I'm glad to see this posted to Tweeters. It's hard to know where to go to raise awareness and, hopefully, provide impetus for changing bad decisions. This one is particularly tragic, another indication that natural resource agencies have a difficult time with long term commitments to the development of good science. The Washington Natural Heritage Program has always had some of the state's best scientists, however, they have really matured and their staff are simply excellent. They contribute to nearly every scientific endeavor in our state where there is a need for credible information on rare species and exemplary or unique natural communties. Their Natural Area Preserves Program is charged with taking care of some of the most phenomenal natural places we have left.

The way these programs are being gutted is incredibly sad.

Kelly McAllister
Olympia




----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Egger
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Sent: Friday, May 22, 2009 1:13 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Washington endangered birds at risk, please read!




Dear Tweets,


The following message is from Florence Caplow, a botanist and former employee of the Washington Natural Heritage Program. She is alerting those concerned with the conservation of natural areas and endangered species (of course including birds) with the inordinately drastic budget cuts proposed for the Heritage Program, the state agency entrusted with monitoring and properly managing endangered species and habitats in our state. Please take the time to read the information below and take action if you are so inclined. Thanks for your assistance on this very important issue, hopefully during this long weekend!


Mark


***********************


One more point:

I wanted to clarify that the state funding for Natural Heritage and Natural Areas (not counting their federal grants) was cut extraordinarily far out of alignment with the 25% cut mandated by the legislature for the Department of Natural Resources. The state funding for Natural Heritage was cut by 65%. The state funding for Natural Areas was cut by 87%.

Thanks,

Florence




On Thu, May 21, 2009 at 4:56 PM, Florence Caplow <firenze33 at gmail.com> wrote:

Dear friend of Washington conservation and the Washington Natural Heritage Program,

I'm writing to you to ask for your help and support in saving the Washington Natural Heritage and Natural Areas programs from disastrous budget cuts.

Two weeks ago the Department of Natural Resources made its decisions about the allocation of the state budget for the next two years, and their choices devastated two programs that are essential to the conservation of biodiversity in Washington. Although the agency was mandated to make cuts of 25% of state funding across the agency, the total budget for Heritage was cut by 47%, and for Natural Areas by 53%, and these percentages include both state and federal funding.

What this means is that Heritage must - unless we can turn around this decision - lay off as many as five people - half its staff - by June 30th, including two out of five scientists and three out of the four people who maintain the data system.

The Heritage data system tracks all rare plant records for the state, and many records of high quality plant communities. It is the heart of the Heritage program, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the program is essentially eviscerated by this cut. There will be no data entry person, no GIS person, and no one to respond to information requests from the public, agencies, and consultants. Sandy Moody, the Heritage information request staff member, responded to more than 400 information requests in the last year alone, and her position is one that has been eliminated.

Natural Areas was established in 1987 to conserve the areas of the most outstanding diversity in Washington, and currently manages 31,000 acres in fifty-one sites throughout the state. They have lost roughly half of their personnel. Two regions of the state (Olympic and Northeast) will have no staff at all, and most regions will have little or not funding for management beyond the funding for minimal staff. Many preserves will quickly lose their biodiversity without ongoing management, and the work of many years will be undone.

I know many of you - I'm the former rare plant botanist for the Heritage program - and I know you care about the biodiversity of Washington and the work of Heritage and Natural Areas. If we're going to make a difference, this is the time to act. Time is of the essence.

Here are some things you can do, NOW.

1) Forward this email to others, particularly others in the conservation and environmental consulting fields. I would particularly appreciate if this email could be forwarded to the Washington and Oregon NPS list serves.

2) Write to or call Peter Goldmark, the Commissioner of Public Lands, and you could remind him that he was elected by the hard work of environmentalists across the state, on a platform of sustainability and conservation. Ask him to restore the funding to both programs, and to explain why the cuts fell so disproportionally on the two most specifically conservation-oriented programs within the agency. If you depend on the Heritage data system in your work, please make that clear to him. Letters from other agencies and consulting firms are particularly important. Email is cpl at dnr.wa.gov . Phone is 360-902-1004. Fax is 360-902-1775

3) Write to or call the governor, Christine Gregoire, and make the points above. Email form: http://www.governor.wa.gov/contact/
Phone: 360-902-4111. FAX: 360-753-4110

4) Send letters to the editor to your local newspaper. Letters in The Olympian and the Seattle Times (opinion at seattletimes.com) would be particularly effective. Be sure to remind readers that the current commissioner of public lands ran on an environmental platform.

If you feel so inclined, please let me know what you did. I'd be happy to answer any questions to the best of my ability, or you can contact Pene Speaks at DNR for more direct facts on the cuts or to confirm my information: pene.speaks at dnr.wa.gov .

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,

Florence Caplow


--
"Practically speaking, a life that is vowed to simplicity, appropriate boldness, good humor, gratitude, unstinting work and play, and lots of walking brings us close to the actually existing world and its wholeness." -Gary Snyder





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