H.R. 2603 PLEASE READ THIS POST IF YOU LIVE IN THE USA

deadheadvet

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OK boys and girls. This is a very important post and requires action by all citizens of the United States. Rest of the world, please indulge me. HR 2603 is a comprehensive bill that would remove all Non native species from the ESA list. That means no federal permits would be required of any species not native to the US. Specifically on this forum: Radiated Tortoise, Galapagos Tortoise, Ploughshare Tortoise, Etc. USARK has a sponsored bill HR 2603 that would eliminate any species not native to the US be removed from the list. All native species to the US need to be protected as they are own countries fauna and flora. I am a big proponent of this. We need not poach our own wildlife. However, non native species have no business being on the ESA list. CITES 1 treaty globally recognizes worldwide conservation of protected species. There is a lot of work to be done with this, but having listed species on the ESA list and non native status is just bureaucratic nonsense. I encourage you to contact your US representative in washington and ask that they vote for this bill. I know there are a lot of people on this forum that would love to have Galapogos Tortoise or Radiated Tortoise but can not because of the burdensome paperwork and fees that go along with the application. I will include the link to USARK and how to contact your representative. Feel free to copy and paste any part of this discussion. I greatly appreciate you reading this and acting on it.

www.usark.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-HR-2603-ESA.pdf

  1. Enhances conservation of endangered species by allowing for improved genetic diversity among captive populations previously isolated by arbitrary geographic lines;
  2. Decreases federal spending by millions of dollars through elimination of unnecessary regulation, petition responses, and litigation by profiteers;
  3. Removes duplicate regulations as CITES will continue to regulate international movement and protection of endangered species;
  4. Increases genetic strength of captive populations as private breeders are the ones successfully breeding many, if not most, of these species in greater numbers than zoos or societies;
  5. Allows captive propagation to aid conservation by providing essential understanding of husbandry and biology of endangered species;
  6. Saves additional millions of federal dollars by preventing exploitive NGO’s from profiting by misusing ESA to continually litigate against the USFWS;
  7. Liberates precious USFWS resources by abolishing the pointless and costly Captive Bred Wildlife permit system, as well as the five-year review process, for nonnative species;
  8. Eliminates unintended conflict between federal and state law where bans on possession of these species destroy both conservation and American freedoms in 26 states;
  9. Eradicates unintentional conflict between ESA and CITES;
  10. Prevents criminalization of responsible Americans and animal owners whose species of interest are frequently being unjustly listed under ESA due to political pressure from pseudo-environmental groups;
  11. Increases commerce and economic opportunity through deregulation of interstate movement;
  12. Allows FWS to continue regulating nonnative invasive species and in no way impairs their ability to do so.
 

Tom

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This is fantastic news. The list of benefits is very well worded and make this bill very worthy of passage. I don't know how much good it will do in Commiefornia, but I will send my letters anyway. I figure I can't complain about stupid laws if I don't at least try to do something to stop them.

Looks like its time for another USARK donation too.

Thanks for informing us!
 

deadheadvet

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This is the first piece of legislation addressing this issue. As we all know, it could get voted down or never make it to a vote. However, since we have a ruling House and Senate w/ Republicans and they are being conscious of excessive spending and wasting money, it could get traction.
 

PJay

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Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Ive always thought it was counter productive to so tightly regulate interstate exchange of non native species. Ask my wife, she can tell you i have an opinion on the subject. :rolleyes: It interferes with the potential captive preservation of species under serious pressure for survival in the wild. When wild populations are gone, responsible captive breeders will be the ark that continue the species. I will contact my representatives.
 

Pearly

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OK boys and girls. This is a very important post and requires action by all citizens of the United States. Rest of the world, please indulge me. HR 2603 is a comprehensive bill that would remove all Non native species from the ESA list. That means no federal permits would be required of any species not native to the US. Specifically on this forum: Radiated Tortoise, Galapagos Tortoise, Ploughshare Tortoise, Etc. USARK has a sponsored bill HR 2603 that would eliminate any species not native to the US be removed from the list. All native species to the US need to be protected as they are own countries fauna and flora. I am a big proponent of this. We need not poach our own wildlife. However, non native species have no business being on the ESA list. CITES 1 treaty globally recognizes worldwide conservation of protected species. There is a lot of work to be done with this, but having listed species on the ESA list and non native status is just bureaucratic nonsense. I encourage you to contact your US representative in washington and ask that they vote for this bill. I know there are a lot of people on this forum that would love to have Galapogos Tortoise or Radiated Tortoise but can not because of the burdensome paperwork and fees that go along with the application. I will include the link to USARK and how to contact your representative. Feel free to copy and paste any part of this discussion. I greatly appreciate you reading this and acting on it.

