These are rescheduled hearings due to the government shutdown-
Federal hearings on wolf delisting are underway at four locations this week. They are “make up” hearings because those scheduled for October had to be cancelled when congressional Republicans shut down the federal government.
The first hearing was in Denver yesterday Nov. 19, 2013. It was mostly dominated by those opposed to delisting the gray wolf (though putting some additional effort into the lagging Mexican wolf restoration program). The Denver Post reports on the hearing yesterday.
The hearing tonight will be in Albuquerque, NM.
The information for this and the other two hearings follows:
Albuquerque. November 20, 2013, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Embassy Suites, Sandia Room, 1000 Woodward Place NE, Albuquerque, NM 87102; (505) 245–7100.
Sacramento. November 22, 2013, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. the Marriot Courtyard Sacramento Cal Expo, Golden State Ballroom, 1782 Tribute Road, Sacramento, CA 95815; (916) 929–7900.
Pinetop, Arizona. December 3, 2013, from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Hon-Dah Conference Center, 777 Highway 260, Pinetop, AZ 85935 (3 miles outside of Pinetop at the Junction of Hwy 260 and Hwy 73); (928) 369–7625.
One hearing was held before the government shutdown. That was in Washington DC on Sept. 30, 2013.
It is almost always difficult to determine what effect a public hearing has. It depends on the issue, where it is held, the rules of procedure, the relative degree of organization of the interests, the quality of the testimony, the political environment at the time, and many more things. Nevertheless, when an interest sucessfully organizes to turn out people to hearings such as these, it tends to build their movement as folks mingle with likeminded people and gain encouragement through association, often in the face of opposing groups.
Comments
At the Denver hearing to take comment on both Grey Wolf and Mexican Wolf issues, the first 150 people who signed up wanted to speak against blanket delisting of the Grey Wolf in the entire Lower 48 states, as USFWS has proposed.
As reported in the Denver Post.
http://www.denverpost.com/environment/ci_24559595/feds-push-end-endangered-protection-gray-wolves-ignites?source=rss
“hearings because those scheduled for October had to be cancelled when congressional Republicans shut down the federal government”
can’t let this go, huh..its old news,,,,new problem is the failure of obmamacare,,,,,y not bring that up instead.
John,
Not speaking for Ralph, he’s quite capable of speaking for himself, but maybe the answer is that Obamacare had nothing to do with the meetings being delayed and rescheduled, whereas the government shutdown did. Does that make sense?
Good point, Jeff.
John: You might also wish to consider that it is quite possible that shutting down the federal government impacted the administration’s rollout of the ACA website.
P.S. The ACA can not be equated with the website, despite conservatives best efforts.
P.P.S. If the worst problem you can come up with is a problem with a federal government website, things must be pretty good right now! 🙂
I think it is telling that only one hearing was held on the east coast. I can just hear it coming….the wolves are in the west, they affect westerners. If the delisting moves forward that will surely be true, wolves will never gain a foothold anywhere.
There’s one? I’m surprised even at that. For a delisting in the lower 48, you’d think other areas of the country would be represented, than just the West and Southwest.
Here’s an article from the NYT from back in 1998, when wolves were first being considered for ‘reclassification’ (from endangered to threatened) when they were considering reintroducing wolves to the Northeast. One of the MI hunting articles refers to it, and the Bruce Babbitt reclassification of wolves, which is a far cry from what’s being done at the moment.
http://www.nytimes.com/1998/06/29/us/as-gray-wolf-thrives-a-policy-changes.html?pagewanted=2&src=pm
Thank you for the NYT link.. as much as it would be good for the environment to bring the wolves back to traditional habitats in more than just the Western states, I pray that we can resolve the politics more before we do any more reintroductions. The cruelty of this year’s hunt is something that should be learned from.
If we bring them back with one set of government funding, then we should not use hunting as a cruel “oopsie” let’s cut them back now. We need to bring more responsibility into our planning and not punish the wolves for our political system. We need to educate educate educate, and protect the wolves that we have. My two cents.
There was a public hearing in Augusta, Maine when this round of de-listing was first proposed. Public participation was negligible-both for and against. My sense is that public interest in wolves here in the northeast has waned considerably with a relatively small number of die-hard advocates and opponents still interested and concerned enough to do battle. I did not attend the D.C. hearing as the comments of The Maine Wolf Coalition are already part of the public record, having been presented to the USFWS here in Augusta. The USFWS ignored them then and I have seen no indication that will change.
Thanks for your comment. What a shame that such beautiful habitat would remain empty.
Currently 7:32 PM MST, I hear the Albuquerque hearing going well for pro-wolf folks with 500 people in attendance.
That is good news. My guess is that the Sacramento meeting will probably also go pretty well for the pro-wolf side. The Pinetop-Lakeside, AZ meeting could see the pendulum throw the other way. Should be interesting.
The red wolves in So. Carolina, are in grave danger, with 6 of them being killed in the past month. Add this tragedy to the negative reaction shown to thecreintroduction of Mexican wolves and it becomes clear that the USFWS needs to be an advocate for US wolves. The northern Rockies states and the Great Lakes states have already shown their true colors with regard to wolf management and need US oversight by actual wolf biologists, not DNR boards loaded with hunters.
As for the east coast, our terrain can only support the smaller “coy wolf” variety, and just like every other state voting to delist wolves, we have our issues. New York and New Hampshire (?) have already voted against wolves, and the plan to reintroduce them here was nixed. But if someday these smaller wolves migrate here from eastern Canada, I even wonder who will notice that they’re not coyotes?
Overall, the USFWS is wrong in not overseeing all US wildlife simply because they belong to all of us, not just the hunters in any given state. States have widely varying laws that affect any given species as soon as it crosses a state line. In Oregon a wolf is protected, but in Wyoming it can be killed, in 80% of the state, just for being a wolf. And this is allowed in a state that makes a huge revenue from visitors who go to Yellow stone to see wolves!
So to all of you who will attend these meetings, thank you. What an uphill battle you face, but it is the right battle.
As for the east coast, our terrain can only support the smaller “coy wolf” variety.
I don’t think everyone believes this to be true. I think that New Hampshire did vote against reintroduction, but I’m not sure about Upstate NY, and extreme northerly and lightly populated Maine would still be an option, to my knowledge. We have a lot of deer, and the coyotes, as much as I want to see them around too, don’t seem to have that as part of their diet. Before human change to the St. Lawrence, wolves migrated freely from Canada?
and highways and development, etc. There is no replacing the niche that the wolves once occupied, it is obvious.
What is happening in South Carolina is tragic, there have been individuals who have been vocal that they will poach. It seems that being open about poaching won’t get anyone in trouble in this climate. It is telling that the regulations about night hunting were not changed, even though it seemed obvious that a red wolf could easily be mistaken for a coyote.
The animals have done nothing wrong, but are paying for the politics of humans. We need more education for those who still believe the BBW fairy tales, to get real information out to people who believe that they are in danger, and to establish that non-lethal livestock measures work.
North Carolina.
North Carolina.
A lot of bubba neanderthals in the Alligator River area of NC where the Red wolf is trying to make its last stand. They rival any of the wolf haters in ID, MT and WY
Now that the elk have re-established themselves in the Great Smokey Mountain NP, maybe they could move a few back up there. They might stay put this time.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get more ridiculous in MI:
“This initiative will show that the people of Michigan believe in using biology to make fish and wildlife decisions…” blah, blah, blah