1. Prosperity or Poverty-Freedom or Servitude, What’s in your future?
The slides in this presentation advance by left mouse click or pressing the right arrow button on your keyboard. Use the left arrow button to go back to a previous slide.
Press right arrow now to start.
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2. Do you value your rural lifestyle?
Do you, your family, or your friends depend on rural industries and a strong and vibrant job market for income?
Do you value your rural lifestyle?
Would you like the freedom to continue to live on your private property and be able to pass it on to your children?
Do you want to have access to recreational lands to hunt, fish, camp, boat on the rivers and lakes, swim in the creeks, pick berries, harvest mushrooms or other wild edibles, gather firewood, ride your horse, snowmobile or ATV?
If you have answered YES to any of these questions please take a bit of time out of your busy life to watch this presentation to learn
about the clear and present danger that, if not stopped, will radically change your life in the near future.
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3. Your Life will radically change in the following ways:
Locked out or denied access to your favorite places to recreate due to wilderness designations or roads being destroyed or closed.
Unable to use your property due to excessive regulations
Forced to pay multiple times the current cost of food and other products that are produced from land based resources
Forced to relocate to urban high density cities because industries, jobs and rural communities are destroyed.
All these impacts and more for the expressed purpose of …..
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4. Handing our public and private lands into the hands of unaccountable bureaucrats, who are instituting a radical environmental agenda. An agenda which has the express purpose of depopulating humans from the rural western landscape. An agenda to reclaim vast connected tracks of lands in the western states for wildlife habitat as the radical environmental movement has envisioned it to have been before humans came into the land.
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5. If you value your freedom and rural lifestyle you must defend it.
Educating yourself on the facts is imperative. The following pages in this power point presentation will give you the facts of what this clear and present danger is, why it is happening, how it is being implemented, who is behind it, and what must be done NOW to fight back!
This may be the most important hour you spend in your own defense
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6. For decades the people of the rural west have lived with questions that have been difficult to answer. Many people throughout the States have wondered why traditional industries like logging and grazing have been suppressed by antagonistic courts and through policy decisions made by the very departments and agencies entrusted to support them. Mill closures and elimination of grazing allotments and regulations that limit private property rights, point to an uncertain future for many rural westerners.
Pg 6/108

7. Many people wonder why this is and why this seemingly must be
Many people wonder why this is and why this seemingly must be. In the face of these threats, why has our State Government and specifically our Governor have not fought to victory on Idaho’s behalf?
Why have Idahoan’s been left to struggle in the face of ever-increasing threats to their livelihood, unique heritage and lifestyle from so-called environmentalists, activist judges and from Federal and even state agencies? All of which appear more and more determined to impose policies destructive to local government, local interests and the heritage, custom and culture of thousands of rural Idahoan’s.
Pg 7/108

8. What in
the world is
happening to us?

9. Resulting in Many issues threaten our very existence today Federal
Policy
Federal and state
Regulations
Environmental
Movement
Court wins
Erosion of
Private
Property
Rights
Declining
Viable
Economic
activity
Impacts of policies
by loss of local government
input and control
Resulting in
Pg 9/108

10. An examination of the following information and documents
While this presentation is focused on the State of Idaho, everyone living in the the western states are dealing with the same questions, frustrations and issues.
An examination of the following
information and documents
may provide some
extremely disturbing answers
Pg 10/108

11. so many hands in the game,
World
Biosphere
Program UN
Wildlands
Project
Have you heard of?
Agenda 21
Y2Y
Western USA
Rural inhabitants
ESA
(Wolf & other
Species)
So many pieces,
so many hands in the game,
a puzzle for sure!
Pg 11/108

12. protect and restore the natural heritage of North America through
The wildlands
project works to
protect and restore the natural heritage of North America through
the establishment
of a connected system of wildlands
Pg 12/108

