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The Gate
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Wednesday, February 21, 1996 =B7 Page A16
=A91996 San Francisco Chronicle
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EDITORIAL -- Congress' Sneak Attack On U.S. Wildlife Refuges
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CONSERVATIONISTS AND nature lovers of every stripe should be alarm=
ed
by a little-known bill moving quietly through Congress that would =
open
the door to the degradation and commercial exploitation of the
nation's 92-million- acre National Wildlife Refuge System.
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The deceptively named ``National Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act''
(H.R. 1675), is a sneak attack on the very refuges it purports to
improve. The bill would open up the nation's 508 refuges -- includ=
ing
37 in California -- for recreation, hunting, fishing, trapping and
even commercial uses, regardless of the impact on wildlife.
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The measure would redefine and corrupt the mandate of the refuge
system that was first established by President Theodore Roosevelt =
in
1903 to protect endangered animals and their living spaces from th=
e
development, exploitation and depredations of man. During the past=
93
years, the system has become the world's most comprehensive and
diverse collection of protected fish and wildlife habitats and has
been credited with the survival and recovery of scores of endanger=
ed
species.
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H.R. 1675, also laughingly called ``the sportsman's bill,'' would
change all that. Among the most egregious elements of this dangero=
usly
shortsighted bill are provisions that would limit public review of
refuge uses; allow states and ``other entities'' to take over
management of refuges; restrict federal authority to control water
skiing, jet skiing and power boating on navigable refuge waters, a=
nd
permit toxic pesticides on farmed areas in the Klamath Basin Refug=
e
Complex of California and Oregon.
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Bay Area residents have particular reasons for concern because we =
are
fortunate to have the 21,000-acre San Francisco Bay National Wildl=
ife
Refuge in the South Bay, the country's largest urban refuge, and t=
he
13,000-acre San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge in the North Ba=
y.
Those beautiful but delicate ecosystems are the protected habitats=
of
such endangered species as California clapper rails, brown pelican=
s
and peregrine falcons, as well as scores of other species of fish,
wetlands animals and waterfowl.
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It is not difficult to imagine the damage that power boats, jet sk=
is,
dune buggies and grazing cattle could do to such fragile refuges a=
nd
the creatures that live there.
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Representative Don Young, R-Alaska, has jammed this potentially
disastrous bill through the House Committee on Resources that he
chairs. The measure is now awaiting a vote by the full House.
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We join the Wilderness Society and many other environmental groups=
in
urging California's congressional delegation to join forces to hel=
p
kill this destructive measure quickly and without mercy.
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