[NatureNS] blackoutspeakout - recent observations of Conservative

Date: Mon, 04 Jun 2012 11:29:16 -0400
From: "Frederick W. Schueler" <bckcdb@istar.ca>
Organization: Bishops Mills Natural History Centre
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political decision
Everyone,

In honour of the blackoutspeakout I'm releasing the text of my 
observations of federal ministers of fisheries and "natural resources" 
at the recent National Fish & Wildlife Conservation Congress in Ottawa, 
on May 31. This Congress was announced as attempting "to deal with 
challenges such as wildlife and agriculture conflicts, fish & wildlife 
diseases, alien invasive species, species at risk, policy and 
legislative changes, among others." Its website is: http://www.nfwcc.com

===========================================================

Introduction of ministers: There's evidently an “outdoor caucus” of MP's 
discussing “outdoor issues” of the “outdoor community” - is this 
community made up of the ATV'ers or of the birders who hate them?

Minister Ashfield (Fisheries): seems to be adult, if rather 
anthropocentric, and is called a “good friend of OFAH [Ontario 
Federation of Anglers and Hunters]” – but he's from New Brunswick. 
Whoops the “recreational fishery” as “contributing” $8.4 billion to “the 
economy,” but if it's recreational doesn't this activity “drain” this 
money from the economy – especially given that most of this money is 
spent on high-tech foopery of equipment and travel in which fishing 
tourists go to remote places so they won't have to experience or deal 
with the condition of fish population near their homes? Memo to 
conventional society: Economic activity directed towards harmful, 
useless, or frivolous  ends is not good. No mention of individual 
subsistence fishing. The current budget-bill convulsions of the fish 
habitat protections are glossed over as allowing “routine activities 
that have no relevance to the fishery” to pass without review – but 
isn't it the review of everything that might affect fish that protects 
both the fisheries as well as the fish-for-themselves?  Also they're 
going to speed up conservation by discontinuing reviews of “habitat 
enhancement projects,” but who's to say that your “habitat enhancement” 
for your favourite taxon won't be the death knell for some other taxon – 
Columbia River Leopard Frogs vs Ducks Unlimited, anyone? Also they're 
going to “protect important wetlands,” which I guess means landscape 
ecology isn't a science – for where, pray tell, can one find an 
unimportant wetland?  The one action mentioned was millions for Asian 
Carp research – but what can Canada do: bomb Chicago back into the Stone 
Age? It's so characteristic of the things that are generously funded 
that there's no chance of their doing much good.

Minister Kent ("Natural Resources"): Said to have been a famous 
broadcaster before going into politics, though one has never heard of 
him. At least he uses some French, however clumsily [this "national" 
conference was otherwise aggressively unilingual]. Did we have an 
“ambitious agenda” at this conference – It sure seemed vapid to me. He 
references “Canadians who have a tradition and history of conservation” 
– but that was the National Museum of Canada which has had its ability 
to work for conservation demolished by successive governments. If 
they're going to have a “Hunting and Angling Panel” are they going to 
have a “Herpetology and Malacology Panel?”

They're going to have a “National Conservation Plan,” that will 1) 
Conserve landscapes, 2) Connect Canadians to nature, 3) Restore degraded 
ecosystems and SAR. If they would promote “stewardship in working 
landscapes,” in currently working landscapes, rather than trying this 
out in presently intact landscapes, this would be a commendable idea, 
but given their record so far one suspects they want to try it out in 
the currently intact areas. “Hunters and anglers are among the most 
ardent conservationists” – but their problems have all been solved, and 
their species are pretty much no longer in decline – what about 
coleopterists and the decline of Carabidae?

Each minister was given a plastic mould of two hollow half-Mallards – an 
impenetrable symbolism from my point of view, but not conceivably in 
accord with the praise verbally lavished on their presence and addresses.

===========================================================

...keep in mind that these are the raw notes of an ecocentric 
conservative who believes that Canadian public policy should be based on 
keeping the biota intact and evolving until the Ice comes back and again 
obliterates it.

fred
------------------------------------------------------------
          Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
          South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
          http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
     RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
   on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
    (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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