TRCP Follow Up Letter To Send To President GW Bush,
TRCP Joins Ducks Unlimited, Other Leading Conservation Groups To Sign Wetlands Letter to President Bush
The Honorable George W. Bush
President
The White House
1st Floor, West Wing
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
As our nation’s leading hunting and angling organizations, we are writing to express our strong opposition to potential regulatory changes that would eliminate long-standing Clean Water Act protections for millions of acres of wetlands and thousands of small lakes and ponds. For America’s 47.8 million hunters and anglers the protection of the wetlands and waters where we hunt and fish is one of the single most important issues pending before the Federal government.
Specifically, we are concerned that the January 15, 2003 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the Clean Water Act Definition of "Waters of the United States" will ultimately lead to the elimination of Clean Water Act protections for isolated wetlands, lakes and ponds. We do not believe the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should proceed with a rulemaking to redefine "waters of the United States" and ultimately narrow the scope of the Clean Water Act. After three decades as the most important federal statute in the protection of fish and wildlife habitat it is inappropriate from our perspective that the rule making process may be used to significantly weaken the Clean Water Act provisions of greatest importance to sportsmen.
America’s rich hunting and fishing traditions are inextricably tied to the protection of habitat and as sportsmen and Republican Presidents have known for over 100 years isolated wetlands and small ponds are among the most important of all habitat:
"a little pool out on the prairie will show along its edges numerous traces of animal life; for, though of small extent, and a long distance from other water, it may be the home of beavers, and muskrats, the breeding place of different kinds of ducks and the drinking place for the denizens of dry country roundabouts, such as wolves, antelope, and badgers."
-Theodore Roosevelt
Hunting Trips of A Ranchman -- 1885
Today, over half of all the ducks in North America begin their lives in the small prairie potholes extolled by Teddy Roosevelt. However, if Clean Water Act jurisdiction over isolated bodies of water is removed, 96% of these wetlands, and thousands of lakes and ponds enjoyed by millions of fishermen, could be polluted and filled in without recourse.
We are calling upon you, as a fellow hunter, fisherman, and conservationist to stop any proposed rulemaking by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that would abolish long-standing Clean Water Act protections for wetlands and other small bodies of water. Absent these protections, your goal of "no net loss" of wetlands and the full potential of voluntary wetland restoration and banking programs will never be realized.
We look forward to working with you in the coming months on this matter of critical importance. Your leadership on this issue is greatly appreciated by America’s hunters and anglers.
Sincerely,
American Fisheries Society
American Fly Fishing Association
American Sportfishing Association
BASS/ESPN Outdoors
Boone & Crockett Club
Buckmasters American Deer Foundation
Campfire Club of America
Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation
Dallas Safari Club
Delta Waterfowl Foundation
Ducks Unlimited, Inc.
International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
Izaak Walton League of America
Mule Deer Foundation
National Shooting Sports Foundation
National Trappers Association
National Wild Turkey Federation
North American Grouse Partnership
Pheasants Forever
Pope and Young Club
Pure Fishing
Quail Unlimited
Ruffed Grouse Society
Shikar-Safari Club International
Texas Wildlife Association
The Wildlife Society
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
Trout Unlimited
U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance
Wildlife Forever
Wildlife Management Institute
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Our Mission: To ensure that America's lands, both public and private, will always provide clean water, healthy habitat, bountiful fish and wildlife populations, and opportunities to fish, hunt and enjoy the outdoors.
©2003 Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
www.trcp.org
info@trcp.org
(877) 770-8722
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