13. The Wildlands Project was developed by Dr
The Wildlands Project was developed by Dr. Michael Soule, co-founder and first president of the Society for Conservation Biology; Dr Reed Noss, current editor for the Journal of Conservation Biology; and David Foreman, co-founder and long-time leader of Earth First.
The United Nations Global Biodiversity Assessment define the Wildlands Project as the basis for preserving biodiversity for its UN Convention on Biological Diversity. The Statutory Framework of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, the Sevile Agreement for the Man and Biosphere Strategic Program (MAB), and the Strategic Plan for the USMAB, state that the MAB Program is designed to help implement this UN Convention, a treaty that was never ratified by the US Senate.
The UN Convention on Biological Diversity is centered on the science of conservation biology, largely created by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which is made up of over 500 national and international environmental and socialist groups known as NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations). Itself an accredited NGO with the United Nations, the IUCN received diplomatic immunity on January 19, 1996 by President Clinton (Exec. Order 12986). To date the science of conservation biology is based on nothing more than unproven theories.
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14. Magnitude of the Wildlands Project
“Conservation must be practiced on a truly grand scale,” claims Noss.
And grand it is.
In the article “The Wildlands Project Land Conservation Strategy”
in the 1992 special issue of Wild Earth, Noss provides the whopping
dimensions of this effort:
“Core reserves are wilderness areas that supposedly allow biodiversity
to flourish.”
“It is estimated,” claims Noss, “that large carnivores and ungulates
require reserves on the scale of 2.5 to 25 million acres .... For a minimum viable population of 1000 [large mammals], the figures would be 242 million acres for grizzly bears, 200 million acres for wolverines, and 100 million acres for wolves. Core reserves should be managed as roadless areas (wilderness). All roads should be permanently closed.”
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15. “Corridors, he writes, are “extensions of reserves
“Corridors, he writes, are “extensions of reserves....Multiple corridors interconnecting a network of core reserves provide functional redundancy and mitigate against disturbance.... Corridors several miles wide are needed if the objective is to maintain resident populations of large carnivores.”
“Buffer zones should have two or more zones “so that a gradation of use intensity exists from the core reserve to the developed landscape. Inner zones should have low road density (no more than 0.5 mile/square mile) and low-intensity use such as hiking, cross-country skiing, birding, primitive camping, wilderness hunting and fishing, and low-intensity silviculture (light selective cutting). Outer zones may have higher road densities (but still no more than 1 mile/ square mile)...and heavier recreational use (but no off-road vehicles) and campgrounds. New forestry silviculture (e.g., partial retention harvests), selection forestry, or other forestry experiments” would be permitted. More intensive harvesting would not be allowed.”
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16. What do Reserves and Corridors really mean?
“While this effort has a noble mission, the implications are staggering.
As noted in the June 25, 1993 issue of Science, “it is nothing less than the transformation of America to an archipelago of human-inhabited islands surrounded by natural areas.”
“The 100 million acres of core area required for 1000 wolves is greater than the total land area of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, (71 million acres). It would mean the nationalization of private land through regulation or other means, forcing people to move to areas zoned for occupation, and shutting down half of the agriculture, forest products and mining industries. Scarce resources means the rest of us paying double and triple for products made from these resources.”

17. It is important to look at the legend for land use plans for your location
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18. "The only hope of the Earth is to withdraw huge areas as inviolate
natural sanctuaries from the depredations of modern industry and
technology. Move out the people and cars. Reclaim the roads and
the plowed lands."
--Dave Foreman, Co-founder of the Wildlands Project in his writing
Confessions of an Eco-Warrior
Pg 18/108

19. limited logging or access
And yet a few more pieces
Western USA
Rural inhabitants
FS Travel
Mgmt Plan -
Closing off access
New
USFS Forest Plans -
More wilderness
limited logging or access
Pg 19 /108

20. Introducing a very significant Document
That puts all the pieces together that will forever change the lives of
all rural people living, working, and recreating in the western USA.
Pg 20/108

21. UN Wildlands World Agenda Project Biosphere 21 Y2Y Western USA
Rural inhabitants
ESA
Wildlife
Corridors
Initiative
State Fish
& Game
FS Travel
Mgmt
Plan
USFS PLAN
Pg 21/108

22. The information contained on the following pages is taken directly out of the Wildlife Corridors Initiative, any comments not in the document itself will be in Italics and/or have highlighted backgrounds.
Information from the documents itself will be in regular font and in blue ink except where red ink is used to draw special attention to items or language within the document.
Pg 22/108

23. The key to understanding the present is to look to the past
In February 2007 the Western Governors Assn. (WGA) established the Western Wildlife Council, with the unanimous approval of
Policy Resolution Protecting Wildlife Migration Corridors and Crucial Wildlife Habitat in the West.
“This resolution describes the importance of wildlife corridors and crucial habitat and asks the Western states, in partnership with important stakeholders, to identify key wildlife corridors and crucial wildlife habitats in the West and make recommendations on needed policy options and tools for preserving those landscapes.”
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24. And it began for the people of western states with the implementation of that resolution when WGA launched the WGA Wildlife Corridors Initiative,
“a multi-state and collaborative effort to coordinate stewardship of wildlife corridors and crucial habitat.
The main objective of the initiative is to develop a tool for policy makers that integrates important wildlife corridor and crucial habitat values proactively into planning decisions, and promotes best practices for development, and thereby reduces harmful impacts on wildlife.”
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25. As a member of the WGA Idaho’s Governor, Butch Otter, participated in the adoption of the Wildlife Corridors Initiative Report when passed on June 9, by Western Governors Association
Pg 25/108

27. Figure: This draft Western Governors' CHAT map was released at a meeting of the Western Governors’ Wildlife Council in December Darker colored areas indicate “Best Habitat.”
Pg 27/108

