On the Duck's Unlimited Web page I found the following information about their support of the Clean Water Restoration Act.
See related stories & Opinions :
From cattlenetwork here and the National Cattleman's Beef Association here.
The Heritage Foundation Blog
The Ohio Environmental Law Blog
This is the letter I wrote questioning their support and asking for clarification about their principles. I may have just had the wrong impression about what this organization stands for. I thought they were a free market conservation group.
************
Although I can see how this legislation may benefit Wetlands, I must have gotten the wrong impression about Ducks Unlimited. I thought this was an organization based on private efforts by private citizens, landowners, and hunters exercising free choice to donate and contribute to conservation efforts while respecting private property rights.
I thought that the name 'Ducks Unlimited' implied that with private property, markets, and caring support from members we could maintain a sustainable and unlimited waterfowl population.
Is it the philosophy of Duck's Unlimited to take a 2 pronged approach of a regulatory and a private market solution? If so, what does the organization value most, private property rights, markets, and constitutional government, or expansion of federal government. If a government power grab helps wetlands ( which I am skeptical) at the expense of private property and individual liberty it appears by supporting the CWRA Ducks's Unlimited has come down on the side of more government.
Shouldn't this organization favor cooperative solutions over the use of force?
We do take a 2-pronged approach; we work with landowners to conserve their land through things like conservation easements (www.ducks.org/taxes) and farm conservation programs (www.ducks.org/farmbill), however we are also very concerned about the Supreme Court legislating from the bench and removing protections for millions of acres of wetlands as they did with the SWANCC and Rapanos cases (2001 and 2006), and are trying to restore those protections.
ReplyDeleteThe Baucus-Klobuchar Compromise for Clean Water – which was the amended Clean Water Restoration Act – would simply restore the protections that existed for more than 30 years under the original Clean Water Act of 1972. It would – according to Sen. Baucus, who represents thousands of landowners in Montana, - “restores the Clean Water Act to the way it was in 2001 -- no more, no less”.
Thank you for your comments.
ReplyDelete