| Up
until twenty years ago, migratory bird management was the backbone of the
entire US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS.) The bulk of the funding and
personnel involved in migratory bird management in FWS were involved in the
active management of migratory game birds that were hunted each year.
Migratory bird hunting generates billions of dollars throughout the US economy
each year. Most refuges were authorized for purchase by Congress for some
aspect of migratory bird management, most mitigation required with Federal
funding involved migratory bird needs, and most FWS law enforcement was
originally justified for migratory bird enforcement.
 Today the FWS migratory bird program is in a
shambles and has an annual "$4.5 million dollar shortfall." The
reason given recently by FWS is "the cost of uncontrollable expenses has
increased over the past five years, such as increasing the salaries of
full-time employees to match the rate of inflation, the Service has had to
reduce spending for core programs." News Flash: Inflation has been at the
lowest rate in three decades over the past five years and using this rationale
the entire Federal government should have shriveled instead of exploded as it
has. No, the real reasons are yet one more, sad tale of intrigues and animal
rights influence out-of-sight in government offices.
The migratory bird "make-over"
began with the passage of new Bird Treaties with Japan, and the Soviet Union
in the late 1960's. These interlocked with the former Canada (1918) and Mexico
(1937) Treaties. Hawks and owls and cormorants and other birds formerly and
purposely excluded were added to the Treaty lists (made up of mostly waterfowl
and songbirds and emphasizing game birds and hunting seasons) that gave the
Federal government sole jurisdiction over all such birds. This was the period
of UN CITES creation. The Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal
Protection Act and the Animal Welfare Act were passed at this time. FWS was
suddenly awash with employees that loved animals and wanted to totally protect
them. These employees also brought with them a deep antipathy for game
management and the emphasis on management of wildlife or the environment for
certain purposes. These latter "hook and bullet" programs were best
exemplified in FWS by the Migratory Bird Program and all the game bird
emphasis in refuges, law enforcement, and research.
The migratory bird program began its' steady
decline at this time. This decline accelerated under the Clinton
Administration. First, Secretary of the Interior Babbitt took the FWS research
program that was mainly established and funded by Congress to manage migratory
birds, and put it in the US Geological Survey to do "environmental"
things. Today the remnants of those researchers exist as geological tidbits in
the maw of a bureaucracy they should have never been given to. Migratory bird
investigations exist only as an occasional talking point in Federal
environmental pontifications.
 Second, a run was made by FWS to reorient the
refuges from waterfowl purposes, as Congress authorized them, to "Native
Ecosystems" without dikes or water management or other such
"unnatural" practices and devices. Migratory bird law enforcement
was downplayed as sexier endangered species "conspiracies" and
"organized crime" proved to be better Appropriated fund-getters.
Throughout this period, migratory bird managers learned that silence begot
bonuses.
Third, the migratory bird positions went more
and more to anti-hunters who additionally were anti-management and
pro-protection. This latter groups name is "code" for sympathizers
with the anti-use organizations like the Defenders of Wildlife and the Humane
Society of the United States.
Today, the migratory bird offices are
combined with the hunting and fishing excise tax managers who pay most of the
office bills and provide justification for the combined office managers to be
eligible for promotion to grades formerly reserved for Regional Directors.
In the midst of this "crisis" we
have the birth of the "Bird Conservation Funding Coalition." This
motley crew consists of the "American Bird Conservancy, Defenders of
Wildlife, International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, Manomet
Center for Conservation Science, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife
Federation, Ornithological Council, Point Reyes Bird Observatory Center for
Conservation Science, Swarovski Birding Community, The Nature Conservancy,
Wetlands International, and Wildlife Management Institute." This group is
"meeting with the committee staff for House and Senate Appropriations to
explain the dire situation and request additional funds."
So, in order to re-fund "core"
programs and to cover the "$4.5 million dollar shortfall" the
following legislation was introduced to the Whole US House of Representatives
on 3 June 2004:
1.) EXCLUSION OF NON-NATIVE SPECIES FROM
MIGRATORY BIRD TREATY ACT. This little beauty will exclude non-native
migratory birds from Federal protection. Non-native is here defined as any
species resulting from "intentional or unintentional human-assisted
introduction". Federal agency introduction is exempted (Of Course), so it
is a bad bird if anyone except the Federal agency brought it here. Oh and for
all you non-biologists out there that continually ask me when is the date for
something to be classified as "native", this legislation says the
date is "1918." The government (and its' cooperators) will be paid
to make up the "List" of such inferior and out-of-place birds if and
when Congress gives them the money . 2.) Then there is the Neotropical
Migratory Bird Conservation Act and the Neotropical Migratory Bird
Conservation Fund. These two beauties establish new programs specifically for
cost-sharing with Caribbean and Latin American countries (with whom we have no
such treaties.) These countries can get money for "projects" and pay
their part of a "cost-share" "in cash or in kind." How
much largesse is requested? $5 million in 2006, $10 million in 2007, and $15
million in 2008! Not only that, "not less than 75% shall be expended
outside the United States."
 So the "protectors" and do-gooders
within FWS strip the migratory bird program like a flock of vultures and then
apply it like a leech to the hunting and fishing excise tax administration.
The duck hunters watch their Federal overseers morph into Federal employees
bent on putting them out of business. The funding shortfall generates a crew
of anti-management and anti-use organizations with the old reliable IAFWA and
WMI as cover to get money for the shortfall and to restore "core"
programs. Well what do we get? Fuzzy science nonsense about native and
non-native birds that is merely the latest attempt to foist this outrageous
concept on us as a Federal responsibility. Then we get an entirely new request
for $30 million dollars to be spent in the Caribbean and Latin America. Sure,
this will take care of the "shortfall" and restore "core
programs" in FWS (in a pig's eye.) Once again, the hunters (and lots of
others) are sold out by bureaucrats, environmentalists, animal rights
radicals, and our Washington "conservation" organizations.
If this concerns you, ask your elected
Representative to oppose H.R. 4114 A Bill to Amend the Migratory Bird Treaty
Act to exclude non-native migratory bird species from the application of that
Act, and for other purposes. The way to a once again healthy migratory bird
program does not lie through coalitions with those opposed to use or
management. Let volunteers and philanthropists provide for the "nice to
know" "needs" of migratory birds and reaffirm the Federal role
in assuring healthy "game bird" populations as the original Treaty
stated. 
6 June 2004
This article and other
recent articles by Jim Beers can be found at
http://www.allianceforamerica.org/bb/viewforum.php?f=91 |