28. This initiative affects all states in the west except N. Dakota & Texas

29. While this presentation will only provide an overview, everyone
should take the time to review the primary documents referenced
here in detail to fully understand the gravity of the situation.
The primary documents suggest a catastrophic impact on Idaho industry, natural resource extraction, land use, private property rights and local government authority. Whether the Governor is aware of what is actually happening under his leadership and by his Administration is unknown , it is possible that he has been terribly misled by the Idaho Fish and Game Department who is the primary advising agency on this effort. Whether this effort by IFG is intentional or by mistake is unknown.
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30. expansion of IFG power and authority even over local government, etc.
Governor Butch Otter and the Western Governors Association have married Idaho policy with the policies of Wildlands Project, Y2Y, and other extremist visions for the state and region with specific noted goals in the Initiative including:
reduction of energy use by 30% to be achieved by “compact development” {a would-be euphemism for depopulation of rural areas resulting in forced urbanization},
coercive pressure on local government to comply with unpopular provisions of this Initiative and indeed to assist in funding it,
provision of corridors and connectivity data obtained by IFG to Federal agencies and environmental organizations,
expansion of IFG power and authority even over local government, etc.
Pg 30/108

31. The Initiative should be reviewed in detail.
The report is a pdf, so FIRST go to
when you get to the link, you go to the right column
of the cover sheet and click on Wildlife Corridors Report (2008).
Pg 31/108

32. “WGA thanks the following organizations for their support of the
While on the initial Wildlife Corridors main page Scroll down to the very bottom and take note of who the WGA is thanking for the development of the Wildlife Corridors Initiative policy
It states:
“WGA thanks the following organizations for their support of the
Western Governors’ Wildlife Council:”
Wilburforce Foundation
Please take some time to investigate this foundation
They have a website with all kinds of interesting
information.
Pg 32/108

33. Such as grants given to organizations that have impacted Idaho:
· Wilderness Society 2013 for $100,000 {total grant value $1,122,500}. /
A quote from the Wilderness Society website; “Today, only about 110
million acres of true wilderness remain as part of the 618 million acres
of federal wildlands. At The Wilderness Society, we're working to
preserve these wild places and to designate new areas that qualify for
wilderness protection.
Karen Budd-Falen notes that over the last 15 years, The Wilderness
Society has filed over 149 lawsuits.
/ .
Pg 33 /108

34. Idaho Conservation League 5 grants totaling $265,000;
filed lawsuit in North Idaho over lake levels;
Advocates for the West 2011 for $10,000
To Shut Down Highway 12 and Megaloads.
Pg 34/108

35. William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
{over $7 BILLION under management!};
Boreal Forest Initiative seeks to apply restrictive land use regulations
to region populated by Woodland Caribou, etc.
U.S. Bureau of Land Management
U.S. Department of Energy
U.S. Forest Service
Pg 35/108

36. Was any Idaho rural industry asked to provide input?
In the section titled CALL TO ACTION six working groups are identified that developed the policies in this document.
transportation
Science
Energy
Oil & Gas
Climate Change
Land Use
In reading the reports of these groups, every industry seemingly identified is impacted. Which begs the question, just who sat on these workgroups?
The impact on Idaho
is obvious.
Was any Idaho rural industry
asked to provide input?
Or even informed of this effort?
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37. Did you notice who was missing?
Timber
Industry
Local Government
Mining
Industry
Recreational
Industry
The
people who live,
work & recreate in
the western states,
who are the most
affected by this
policy
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38. In the beginning of the Document a theme begins to emerge.
A most disturbing picture begins to come into focus
The following statements found in the opening pages of the document should be alarming to everyone that lives, has a business based on extractive resource industry, works for those businesses, or a supportive business, likes to hunt, fish, camp or recreate in the western United States.
Pg 38/108

39. Land Use
“Across the western states, we can see how human land uses can compromise wildlife and the environment. A vast scientific literature demonstrates how the patterns of land use can affect the movement of wildlife and the functioning of the ecosystems. When land is converted to human land uses, natural habitat is lost, and the remaining habitat is, to varying degrees, altered due to fragmentation and degradation. These direct and indirect land use impacts can lead to species endangerment and extinction. One of the most effective strategies to abate the threats posed by habitat fragmentation is to design our communities in a manner that protects crucial habitats and maintains the ecological permeability of the intervening landscape so that wildlife can move between those areas.”
Pg 39/108

40. Transportation
“Roads and rail lines can be impediments that make it difficult for animals to meet their basic life needs (e.g., food, mates, other resources), sometimes completely isolating wildlife populations, which reduces genetic diversity and can threaten the population’s persistence. Venturing near roads can also be deadly, due to collisions with vehicles, illegal roadside hunting, or exposure to pollutants. Vehicles collide with wildlife over one million times each year in the U.S., and the annual number of collisions has grown by 50% in the last 15 years. A recent study estimated the total cost of wildlife-vehicle collisions at $8.8 billion annually. Road mortality is also cited as a major threat to twenty-one federally listed threatened and endangered animal species.”
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41. Energy
“Construction of solar and wind generation plants, associated power lines, and access/maintenance roads may reduce available habitat and fragment remaining habitat into smaller, more isolated patches that are less valuable to wildlife. Improperly sited wind turbines pose direct mortality threats to birds and bats, and can cause habitat fragmentation for sensitive species if sited in or near those corridors. Transmission lines may contribute indirectly to the loss of wildlife by altering habitats, as well as directly by increasing wildlife mortality rates through collisions, electrocution, and by serving as perches for raptors and other potential nest predators.”
Pg 41/108

