Comment On The Endangered Species Act Changes! NOW!
Hey, remember the proposed changes to the Endangered Species Act? The current president wants to give more say to federal agencies, so if the highway is going through and endangered nesting ground, the highway department can decide for themselves whether or not to keep going with the project. We need to stop shaking our heads and asking, "How much more damage can he do?" and act to keep this damage from happening.They have opened a comment period for its proposal until Oct. 14.
BUT, here is the kicker, they are not accepting e-mails, you have to either phone in or hand write and snail mail in why you think this is a bad idea, and you have to do it through the Department of the Interior by U.S. mail or hand-delivery to:
Public Comment Processing Attention: 1018-AT50 Division of Policy and Directives Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 4401 North Fairfax Drive Suite 222 Arlington, VA 22203
The Sierra Club is also accepting comments online which they will compile and send to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service too. You can use their form to help start your letter and submit it online, they will send it on all at once, but it is important to personalize it.
Also, keep in mind that the DOI will post the public comments, so careful about including your personal information in your comments. This needs to be done and it needs to be done now. Do it for peregrine falcons and bald eagles who needed the list and are now off--they are successes. Do it for birds that may need it in the future like the red knot, or birds that are on there now like the California condor, piping plovers, short-tailed albatros.Comment loud and comment now! Spread the word to your friends, send them the Sierra Club link, put this in your FaceBook status updates, comment now!
Please.
posted by birdchick at 11:05 AM
6 Comments:
It should probably also be noted that since the Anthrax letter scare in 2001, every single snail mail letter to congressmen is subject to intense bio-terror screening that tacks weeks to the actual arrival date.
So phone is the best way because a letter sent today will likely not be received until after the deadline, which honestly, is probably the main reason they are only accepting letters as opposed to e-mails.
I would like to say thank you for bringing this to public attention. If I had not stopped by and read your blog today then I would never have known this was even happening. So thank you!
yeah, my office (one of those federal agencies this proposal is going to give more work to) compiled a list of concerns and comments and sent it up through our chain of command. guess how many of our comments were put into the final letter? that's right, zero! So now we're all writing individually as "concerned citizens" since we're not allowed to "falsely represent" the organization. grrr.
I sent mine! Thanks for pushing this issue-- I'm glad you're doing it, considering that there seems to be so little about it being said anywhere else.
I was able to submit a comment directly to the DOI website, clicking on the "Myths..." BS link, then clicking on the Comment link. It pulls up a page with a Docket number that is hotlinked. If you click on that, it takes you to a page
http://www.regulations.gov/fdmspublic/component/main?main=DocumentDetail&o=09000064806c5826
By clicking on the Docket number link and filling out a form, I was able to leave a comment. You can read the public comments that have already been "opened" by the agency. I hope it works.
P.S. There are 387 comments so far appended to the docket on the DOI webpage, so you CAN comment online. but if you want to call, here is phone contact information:
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, 1849 C Street, NW., Washington, DC 20240; telephone: 202-208-4416; or James H. Lecky, Director, Office of
Protected Resources, National Marine Fisheries Service, 1315 East-West Highway, Silver Spring, MD 20910; telephone: 301-713-2332.
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