www.usark.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/2017-HR-2603-ESA.pdf

  1. Enhances conservation of endangered species by allowing for improved genetic diversity among captive populations previously isolated by arbitrary geographic lines;
  2. Decreases federal spending by millions of dollars through elimination of unnecessary regulation, petition responses, and litigation by profiteers;
  3. Removes duplicate regulations as CITES will continue to regulate international movement and protection of endangered species;
  4. Increases genetic strength of captive populations as private breeders are the ones successfully breeding many, if not most, of these species in greater numbers than zoos or societies;
  5. Allows captive propagation to aid conservation by providing essential understanding of husbandry and biology of endangered species;
  6. Saves additional millions of federal dollars by preventing exploitive NGO’s from profiting by misusing ESA to continually litigate against the USFWS;
  7. Liberates precious USFWS resources by abolishing the pointless and costly Captive Bred Wildlife permit system, as well as the five-year review process, for nonnative species;
  8. Eliminates unintended conflict between federal and state law where bans on possession of these species destroy both conservation and American freedoms in 26 states;
  9. Eradicates unintentional conflict between ESA and CITES;
  10. Prevents criminalization of responsible Americans and animal owners whose species of interest are frequently being unjustly listed under ESA due to political pressure from pseudo-environmental groups;
  11. Increases commerce and economic opportunity through deregulation of interstate movement;
  12. Allows FWS to continue regulating nonnative invasive species and in no way impairs their ability to do so.
Thanks for posting this
 

Sterant

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Thanks Evan - this is time well spent by everyone!
 

Markw84

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Just wanted to post a follow-up to see how many have actually taken time to write their congressman on this issue so vital to us all.

I have and would love any others who actually have written theirs to post here indicating they have.

It is so easy to intend to do it, and voice support, but then forget and not get around to it. That will not get his job done.

Hoping to make things as easy as possible, here are the exact steps I took...

go to this website and enter your zip code to find your representative
http://ziplook.house.gov/htbin/findrep?ZIP=95742&Submit=FIND+YOUR+REP+BY+ZIP
Click on your representative's name to go to his/her website.
For mine, there was a tab "connect with me" I clicked on...
Under that I had a choice to "email me".

I then filled in my information and typed in this letter, using the bullet points provided by Evan.

I am putting it here if you simply want to copy it entirely and simply paste in.

Once you've done that post on this thread that you have indeed written you congressperson!!


Dr Omni Bera

I am writing for you help in getting this bill, HR 2603 passed. It is desperately needed to help us in efforts to protect, better understand, and develop assurance colonies of many chelonian species.

The Endangered Species Act of 1973, while well intended has had very serious contrary consequences becoming more and more problematic over the past several years. The Endangered Species Act is indeed needed and appropriate in protect our valuable species-resources native to the United States. But expanding its scope to species from beyond our own borders, creates an overreach and an extra layer of costly bureaucracy that is unnecessary and has become counter-productive. By including in a federal act, species that are not native to the United States, and already protected by the CITES treaty, the ability to work with, and ensure proper genetic diversity with many chelonian species has ground to a virtual halt.

A great deal of the successful breeding and development of assurance colonies today comes from the private sector. Without government or institutional support, most of the important gains in protecting many species including propagation, husbandry knowledge, species behaviors, and general knowledge to help understand the survival needs of that species, are now coming primarily from the private sector. With the burdensome bureaucracy and sometimes conflicting state vs. federal laws that currently exist, the exchange of knowledge and specimens to ensure genetic diversity is almost halted in most cases.

HR 2603 will amend the Endangered Species Act of 1973 to provide non-native species not be treated as "endangered species" under that act. This will accomplish many great benefits, including:


1.Enhances conservation of endangered species by allowing for improved genetic diversity among captive populations previously isolated by arbitrary geographic lines;

2.Decreases federal spending by millions of dollars through elimination of unnecessary regulation, petition responses, and litigation by profiteers;

3.Removes duplicate regulations as CITES will continue to regulate international movement and protection of endangered species;

4.Increases genetic strength of captive populations as private breeders are the ones successfully breeding many, if not most, of these species in greater numbers than zoos or societies;

5.Allows captive propagation to aid conservation by providing essential understanding of husbandry and biology of endangered species;

6.Saves additional millions of federal dollars by preventing exploitive NGO’s from profiting by misusing ESA to continually litigate against the USFWS;

7.Liberates precious USFWS resources by abolishing the pointless and costly Captive Bred Wildlife permit system, as well as the five-year review process, for nonnative species;

8.Eliminates unintended conflict between federal and state law where bans on possession of these species destroy both conservation and American freedoms in 26 states;

9.Eradicates unintentional conflict between ESA and CITES;

10.Prevents criminalization of responsible Americans and animal owners whose species of interest are frequently being unjustly listed under ESA due to political pressure from pseudo-environmental groups;

11.Increases commerce and economic opportunity through deregulation of interstate movement;

12.Allows FWS to continue regulating nonnative invasive species and in no way impairs their ability to do so.

