportsmen have been the silent majority, much to our detriment, for too long. So please, take a couple of minutes in the next few days and make your voice heard!
Regards,
Peter Hunt, President, MN SCI
Mark Johnson, Executive Director, MN Deer Hunters Association
Don McMillian, President, MN Outdoor Heritage Alliance
Ryan Benson, Big Game Forever
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Welcomes Public Comments in Regards to Wolf Delisting
The stated goals for wolf recovery have been achieved in the great lakes states…now it is simply time to delist the wolf!
Please make your voice heard!
You can make your comments at the Federal eRulemaking Portal by clicking HERE. Follow the instructions for submitting comments to Docket No. (FWS-R3-ES-2011-0029)
Audience Shows Support for Wolf Delisting
At a meeting in Grand Rapids on Tuesday, June 14th, support was strong for removing endangered species protections for wolves in Minnesota.
Nearly 200 people attended the meeting, which was organized by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to learn more about the latest plan to delist wolves.
For the third time, the federal government is trying to remove gray wolves in the western Great Lakes region from the Endangered Species List. The last two times, conservation groups challenged the idea in court, and won.
For wolves living in the Rockies, political pressure has brought an end to their special protections. In April, Congress inserted wording in a budget bill to remove most of them from the list.
Grand Rapids veterinarian John Howe said he gets panicky calls all the time about wolf attacks on pets.
"We had a lady call with an 84-pound yellow lab sitting on her deck in the middle of the day, and her 5-year-old son sitting on a tractor 50 feet away," Howe said. "The wolves killed the dog in a matter of seconds, drug it off in the woods. And I'm thinking, what if the 5-year-old was sitting there petting the dog when this happened?"
Many of those in attendance were ranchers who wanted to know whether they'd still be able to get help when wolves kill their livestock.
Once wolves are removed from federal protection, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will manage them. The DNR plans to continue a federal program that traps and kills problem wolves, but no one is sure where the money will come from.
The DNR also plans to ease restrictions on where and when people can kill wolves to protect pets and livestock. But there would be no hunting season for at least five years.
Perhaps the only person in the audience who opposed delisting the wolf was Sandra Skinaway, a member of the Sandy Lake Band of Mississippi Chippewa.
"We were taught that the wolf and the original man were together. We had our lands taken just like the wolf," Skinaway said. "The populations may be growing, but in the end it's a natural selection, you know how they manage their own populations."
In addition to removing endangered species protections for the gray wolf population in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will study a newly recognized species — the eastern timber wolf.
Until recently, the eastern timber wolf had been classified as a subspecies of the gray wolf. The Fish and Wildlife Service scientist who wrote the delisting plan, Laura Ragan, explained that recent studies suggest they may be separate species.
"Techniques for looking at genetics of species — those techniques have become amazing, the types of detail they can look at now regarding genetics, these are not techniques that we had five years ago," she said.
Ragan said her agency will review how many eastern wolves there are and where they live, and then will determine whether eastern wolves should be listed as endangered. The answer will come at the same time the gray wolf is removed from the list.
Conservation groups see this new wrinkle as a reason to slow down the delisting process. Ralph Henry, an attorney with the Humane Society of the United States, said the designation of eastern wolves as a separate species raises a lot of questions: Is the interbreeding good or bad for either species? If one is endangered and the other isn't, how should wildlife managers handle control efforts when it's impossible to tell the two apart without DNA tests?
"We think the delisting rule in the Great Lakes should at least await the status review for the eastern wolf, so the [Fish and Wildlife] Service can really look at the cumulative impacts to both species in the region," Henry said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is taking public comment on its plan until July 5, and hopes to have a final decision on gray wolves by the end of the year.
______________________________________________________
IF YOU DO NOT TAKE ONE MINUTE TO TAKE ACTION NEVER COMPLAIN ABOUT WOLVES AGAIN! ONLY 108 OF THE 5000 MEMBERS THAT RECEIVED THIS MESSAGE TOOK ONE MINUTE TO SEND THIER REPS A QUICK EMAIL. THAT IS THE LEAST YOU CAN DO! THE LINK IS BELOW IN THE MESSAGE. PLEASE DO IT NOW!
Critical wolf delisting bill being reveiw right now!
Currently, USFWS is reviewing public input regarding proposed delisting of the wolf in the Great Lakes Region. Wolves of the northern Rocky Mountains were delisted previously this year thanks to Congressional legislation that dictated delisting and insulated against more frivolous lawsuits. Currently, language in from the US House of Representatives is attached to the House version of the Interior Appropriations bill providing the same delisting provision and protection for the Great Lakes Region. But, reportedly some Senators are fighting to remove the provision from Interior Appropriations Conference Committee compromise language. They will succeed in killing this delisting effort unless our US Senators and Representative act on our behalf to stop them.
In 1989 Minnesota had 1500-1750 wolves and they have expanded ever since. In 1992 the federal population criteria for delisting wolves in MN was 1251-1400 wolves by the year 2000. Minnesota has been patient, perhaps too patient, but no more. The endangered species act was enacted to return endangered species to recovered status. The wolf has recovered, but the "antis" will keep mounting legal challenges to keep it listed unless we convince Congress to act.
It is time to speak out, today! Contact your US Congresspersons and Senators today and direct them to contact Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Jack Reed and lobby for the Senate to accept the House wolf delisting language in the Interior Appropriations bill.
This is our time to act!
Mark Wm. Johnson
Executive Director
Minnesota Deer Hunters Association
Click HERE FOR LEGISLATOR EMAIL CONTACT INFORMATION
Better yet, pick up the phone and call. Make your voice the voice of 10,000 voters.
Senator Amy Klobuchar: (612) 727-5220/ (202) 224-3244
Senator Al Franken: (651) 221-1016/ (202) 224-5641
Rep. Tim Waltz: (507) 388-2149/ (202) 225-2472
Rep. Erik Paulsen: (952) 405-8510/ (202) 225-2871
Rep. Betty McCollum: (651) 224-9191/ (202) 225-6631
Rep. Keith Ellison: (612) 522-1212/ (202) 225-4755
Rep. Michele Bachmann: (651) 731-5400/ (202) 225-2331
Rep. Collin Peterson: (218) 847-5056/ (202) 225-2165
Rep. Chip Cravaack: (651) 237-8220/ (202) 225-6211
Please take a moment to make the difference that only your effort can! It's easy to help!
PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!