42. In developing the WGA Wildlife Corridors Report, the six working groups considered a great deal of information covering a broad array of issues related to wildlife corridors and crucial habitat. Likewise, the recommendations that evolved from each working group are broad and diverse. Embedded in that breadth of issues and recommendations, certain important themes arose, including the following:
“Wildlife do not observe political boundaries or land ownership. Conservation of wildlife corridors and crucial habitat must therefore be coordinated across government, including the federal land management agencies (BLM & Forest Service), federal agencies responsible for water delivery and flood control (Bureau of Reclamation and the Corps of Engineers), federal wildlife agencies (Fish & Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries); tribal governments; states; and local governments.”
Pg 42/108

43. have any of these agencies talked to
Sounds good….But
have any of these agencies talked to
or coordinated ANY of this with local governments?

44. “Wildlife conservation on private lands is best accomplished through the use of incentives and tools that encourage and facilitate private land owners and private industry to achieve conservation objectives.”
Reclassifying land
into Wetlands
Conservation
Easements
EPA- superfund
cleanups that
destroy
economic activity
Are they promoting incentives…or using coercion to implement an agenda?
Pg 44/108

45. This is now the policy and direction given to Idaho Fish & Game (IFG)
The current funding is provided by the federal Government
and environmental groups via contracts with Idaho Fish & Game
The final data reports are being done by a company
called Natureserve.
Natureserve’s parent organization is none other than
The Nature Conservancy
Pg 45/108

46. Crucial Habitat: the Heart of the West
“Unlike “critical habitat” (areas needed to recover endangered species), crucial habitats are those lands and waters needed to conserve the broad array of wildlife that make the West unique. The West would not be the West without pronghorn, bison, grizzly bears, rattlesnakes, wolverines, desert fishes, and the other common and uncommon species interacting in vast intact landscapes.”
Pg 46/108

47. Wildlife Corridors: Nature Needs Room to Roam
“Wildlife survival depends on movement – whether it be day-to-day movements, seasonal migration, gene flow, dispersal of offspring to new homes, recolonizing an area after a local extirpation, or the shift of a species’ geographic range in response to changing climatic conditions. For most animals and plants, all of these types of movement require a well-connected natural landscape.”
Pg 47/108

48. “Not surprisingly, wildlife is in retreat
“Not surprisingly, wildlife is in retreat. Habitat loss and fragmentation is a cause of decline for about 83% of U.S. species that are becoming more rare (NatureServe and TNC 2000), and over 25% of species at risk (553 species) live only in fast-growing U.S. metropolitan areas (Ewing et al. 2005). Advancing development will intensify these threats. According to estimates by world renowned conservation biologists,human impact on the environment is causing thousands of species to vanish each year – hundreds of times faster than the natural rate (Wilson 1992).”
“As a result, many citizens are concerned about the magnitude of our impact on the earth, and are searching for solutions big enough to make a difference.”
Pg 48/108

49. “One thing we have learned since the passage of the Endangered Species Act in 1973, the longer we wait to take action the more difficult and expensive it will be to ensure the survival of species.”
“There is a sense that current conservation efforts are insufficient, and that the choices that we make about which lands to protect and how we use the remaining lands are among the most important and fundamental decisions for our future prosperity.”
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50. “The Committee then decided to focus its efforts on using the data from the five pilot states to both illustrate the usefulness of current information and to highlight the need for improving the maps. Based on our findings, we have developed a “road map” for improving wildlife mapping across the West for use as decision-making tools that support a planning process with the following steps:”
“Define the conservation targets (in this case functioning ecosystems, big game, and species of greatest conservation concern).”
“Map the habitat of the conservation targets using consistent protocols.”
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51. “Set representation goals for conservation of each target”
“Map/quantify the quality & condition of the habitats using consistent protocols”
“Set representation goals for conservation of each target”
“Identify places that meet those goals”
“Prioritize the places”
“Identify linkages (e.g., corridors) among priority sites using consistent protocols”
“Prioritize the linkages”
“Identify gaps in needed knowledge and implement targeted research”
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52. “Assess monitoring results and refine maps of as needed.”
“Monitor the prioritization and linkage design for meeting conservation goals”
“Assess monitoring results and refine maps of as needed.”
“The 35 ecoregional assessments developed by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and a wide variety of partners (Figure 4) were included in many of the SWAPs. {State Wildlife Action Plans}”
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53. “The following maps are probably the most reliable products available for the species and/or habitats that they cover, and are particularly valuable because they span State and jurisdictional boundaries”

54. Fig. 4. The TNC Ecoregional Assessments (portfolio sites in green) provide a more consistent depiction of important biodiversity areas across the Western States. Source: The Nature Conservancy