Thank you for your attention. I look forward to a "YES" vote on behalf of our district on HR 2603.


respectfully,


Mark L. Wilson
Constituent
7th Congressional District of California.
 

Markw84

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Birds, small mammals, fish, insects, plants, it goes way beyond turtles.
Absolutely! And you can easily edit to be more inclusive

It's just with my limited experience in lobbying and extensive experience in negotiating, I have come to believe that as simple and direct as I can focus a point, the better the chance of getting my point across.

Your point is well taken.
 

PJay

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Thanks for the example draft Mark. I made my personal edits to be more inclusive of all species and my wife and I have both emailed and contacted our representatives office by telephone. It took about 10 minutes to do it all and was too easy! I've also spread the information about the bill among friends.
 

Kapidolo Farms

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@Markw84 Yes K.I.S.S. is always good. However as you have pointed out in other posts you have multiple interests, so does pretty much everyone on TFO. So as a K.I.S.S. letter from someone regarding their bird, or fish, etc. based on your example letter then those same elected representatives will be hit with maybe two letter , one for birds, one for chelonians, Yeah?

I didn't mean to complicate it at all, but your example letter can be applied to all these animals/plants, and the defeat of the foreign species on the ESA will be a win for all these others. So yes Keep It Simple Stupid is good, but let's amplify the stupid to other kinds of animals/plants that are impacted by this absurd law.

BTW the law as it is is the stupid not anyone.
 

Markw84

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@Markw84 Yes K.I.S.S. is always good. However as you have pointed out in other posts you have multiple interests, so does pretty much everyone on TFO. So as a K.I.S.S. letter from someone regarding their bird, or fish, etc. based on your example letter then those same elected representatives will be hit with maybe two letter , one for birds, one for chelonians, Yeah?

I didn't mean to complicate it at all, but your example letter can be applied to all these animals/plants, and the defeat of the foreign species on the ESA will be a win for all these others. So yes Keep It Simple Stupid is good, but let's amplify the stupid to other kinds of animals/plants that are impacted by this absurd law.

BTW the law as it is is the stupid not anyone.
Good points. I agree with you would be better to edit to not mention chelonians but simply endangered species
 

zovick

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Everyone,

There was a hearing on this and some other related bills this past Wednesday, July 19 2017. After that, this article was published:

http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=83880598-0253-4d8e-acb9-bd7be8d5a0e4

Please check it out and do whatever you can to stimulate your congressional reps to act positively on this matter. It appears there may still be trouble ahead, even though the head of USFWS is backing the idea.
 

Sterant

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Everyone,

There was a hearing on this and some other related bills this past Wednesday, July 19 2017. After that, this article was published:

http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=83880598-0253-4d8e-acb9-bd7be8d5a0e4

Please check it out and do whatever you can to stimulate your congressional reps to act positively on this matter. It appears there may still be trouble ahead, even though the head of USFWS is backing the idea.

Thanks for sharing that article Bill. It seems like a baby step in the right direction.
 

PJay

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It's time to follow up with our representatives, informing them of our awareness of the bills progress, acting director of USFWS, Greg Sheehans support, and reminding/reinforcing that their constituents also support the bill. Representatives' office staff process hundreds of constituent communications every day and its easy for our support for any one specific issue to be pushed to the back burner. When I emailed my rep, I got a canned email back saying that they understood my concerns for protecting the environment by strengthening the ESA. I called in again to make sure they understood I was in favor of modification of the act to exclude non-native species per H.R. 2603, not necessarily strengthening of it. Things get done in politics through dogged persistence and relentless forward motion, we need to politely be in their face and ears referencing H.R. 2603, time and again.
 

Oxalis

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When I emailed my rep, I got a canned email back saying that they understood my concerns for protecting the environment by strengthening the ESA. I called in again to make sure they understood I was in favor of modification of the act to exclude non-native species per H.R. 2603, not necessarily strengthening of it. Things get done in politics through dogged persistence and relentless forward motion, we need to politely be in their face and ears referencing H.R. 2603, time and again.
Yup, unfortunately that's the easiest way to get your voice heard. Thank you so much for emailing and calling! I will be emailing this week. :)
 

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