Global Courant 2023-04-30 14:00:32
Will Cain: Climate change madmen just won’t stop
The co-hosts of “The Five” speak out about Nora Swisher, the spokeswoman for a group of protesters who closed a highway in Washington, D.C., admitting the movement’s disruptive protests are aimed at “disrupting the people’s lives’.
The Biden administration has come under fire for regulatory proposals that critics have warned could serve as a backdoor attack on hunting and lead to more aggressive measures targeting hunting.
According to hunting industry experts and officials, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is expected to publish design guidelines for hunting that will significantly limit the type of equipment athletes are allowed to use on federal refuges. Among other things, the guidelines are expected to expand the range of areas where cost-effective lead ammunition and fishing tackle will be banned.
“Raising the cost of hunting, raising the cost of fishing and raising the cost of our crowd doing their thing is objective number one, no doubt, because they know if you make it more expensive, fewer people will. do,” Todd Adkins, the vice president of government affairs for the Sportsmen’s Alliance, a pro-hunting group, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“When it comes to the FWS issuing a ban on several sanctuaries because they’re expanding hunting opportunities — that’s all we’re really asking for,” Adkins continued. “Number one, do you find any specific issues related to lead exposure in specific national wildlife sanctuaries? And number two, have you evaluated the impact this ban will have on users, both hunters and fishermen?”
SENATE DEMS STAND FOR NAILING BIDEN’S CHINESE SOLAR MANUAL
President Joe Biden delivers remarks in Hagerstown, Maryland, on October 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
In 2021, the Center for Biological Diversity — an influential environmental group with assets of more than $40 million that advocates for strict federal wildlife protection — sued the federal government over a Trump administration rule that expanded hunting and fishing to 2 .3 million acres in 147 nature reserves and national fisheries. hatcheries.
Instead of defending the rule, the Biden administration asked the court to delay proceedings in the case in February 2022, and in November agreed to a settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity stipulating that the administration should would take measures to protect wildlife “affected”. through extensive hunting and fishing” on national nature reserves.
Under the settlement, the FWS pledged to expand the ban on lead ammunition to several refuges starting in 2026 as part of its annual rule for 2023-2024 that is expected to be proposed in May. The 2022-2023 rule finalized in September had banned only lead ammunition in the Patoka National Wildlife Refuge in southern Indiana.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATOR rushes to industrialize US oceans to halt climate change: ‘Environmental wrecking ball’
“Every year there’s a hunting and fishing rule that comes out at the end of the season,” Benjamin Cassidy, the director of government affairs for the pro-hunting Safari Club International and a former senior Interior Department official, told Fox. News Digital. “When I was in administration (Trump), these were big packages to celebrate the opening of access and expand the options for access.”
“Since this administration has been in place, the numbers have dwindled to lower numbers every year. It’s really just been a kind of tape over what has really been banned,” Cassidy continued. “We’ve seen millions of acres closed and we’ve seen lead bans put in place.”
Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams was sworn in to head the agency in March 2022. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
Cassidy noted that as late as Friday morning, the Biden administration announced in federal documents its intention to ban recreational shooting on about 94,900 acres of land managed by the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service.
In addition, as part of its settlement with the Center for Biological Diversity in November, the FWS agreed to respond to the group’s petition demanding a phase-out of lead munitions in all national wildlife sanctuaries. The settlement even required the agency to tell hunters to use bear spray when attacked by a grizzly bear instead of shooting the endangered animal.
And in a filing in February, the FWS said it would investigate whether deleting grizzly bear species under the Endangered Species Act was warranted, but noted that such action “is concerning and requires careful consideration.” The state governments of Montana and Wyoming have asked the agency to lift federal protections for grizzly bears so residents can defend their property against the predator.
TOP OFFICIALS WARN BIDEN ADMIN OF DANGERS WIND ENERGY PROJECTS FOR THE FISHING INDUSTRY, LETTER APPEARS
“In Montana, hunting and fishing and public access is a priority. And those activities that infringe on that, that aren’t based on science, that aren’t based on management, they’re based on an agenda — you know, we’re going to oppose fight,” said Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., who served as Secretary of the Interior during the Trump administration from 2017-2019, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
“In conservation, the essence of Teddy Roosevelt was multiple use, public access, the best science, the greater good, the long run,” he continued. “That’s the American conservation ethic, which stems largely from Roosevelt and Pinchot and the management of our forests. Hunting was at the heart of it.”
One of the first actions of Representative Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., while serving as Secretary of the Interior under the Trump administration, was to allow lead ammunition on federal wildlife refuge properties. (William Campbell/Getty Images)
Zinke added that one of his first actions in leading the Interior Department was to expand hunting opportunities and reverse Obama-era restrictions on the use of lead ammunition in wildlife sanctuaries.
Environmental groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife criticized the move at the time, arguing that lead ammunition poisons bald eagles and golden eagles while risking contaminating waterways and drinking water. But hunting groups have argued that there is no science to support such claims.
BILLIONAIRE-FINANCED ECO GROUP HAS QUIET FARMLAND OUT OF PRODUCTION IN RURAL AMERICA
“This is a state issue. It shouldn’t be based on agendas, it should be based on science. The state’s fish and wildlife experts evaluated within their respective limits and boundaries,” Zinke said. “If the environmentalists really want to be concerned about the bird population, maybe they should look at the more than 750,000 birds being chopped up and increasing by the wind.”
“This is not about lead ammunition. This is about steps to reduce hunting access. Their track record is clear,” he told Fox News Digital. “What we often see with this government is overreach.”
A fisherman is pictured on the Gallatin River in Bozeman, Montana. (David E. Klutho/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images)
Additionally, led by Senator Steve Daines, R-Mont., 27 Republican senators wrote to FWS Director Martha Williams in May 2022 asking that lead ammunition not be restricted on wildlife refuges.
And earlier this month, Daines and 22 fellow senators introduced legislation that would prevent the FWS, Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) from banning lead ammunition or equipment unless such action is supported by the best available science.
“This could go beyond just the National Wildlife Refuge System under Fish and Wildlife Service,” said Gabriella Hoffman, a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum’s Center for Energy and Conservation.
“I’m afraid it’s spreading to BLM,” she told Fox News Digital. “Once they get a taste of the ban, they’re going to try to emulate it elsewhere, because once again they see hunters as an obstacle, even though hunters are largely the main drivers of conservation.”
The FWS did not respond to a request for comment.
Thomas Catenacci is a political writer for Fox News Digital.