55. Figure 5. Wildlands network designs identify linkages
between large blocks of protected and roadless areas.
Source: The Wildlands Project

56. The WGA Wildlife Corridors Initiative provides positive support
for the Wildlands project.
“The Wildlands Project and other entities also have developed network designs that depict important movement areas at low to intermediate resolution. Some of these are statewide efforts, such as Linking Colorado’s Landscapes, while others are regional, such as the Spine of the Continent campaign. State maps depicting areas of high roadkill in Utah and New Mexico, are useful to identify areas where roads were built without appropriate wildlife crossing structures, but do not identify areas where proposed new projects need to consider wildlife movement.”
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57. Current Process for Obtaining Maps
“The current process for obtaining maps of crucial habitats and important wildlife corridors is cumbersome, especially for anyone who has a need to access information from multiple states.
There is no central repository for all of the information, so you need to know who to contact, and how to describe your information need. In addition, very few organizations besides the State fish and wildlife agencies, NatureServe and the State natural heritage programs, and the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Biological Information Infrastructure have an organizational focus on making information available to users.”
A selection of important online resources is found in section 2.3
Pg 57/108

58. The Initiative is full of interesting recommendations
“Create an Integrated Fish and Wildlife Decision Support System (DSS) . The Western Governors, through WGA and the Western Wildlife Habitat Council (WWHC), should convene appropriate state representatives to coordinate regional and state efforts to develop Integrated Fish and Wildlife Decision Support Systems (DSS)”
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59. Recommendation:
“To improve state capacity for detailed corridor design, the Governors should consider funding for state personnel, such as a spatial ecologist to coordinate the state’s effort to develop detailed corridor conservation plans for the top priority corridors. Ultimately, the goal is a blueprint for a network of lands connected by corridors that will enable area-sensitive species to be ecologically effective in all suitable landscapes, and will facilitate range shifts of species in response to climate change. Both of these goals will require coordination beyond the state’s borders. Because corridor design is a new science, the Science Committee does not recommend one “best” approach for all states but instead believes that progress will be stimulated by a diversity of state approaches.”
Pg 59/108

60. Do they mean that existing methodologies and protocols
New Science????
Do they mean that existing methodologies
and protocols
are invalid and new one will be designed along the way?
Will the new science produce
the desired outcome to fit the agenda?

61. Please take the time to read the primary documents referenced here
“annually evaluate the status of knowledge about the West’s crucial habitats and important wildlife corridors, and seek and coordinate funding for research that will address the most critical data gaps. The Decision Support Systems would exist in each state, with the WWHC providing coordination and support”
Please take the time to read
the primary documents referenced here
Pg 61/108

62. minimization of impacts should be preferred to mitigation.”
Recommendation:
“Governors should consider establishing goals and policies that will result in all development proposals considering using the data, models, and analyses from the Decision Support System developed by each state (under Recommendations 1-5) to
assess impacts to crucial habitat or wildlife corridors. Avoidance, minimization, and mitigation of such impacts, in sequence, should be the goal. There is no point creating the Decision Support System if it is not available and used. Avoidance and
minimization of impacts should be preferred to mitigation.”
Pg 62/108

63. Recommendation:
“The Western Governors should urge Congress to create a permanent funding stream for state wildlife and plant conservation programs, and amend the Program’s requirements to focus on activities important to the implementation of a science strategy for the Wildlife Corridor Conservation Initiative as follows:
Set the SWG Program match requirement for activities that support improved wildlife information and development of the spatially-explicit Decision Support System for crucial habitat and corridor conservation at a rate of 75:25 (federal:non-federal) or higher (e.g., 90:10).
The Governors should also consider working with their State Legislatures to increase State general fund appropriations to match the SWG funding.”
Pg 63/108

64. Recommendation:
“Encourage other Western States in addition to Colorado and Washington to invest the needed funds ($250,000 per state) to bring their state information, and to fund ongoing positions at the State level to keep the online information up-to-date.”
Pg 64/108

65. The energy working group report recommended policy :
“For example, the Clean and Diverse Energy Advisory Committee’s 2006 Transmission Task Force found that if high levels of efficiency are reached in the region, 1,150 of a projected 4,000 miles of new power lines in one study could be eliminated – approximately 30%.”
Pg 65/108

66. When the west is the fastest growing region in the United States, how can this 30% reduction possibly be achieved except by a massive reduction in rural business and rural population caused by the policy of “Compact Development” promoted in the Wildlife Corridors Initiative?
Pg 66/108

67. The transportation working group report recommended policy :
“Western Governors and state transportation agencies should consider prioritizing funding to local transportation projects in ways that may create incentives for local governments to protect and restore wildlife corridors and crucial habitat.
Similarly, state agencies should be directed to identify and remove existing funding mechanisms and policies that may provide incentives to local governments for taking actions detrimental to wildlife corridors and crucial habitat.”
Who decides whether actions are beneficial or detrimental to wildlife…when the report already admits the science is undeveloped?
Pg 67/108

