| INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUPPORTING ACT OF CONGRESS |
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INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUPPORTING ACT OF CONGRESS
North Carolina U.S. Senator Richard Burr and U.S. Rep. Walter Jones introduced legislation into the Senate and the House of Representatives that would set aside an amendment to current resource management (consent decree) and require that the Park Service operate the seashore under its duly authorized resource management plan (interim plan). These bills are a second attempt to pass legislation to set aside the consent decree. Upon reading the letter provided below, it should be obvious that the importance of these bills extends well beyond the current issue regarding Cape Hatteras. This is no longer simply the classic debate over protection of resources versus human use and development. This is a debate regarding who is in charge of managing resources, the government in compliance with congressional acts or environmental groups with one goal, maximizing resource protection without regard to the costs of their proposals. The courts have been supporting the latter. At this point, the bills have been referred to the appropriate committees. This is where most bills die. Furthermore, NC Senator Basnight has sent a letter to the NC Congressional Delgation requesting and NC representatives support the proposed legislation. If we want these bills to get to the floor, we need to give our representatives a reason to co-sponsor the bills. If you don’t do something now, this type of action on the part of the courts and environmental groups will likely impact you in the very near future. Our NC Governement officials are doing their part, we need you to do your part.
Take a stand. Send the letter provided by the American Sportfishing Association.
Send a letter asking the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the relevant subcommittees to uphold the NEPA compliant plan and curtail the courts support for actions that serve to ignor federal authority over land management, print the instructions presented below and take the 30 minutes needed to send the emails with the sample letter presented at the end of this page. Better yet, if you want to have the biggest impact, fax the letters and follow up via phone. Please, at least write your Senators and House Representative—steps 1 through 11. p.s. Don’t forget PASS THIS ONTO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK. THIS IS NOT JUST A CAPE HATTERAS ISSUE.
If after you are done you would like to follow the progress of the bills, bookmark the following links:
INSTRUCTIONS
LETTER
My name is (Your Name). I am a voting member of (Your state or district). I am writing to ask you to co-sponsor HR 718/Senate Bill 1557. As described below, my request is based upon the opinion that environmental groups, with the assistance of the courts, are usurping governmental authority for resource management on federal lands. More often than not the management techniques that result ignore the cost benefit analysis required by NEPA and other Congressional Acts.
On April 30, the United States district court for the eastern district of North Carolina, northern division accepted a consent decree that resulted in the voluntary dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Defenders of Wildlife and Audubon against CHNSRA. The consent decree (signed under the threat that all public access would be denied) amended a duly authorized resource management plan (Interim Plan). The amendment eliminated ALL discretion on the part of NPS and has severely limited public access to park. As a result, the decree is not only having a severe economic impact on Dare County and NC, but also, has the effect of delegating managerial functions of NPS to the court and private environmental groups. This is an unconstitutional delegation of federal authority.
The impact of the decision to accept the consent degree is not limited to CHNSRA or NC. In fact, each time the courts overturn management decisions made by governmental units, the courts embolden environmental groups. For example, the following comment from the Center for Biological Diversity clearly shows the Center's total disregard for the government’s role in management of federal lands and their confidence in being able 1) to dictate to NPS and USFWS, and 2) to ignore Congressional Acts regarding appropriate rulemaking procedures.
"To remind the Service of the true definition of ‘essential habitat,’ in 2007 the Center filed a notice of intent to sue the agency over that decision (Piping Plover Habitat) and 54 others that have driven imperiled species across the country closer to extinction." (http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/birds/piping_plover/index.html)
Co-sponsoring the above-noted bill will send a clear message that management of federal lands is the sole discretion of the federal agency in charge and must be done in accordance with Congressional Acts. Anything less, is equivalent to abdicating governmental responsibility for federal land management, to ignoring Congressional Acts, and to encouraging massive expenditures of government funds on legal fees.
Please take a stand and co-sponsor this bill. |