John,



For me, I try to keep things simple so I see no distinction between the two regarding the regulation of both “commercial-v-hobbyist/breeder”. To me, the difference between the two is the “scale” of the operation (they both work with animals for a desired purpose). I know that a difference exists but, I equate all of this stuff as an “us-against-them” and both the “commercial” and “hobbyist/breeder” face similar regulations by governmental agencies and by separating the two only works in their favor (“divide-and-conquer” strategy). When I consider the supporting industries (e.g. husbandry supplies, food, enclosures, etc), we are all in the same boat…And these days, we can’t row in two different directions.



I have no idea regarding the allegations of shipments of American turtles to Asia are true or not but IF TRUE, then here is another failure of the government to protect America’s resources!



From my research, there is a “quid pro quo” between the fed’s and the states. In fact, the wildlife agencies of ALL 50 states are members of the “association” and to qualify for federal grants, their state programs must be “approved” by the Director of the Department of the Interior and thus, there are “strings” attached to the states when they accept federal grant funding (taxpayer dollars) for their wildlife programs. The USFWS is NOT in the business of “recovering” endangered species as evident by their 1% success rate over the decades since the enactment of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). So what ARE they doing with annual budget appropriations from Congress?



Well since FY2001, the USFWS has had two “programs” to provide taxpayer dollars to the states to acquire public lands (under government control and regulation) and they “grant” millions of dollars for this purpose. They include the “Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition Grant Program” and the “Recovery Land Acquisition Grant Program”. For single state grants, the states must match 25% of the federal grant funding and must have an approved plan. So what are we talking about here?



In FY2008, the USFWS “granted” some $49.3 million dollars (both programs) to California, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin to acquire some 25,743 acres. In FY2009, both USFWS programs “granted” some $49.9 million dollars to acquire another 34,068 acres of public lands in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin. Now adjust this amount by the state’s matching 25% and the total amount is $124 million taxpayer dollars for 59,811 acres of formerly private lands. I know that this doesn’t sound like much when compared to the trillions of taxpayer dollars of the federal budgetary appropriations but consider the following;



1) This is just ONE agency of the Department of the Interior (BLM, USFS, etc).



2) The amounts listed above are only the “single state” grants and does not include the “multi-state” grants nor does it include another program (called the “Habitat Conservation Planning Assistance Grants”) which is used for “assistance” in the states as well to develop future land acquisition grants.



3) The listed acreage above does NOT include the “takings” (seizure of private lands by the USFWS) nor does it include the “mitigation” lands (donated by large private industries) or actual “donated” lands (private citizens and NGO’s).



4) Finally, these two programs have been in existence since FY2001.



To put this in perspective, I read the testimony of a deputy director before a congressional committee that stated that the Department of the Interior (and its agencies) had some 1 in every 5 acres (20%) of American lands under their jurisdiction. I can not remember who it was or whether it was before a house or senate committee but, I do remember that figure. Now add in other federal agencies (e.g. DOD, etc) and the states and local governments to that figure (I have no idea how many acres they have under their jurisdiction) and the 20% is even higher. Why the land grab by the government of private lands? Well one reason is the “resistance” by the people (via lawsuits) to an ever increasing amount of regulation imposed by the government…I wonder why that is?



Later,

Jim.


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CSRAJim

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