As most of you know that read these, I have some pretty strong sentiments on the subject. They go back to the 1960's.

1) There should be some sort of levy on sales, as in the outboard motor fuel surtax, to fund environmental cleanup, monitoring and enforcement.

2) There should be several levels of licensing in order to allow wild caught into the captive population and to permit head starting and repatriation of captive born.

3) There should a mechanism to allow collection of animals from areas of eminent habitat destruction for captive maintenance or relocation. I've personally relocated native plants before they were plowed under. And, I've relocated box turtles that were later found making a bee-line right back to the housing development they were just rescued from.

4) I agree in cooperation with the academics, but frankly to this point, I think they have been rather uncooperative in addressing the legitimate rights of the private sector. I personally believe the private sector has done far more in regard to education and public awareness with that hands on, practical approach. Not too many people read those scientific journals. How many PhD thesis's have you read lately? Academics tend to push for less familiarity and access by the public. Ignorance never helped a thing.

That's a start for this conversation.

jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"

John Crickmer

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