68. Establish long-term capacity to staff and fund these initiatives
A policy that provides encouragement to establish an ever growing bureaucracy
Establish long-term capacity to staff and fund these initiatives
“Western Governors should encourage their state department of transportation and fish and wildlife agency to jointly fund resources for coordination, such as a dedicated wildlife liaison position(s), processes to ensure cross-fertilization, and personnel exchanges.”
Pg 68/108

69. (Yukon to Yellowstone)
The Land use working group report recommended policy
“Connectivity” is needed at a multitude of spatial and temporal scales. For some populations of wildlife, the primary concern may be how to get individuals safely across a road. But for most others, the needs are far more complex. What sustains wildlife is quality habitat, and that in turn is supported by a functional ecosystem. Because the ecological processes that sustain ecosystems – like flooding and fire regimes, or animal migration – play out over very large areas, maintaining them is a shared responsibility.”
Y2Y
(Yukon to Yellowstone)
is all about
Connectivity
Pg 69/108

70. “Issue: The Role of Local Governments in Wildlife Corridor Protection”
“In most of the West, local governments have borne the responsibility of planning for and approving development within their jurisdictions. In spite of attention to planning at the local level in many areas of the West, significant habitat loss and habitat fragmentation have occurred and continue across the region. Charting a more effective and coordinated course will require significant technical, legal, and financial support for local governments and, most importantly, will require that each jurisdiction shoulder its equitable share of responsibility for wildlife habitat; otherwise, the governments that choose to act will alone bear the burdens of protection.”
Translation: The people being harmed by this policy get forced into cooperation and paying for it, or else!
Pg 70/108

71. Private Property Rights? local government decision
Recommendations:
“The Governors should work cooperatively to develop baseline standards or guidelines for the land use practices described in this report that will help ensure the long-term viability and protection of crucial wildlife habitat in all jurisdictions.”
“Further, the Governors should consider directing their respective state agencies to establish a monitoring program to assess whether application of the land use practices are meeting the goals for protecting wildlife corridors and crucial habitat.”
GONE!
You are being
monitored for
compliance
Private Property Rights?
local government decision
making? Best for their County?

72. Recommendations:
“In cases where goals are not being met, Governors should consider applying adaptive management strategies.”
A euphemism
for
COMPLY and COOPERATE
or be punished harshly?
Pg 72/108

73. Here comes the carrot to make local governments comply and enact laws and regulations they may not otherwise want to willingly impose upon their constituents.
Pg 73/108

74. to coerce local governments into complying with WCI
“The Governors should consider establishing and adequately funding state planning offices to broaden the level of assistance available to local governments and provide access to the information and tools helpful in carrying out land use planning programs.”
More state control
to coerce local governments
into complying with WCI
policies on land use planning. .
Pg 74/108

75. “Further, Western Governors should consider empowering their state fish and wildlife agencies or other state coordination agencies to work cooperatively with local governments to provide wildlife-related information and technical assistance pertinent to local land use planning activities, including the preparation of local plans, design of local regulations, and review of local development proposals. Such forms of state planning assistance should be coordinated with local government outreach provided by other state agencies (e.g., transportation, water permitting, and water quality). Cooperative extension service programs should be viewed as additional or alternative sources of state level planning assistance and support to local governments.”
Has any coordination been implemented?
Just what is their definition of coordination?
This policy seems to indicate they want coordinated compliance

76. Policy Promotion of “compact development”:
“A key dimension of sustainable growth includes compact development. At all levels, more compact forms of development reduce natural resource use (i.e. water, land, energy) and greenhouse gas emissions. Promoting compact development should be a major driver of federal, state and local land use policy decisions.”
But what do they mean by compact development??
Pg 76/108

77. According to the CATO Institute:
Proponents of compact development argue that rebuilding American urban areas to higher densities is vital for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Compact city policies call for reducing driving by housing a higher percentage of people in multi-family and mixed-use developments, reducing the average lot sizes of single-family homes, redesigning streets and neighborhoods to be more pedestrian friendly, concentrating jobs in selected areas, and spending more on mass transit and less on highways.
The Obama administration has endorsed these
policies.
Pg 77/108

78. Compact
development
policies, admits
Transportation
Secretary Ray
LaHood, are
designed “to
coerce people out
of their cars.”

