I thought this might be of interest to Tweeters. If you havn't called you
congressman or woman lately maybe it's time to become better aquainted.

Mike Waller
WP Zoo
---------------------
Forwarded message:
From: rfeather at clark.net (Roger Featherstone)
Sender: actgreen at envirolink.org
Reply-to: actgreen at envirolink.org
To: mwkg at aol.com
Date: 96-04-23 01:15:10 EDT

Folks,

The following alert is brought to you by the good folks over at The
Wilderness
Society.

Please call you Member of Congress and also call Jim Waltman to
sign on to this refuge letter.

Thank you,
Roger Featherstone
GREEN

***********************************************************
STOP THE ATTACK ON OUR NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGES!!!

Rep. Don Young is scheduled to bring H.R. 1675 -- his damaging bill to
change the management focus of the National Wildlife Refuge System
-- to the House floor Wednesday, April 24.

Please:

1) call your Representative and urge him or her to oppose H.R. 1675; The
Capital switchboard number is: (202) 224-3121.

2) sign your organization (with a contact name) onto the attached letter to
Congress (call or fax Jim Waltman at The Wilderness Society by Close
of Business Tuesday to sign on. (ph:202-429-2674; fax:202-429-3958)

The National Wildlife Refuge System is the only federal lands system
that was established specifically to conserve wildlife. The System is
tremendously diverse and critical to endangered and threatened
species, migratory birds, and other wildlife. Yet it contains less
than 4% of the federal lands in the lower-48 states and less than 1%
of the land area. These areas are special and fragile and need to be
carefully and cautiously managed.

HR 1675, the so-called "National Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act"
would redefine the purpose of the system from a dominant use system
where wildlife conservation is the focus, to a multiple use system
where recreation receives equal priority with wildlife -- this may
make sense in the national parks or national forests, but not the
wildlife refuges!

The bill would authorize expanded military uses and damaging
activities of other federal agencies on national wildlife refuges,
make it more difficult to establish new refuges and encourage
dismantling of the system by transferring refuges to the states.

The letter below was sent to the full House on Friday. We will re send
with regional and local groups added on. Please let us know if we can
sign your group on. Thanks for your help!!!


---------------------------------------------------------------------

THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY * NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION
NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL * NATIONAL AUDUBON SOCIETY
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND * SIERRA CLUB LEGAL DEFENSE FUND
NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE ASSOCIATION * WORD WILDLIFE FUND
U.S. PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP * DEFENDERS OF WILDLIFE
CENTER FOR MARINE CONSERVATION * SIERRA CLUB
TROUT UNLIMITED






April 19, 1996


Dear Representative:

We are writing to urge you to oppose H.R. 1675,
Representative Don Young's so-called "National Wildlife Refuge
Improvement Act" if it is brought to the House floor. While the
most recent draft "manager's amendment" to H.R. 1675 includes
some improvements to the bill as marked-up by the Resources
Committee, we feel strongly that the bill would cause serious
harm to the Refuge System.

H.R. 1675 contains numerous provisions that undermine the
Refuge System's integrity. Among its most egregious problems, the
bill would:

y redefine the very purpose of the National Wildlife Refuge
System by making hunting, trapping, and other recreation
primary purposes -- in direct competition with wildlife
conservation -- and weaken the compatibility standard and process
for reviewing such uses;

y make it more difficult to establish new national wildlife
refuges with the Land and Water Conservation Fund,
delaying and complicating non-regulatory means to conserve
endangered species, migratory birds, and other imperiled
wildlife;

y authorize expanded military activities and damaging activities
of other federal agencies on national wildlife refuges,
allowing future administrations to exempt such activities
from the protective standards of the National Wildlife Refuge
Administration Act;

y authorize transfer of refuge management to states -- redefining
such lands from refuges to "Coordination Areas" and
eliminating compatibility reviews of public uses for such
lands in the process -- and any "other entities."

Let us be clear that our opposition to the bill is not
prompted by an opposition to hunting in the Refuge System.
Hunters and anglers have been among the system's greatest
supporters -- even during the first forty-plus years of its
history when hunting was a rare exception on refuges. The great
value of the Refuge System is its capacity to conserve and manage
fish and wildlife habitats to provide for abundant populations.
Where refuges are well-managed and populations are abundant,
compatible wildlife- dependent recreation is frequently
appropriate. Fortunately this is most often the case; for
example, more than half of the refuges are open to at least one
form of hunting. But hunting is not appropriate on every refuge
and recreation is not a primary purpose of the refuges. Refuges
were established to conserve wildlife.

America's National Wildlife Refuge System is the envy of the
world. The System was established by President Theodore
Roosevelt nearly a hundred years ago to protect migratory
waterfowl, plumage birds and songbirds that were being devastated
for the fashion markets at the turn of the century. Today, the
system stands as the most comprehensive land-based system devoted
to protecting and managing habitats for America's fish and
wildlife. Yet the system makes up less than four percent of the
federal public lands in the lower-48 states and less than one
percent of the total land area of these states. Refuges are
sensitive areas that require careful management and protection.
They were never intended for a "multiple-use" management
philosophy.

In the spirit of Earth Day, we urge you to defend Theodore
Roosevelt's legacy and to oppose H.R. 1675.













Sincerely,


Rindy O'Brien
Vice President for Public Policy
The Wilderness Society

Debbie Sease
Legislative Director
Sierra Club

Chuck Clusen
Senior Resource Policy Analyst
Natural Resources Defense Council

Doug Inkley
Director, Fisheries & Wildlife
National Wildlife Federation

David Wilcove
Senior Ecologist
Environmental Defense Fund

Robert Dreher
Staff Attorney
Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund


Dick Rodgers
President
National Wildlife Refuge Association

Chris Williams
Program Officer
World Wildlife Fund


Carolyn Hartmann
Environmental Program Director
U.S. Public Interest Research Group

Wm. Robert Irvin
Deputy Vice President
Center for Marine Conservation

Evan Hirsche
Director, Wildlife Refuge Advocacy
National Audubon Society

Robert Dewey
Director, Habitat Conservation
Defenders of Wildlife

Steve Moyer
Director, Government Affairs
Trout Unlimited