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political decision
Everyone,
In honour of the blackoutspeakout I'm releasing the text of my
observations of federal ministers of fisheries and "natural resources"
at the recent National Fish & Wildlife Conservation Congress in Ottawa,
on May 31. This Congress was announced as attempting "to deal with
challenges such as wildlife and agriculture conflicts, fish & wildlife
diseases, alien invasive species, species at risk, policy and
legislative changes, among others." Its website is: http://www.nfwcc.com
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Introduction of ministers: There's evidently an “outdoor caucus” of MP's
discussing “outdoor issues” of the “outdoor community” - is this
community made up of the ATV'ers or of the birders who hate them?
Minister Ashfield (Fisheries): seems to be adult, if rather
anthropocentric, and is called a “good friend of OFAH [Ontario
Federation of Anglers and Hunters]” – but he's from New Brunswick.
Whoops the “recreational fishery” as “contributing” $8.4 billion to “the
economy,” but if it's recreational doesn't this activity “drain” this
money from the economy – especially given that most of this money is
spent on high-tech foopery of equipment and travel in which fishing
tourists go to remote places so they won't have to experience or deal
with the condition of fish population near their homes? Memo to
conventional society: Economic activity directed towards harmful,
useless, or frivolous ends is not good. No mention of individual
subsistence fishing. The current budget-bill convulsions of the fish
habitat protections are glossed over as allowing “routine activities
that have no relevance to the fishery” to pass without review – but
isn't it the review of everything that might affect fish that protects
both the fisheries as well as the fish-for-themselves? Also they're
going to speed up conservation by discontinuing reviews of “habitat
enhancement projects,” but who's to say that your “habitat enhancement”
for your favourite taxon won't be the death knell for some other taxon –
Columbia River Leopard Frogs vs Ducks Unlimited, anyone? Also they're
going to “protect important wetlands,” which I guess means landscape
ecology isn't a science – for where, pray tell, can one find an
unimportant wetland? The one action mentioned was millions for Asian
Carp research – but what can Canada do: bomb Chicago back into the Stone
Age? It's so characteristic of the things that are generously funded
that there's no chance of their doing much good.
Minister Kent ("Natural Resources"): Said to have been a famous
broadcaster before going into politics, though one has never heard of
him. At least he uses some French, however clumsily [this "national"
conference was otherwise aggressively unilingual]. Did we have an
“ambitious agenda” at this conference – It sure seemed vapid to me. He
references “Canadians who have a tradition and history of conservation”
– but that was the National Museum of Canada which has had its ability
to work for conservation demolished by successive governments. If
they're going to have a “Hunting and Angling Panel” are they going to
have a “Herpetology and Malacology Panel?”
They're going to have a “National Conservation Plan,” that will 1)
Conserve landscapes, 2) Connect Canadians to nature, 3) Restore degraded
ecosystems and SAR. If they would promote “stewardship in working
landscapes,” in currently working landscapes, rather than trying this
out in presently intact landscapes, this would be a commendable idea,
but given their record so far one suspects they want to try it out in
the currently intact areas. “Hunters and anglers are among the most
ardent conservationists” – but their problems have all been solved, and
their species are pretty much no longer in decline – what about
coleopterists and the decline of Carabidae?
Each minister was given a plastic mould of two hollow half-Mallards – an
impenetrable symbolism from my point of view, but not conceivably in
accord with the praise verbally lavished on their presence and addresses.
===========================================================
...keep in mind that these are the raw notes of an ecocentric
conservative who believes that Canadian public policy should be based on
keeping the biota intact and evolving until the Ice comes back and again
obliterates it.
fred
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Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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