79. Recommendations:
“Governors should consider adopting policies requiring that local governments planning new development consult with the state water resources agency and the state fish and wildlife agency, to ensure the adequacy of long-term water supply needed to support the functioning of identified crucial habitats and important wildlife corridors is considered.”
Who is in Charge??
Please note the recommendation to require local governments to consult with Fish and Game.
Pg 79/108

80. Recommendations:
“Governors should consider supporting continued funding of the congressionally established Land and Water Conservation Fund to assist in the implementation of land easement and acquisition priorities as identified by the states. Public acquisition should be made only where there are willing sellers, a need is clearly demonstrated, and affected local governments provide concurrence.”
How can local government “provide concurrence” when no coordination takes place?
Pg 80/108

81. The Climate Change working group report recommended policy
Current and Expected Changes
The lead sentence of the IPCC Climate Change 2007 Consensus Report states:
“Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global
average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice rising global average sea level.”
"The natural world of our American West is changing.”
Pg 81/108

82. Have you been hearing chatter about Wolverines or Sage Grouse lately?
The Wildlife Corridor Initiative
is probably why

83. Are hunters aware of why this data is being collected??
IFG Game Regulations encourages hunters to report sightings and submit photos of wolverines on page 71 of the 2013 Big Game Regulations.
Are hunters aware of
why this data is being
collected??

84. Incredibly the report goes on to say this
“Uncertainty” of the science
Scientific uncertainty is often incorrectly equated with ignorance or an absence of information on which to make decisions. Identifying uncertainty is inherent in the scientific method; the very nature of science is exploratory. No other issue is a source of greater confusion for decision makers and the public.”
Does that mean that those who question the “reports” admitted “uncertain science or new science” will be marginalized by the Governors and other proponents of the WCI policy?.
Pg 84/108

85. “With the states, the WAAC should synthesize, coordinate, prioritize, and implement target-specific wildlife climate adjustment recommendations,
including development of a request for proposals to address research gaps and knowledge development.”
Who can argue against any of this when the science is controlled by the IFG Dept?
Pg 85/108

86. But of course they have a solution
“Issue: There is insufficient funding available at any level of government to support the planning and implementation of conservation designs for the purpose of fish and wildlife corridor protection and establishment, as well as other aspects of fish and wildlife adaptation to climate change. Development of secure revenue streams and mechanisms to ensure funding is directed to activities that are effective and strategic in contributing to wildlife adaptation to climate
change is essential.”
But of course they have a solution
Pg 86/108

87. Recommendation:
“Western Governors should consider supporting establishment of new revenue streams to support wildlife adaptation to climate change in any relevant climate change legislation, such as carbon cap and trade or carbon tax legislation, that may be enacted by the U.S. Congress.”
Pg 87/108

88. They encourage even more expansion of
Idaho Fish and Game
“Governors should consider charging their state fish and wildlife agency directors, acting through the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, to ensure coordination among the western states, tribes, and with associated federal and territorial natural resource agencies, in planning and carrying out strategic, watershed and landscape scale adaptation activities to maintain or re-establish connectivity.”
Who is in Control of IFG?
Pg 88/108

89. More Coercion of local government? Recommendation:
“Governors should consider a review of state laws and policies to determine if they provide adequate information to local governments about wildlife corridors and crucial habitats in light of climate change and economic balance, and Governors should make necessary changes in law or policies to require that state programs and local planning consider the information provided by Recommendation #2 in their decision making processes.”
More
Coercion of
local government?
Pg 89/108

90. Implementation of the policy in Idaho began with a resolution in 2007
It dribbled here and there
Caribou
Grizzly
Pika
The flood gates have begun to open as we are now witnessing
Cuckoo
Lynx
Wolverine
And hundreds of
other yet to
be named species
Sage
Grouse
Pg 90/108

91. Beginning about 2008 the Western Governors began a project to map and identify wildlife corridors throughout the region. IFG has recently begun mapping various species.
Use of this data is ostensibly intended to assist in the development of energy transmission lines and other forms of land use that may impact various species including endangered species. Idaho Fish and Game is involved in establishing a database which can be used by Federal agencies and other involved parties to inform the process. Concerns abound pertaining to who may use this information and how it could be used to impact industries of rural Idaho.
Will we be providing the ammunition to the very radical groups seeking to eliminate the population of the rural West?

92. Western Governors' Association Policy Resolution 13-04
Conserving Wildlife and
Crucial Habitat in the West
On June 25, 2013 with yet another resolution from the WGA,
the WGA reaffirmed its commitment to implementing the
Wildlife Corridors Initiative and provided some key directives
for implementation.
Pg 92/108

93. B. GOVERNORS’ POLICY STATEMENT
1. Western Governors direct the Western Governors’ Wildlife Council to continue its guidance in the development, management and implementation with partners of the state and West-wide CHATs.
2. Western Governors urge federal agencies to use state fish and wildlife data and analyses as principal sources to inform their land use, land planning and related natural resource decisions, rather than spending scarce resources duplicating existing state data collection efforts.
3. Western Governors encourage federal agencies to provide their data to state wildlife mapping efforts, to ensure that the most complete data is available and incorporated into the state and West-wide CHATs.
Pg 93/108

94. 4. The Governors encourage widespread use of CHATs by industry, the public, and state and federal agencies. Decision-makers at all levels in the public and private sectors can use state CHATs to better inform energy, transportation, and land use planning while providing for healthy and productive landscapes.
5. Western Governors believe funding should be made available to those states that are requested by federal agencies to participate in any Landscape Conservation Cooperative initiative or other federal landscape-level, drought planning and/or research efforts related to wildlife management.
Pg 94/108

