In this issue:

• Budget bill wreaks havoc on conservation policies - De-lists wolf from ESA; strips funds from BLM wild lands inventory process; additional threat from HR 1581
• Beaver dams are good for economy - Utah
• FPL wants to build 2 nuclear power plants on Biscayne Bay - Florida

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BUDGET BILL DE-LISTS WOLVES AND HOBBLES BLM

The enviro-political ramifications of the budget bill that was signed into law in mid April may reach far into the future. With its passage, Congress politicized the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by ordering the removal of the gray wolf from ESA protection in Idaho, Montana and parts of Oregon, Washington, and Utah. This heavy-handed politics flies in the face of good scientific inquiry and could be, if allowed to stand, a fatal dart into the heart of the ESA. Read what the NY Times had to say about the threat to the ESA prior to the vote. In early May, three conservation groups filed suit claiming the new law violates the Separation of Powers Doctrine.

Ever so slightly closer to our Broad hearts is the hobbling of Interior Secretary Salazar's 2010 directive to the BLM to manage wild and wilderness-quality lands as such. The budget bill passed in April strips BLM funding that was to be used for inventorying wilderness-quality lands. Since the BLM is required, by a pre-existing law, to inventory lands with wilderness characteristics, this lack of funding is an extremely effective hobble. Salazar has promised to announce a plan to deal with the contradicting laws within the next few days.

The newest and potentially most damaging threat to wild land management came with the introduction of HR 1581 in Late April by House National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). According to Campaign for America's Wilderness, "HR 1581 would permanently ban the wildlands policy, reverse the roadless area protections now in place on up to 58.5 million acres of national forest lands instituted by the Clinton administration, and statutorily end protections to 12 million acres of wilderness study areas on BLM lands provided for under the 1976 Federal Land Management and Policy Act. Taken together, the legislation constitutes the largest, most extensive anti-wilderness initiative in history."

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REINTRODUCING BEAVER IN UTAH

Can it be true? Can we really agree that beaver dams are good for all (not just beavers)? As you might imagine, the coming together of minds has much to do with pocket books. In April, the Salt Lake Tribune published a story by Brandon Loomis, "Experts Contend that Beaver are Good for the Economy." His experts note that those beaver dams have positive economic effects - from reducing sedimentation (and the subsequent need for removal of sediment from irrigation structures) to creating game-happy wetlands where abundant fish and big game animals draw outdoorswomen and men hook, line, sinker (and wallet).

Since 2007, Broads has been part of efforts to restore beavers in southern Utah; first as an active participant in the Tushar Allotments Collaboration on the Beaver Ranger District of the Fishlake National Forest and now as a partner organization in the Escalante River Watershed Partnership (ERWP) where reintroduction of beaver into the Escalante River drainage is a goal. We were thrilled when the State of Utah passed its 2010 Beaver Management Plan. Our staff, expertise, and volunteers continue to work for the return of this keystone species to the landscapes where they belong.  

The full report of the ERWP process, just released by ECONorthwest, "Economic Value of Beaver Ecosystem Services," gives hard data to support our efforts.

Read more about Utah beaver reintroduction from our partner the Grand Canyon Trust including a great article about beaver and how we can learn to live with them.

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TWO ADDITIONAL NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS PROPOSED FOR BISCAYNE BAY, FLA

Florida Power and Light (FPL) is applying for an operating license to construct two new nuclear generators of over 1,000 Megawatts each on the shores of Biscayne Bay. Their application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission also includes massive high voltage powerlines through densely populated sections of Miami-Dade and the eastern border of Everglades National Park.

According to Discover Biscayne Bay, the bay is "the largest estuary on the coast of southeast Florida and is contiguous with the southern Florida Everglades and Florida Bay."

Our Florida Broadband is following this issue closely. Great Old Broads for Wilderness will host a Swampwalk in south Florida in November working with the South Florida Wildlands Association, who on April 30, joined eight other local and national environmental organizations to protest the expansion of nuclear power in the Greater Everglades.

Damian Carrington suggests that we ask ourselves 5 questions to determine our personal stance on nuclear power and to give us those all too critical "talking points." The questionnaire was posted on grist.org in April.

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Photo of radio collared grizzly bear sow and cub by John Good - NPS photo
Photo of beaver by Condon - NPS photo
Photo of Turkey Point Nuclear Protest courtesy South Florida Wildlands Association
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