95. C. GOVERNORS’ MANAGEMENT DIRECTIVE
1. The Governors direct the WGA staff, where appropriate, to work with Congressional committees of jurisdiction and the Executive Branch to achieve the objectives of this resolution
2. Furthermore, the Governors direct WGA staff to develop, as appropriate and timely, detailed annual work plans to advance the policy positions and goals contained in this resolution. Those work plans shall be presented to, and approved by, Western Governors prior to implementation. WGA staff shall keep the Governors informed, on a regular basis, of their progress in implementing approved annual work plans.
Pg 95/108

96. In July of 2013 the WGA released to following document:
“Western Governors' Wildlife Council White Paper -Version III Western Wildlife Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (CHAT): Vision, Definitions and Guidance for State Systems and Regional Viewer”
In this document it re-iterates that the Wildlife Corridors Policy was adopted on June 8, It further goes on to finally identify who the agencies are to Coordinate with, stakeholders mentioned in prior documents and funding organizations are identified.
Pg 96/108

97. The following excerpts from the document should be examined in the context of the question: Are the western Governors, working in concert with environmental groups and federal agencies by implementing the vision statements and policies of the Wildlands Project, Man and biosphere project, Yukon to Yellowstone (Y2Y) , and other environmental extremist goals for the western states?
“Wildlife Council Vision Statement The Wildlife Council works to identify key wildlife corridors and crucial wildlife habitats in the West, as well as to develop and coordinate policy options and tools for conserving those landscapes. With this aim, the Council strives to provide a public, user friendly online tool with consistent and region-wide information on crucial habitats for fish and wildlife, for all interested parties to use to assess landscapes and connectivity while better informing land use decisions.”
Pg 97/108

98. Wildlife Council Objectives
“Improve analysis of landscape-scale energy, land use and transportation projects as well as land conservation and climate adaptation strategies by providing prioritized information through individual state-level tools and a regional-level Western Governors Crucial Habitat Assessment Tool (CHAT).”
“Seek widespread use of CHATs so that decision makers at all levels rely on state information to better inform planning, while providing healthy and productive landscapes.”
“Ensure federal, state and local agencies consult CHATs and integrate state wildlife information early into land management, energy/transmission or transportation planning processes.”
Pg 98/108

99. Identifying Crucial Habitat and Corridors Providing a Regional View
“While housed in each state, data utilized in the systems will be coordinated across all jurisdictions in the West so that a regional picture of crucial wildlife habitat and important wildlife corridors will be available through the Western Governors' CHAT. It will combine individual state crucial habitat layers together as derived, single regional layers. This regional view will be useful to inform large-scale planning spanning multiple jurisdictions, and it will be particularly useful for depicting important corridors for fish and wildlife across the region”.
Are States rights and local control being obliterated
with the creation of “regional” control
under the auspices of wildlife protection?
Pg 99/108

100. Categories of Crucial Habitat Conservation, Including Important Wildlife Corridors
Category 1: Aquatic or terrestrial habitats, including wildlife corridors, that are rare or fragile and are essential to achieving and/or maintaining wildlife species viability or exceptional diversity. The habitat contains a unique combination of location or composition or complexity of the habitat or corridor which cannot be duplicated, and is therefore considered irreplaceable.
Category 2: Habitat, including wildlife corridors, which is limiting to a fish or wildlife community, population, or metapopulation. Loss of any of this habitat or corridor could result in a significant local or population-level decline in species distribution, abundance, or productivity. The habitat or corridor is essential to achieving and maintaining fish and wildlife target population or management objectives. Restoration or replacement is difficult, or may be possible only in the very long term.
Pg 100/108

101. Does it appear that the human footprint on the landscape is
Category 3: Habitat, including wildlife corridors, that contributes significantly to the maintenance of fish or wildlife communities, populations, or metapopulations. Loss of a significant portion of the habitat or corridor could result in local or population-level declines in species distribution, abundance, or productivity. Impacts can be minimized or reduced, and habitat or corridors restored or replaced by utilizing appropriate best management practices.
Helloooooooo…..
Is anyone out there???
Does it appear that the human footprint on the landscape is
missing in action? That human activity is to be minimized or reduced?
Pg 101/108

102. Coordination with Federal Agencies
“This White Paper was developed in part to assist with coordination efforts with federal land management agencies that undertake extensive wildlife mapping efforts and seek to utilize landscape-level wildlife information in their planning processes.”….. “The Western Governors’ Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Secretaries of Agriculture, Energy and the Interior in June 2009 that calls for the establishment of state-based decision support systems and for cooperation among state and federal agencies in the identification and uniform mapping of habitat and corridors.”
“The agreement also confirms the intent of DOI and USDA agencies to utilize prioritized fish and wildlife data from state wildlife agencies as a principle source of information to inform federal land use, land planning and related natural resource decisions.”
Could it be this is why the new US Forest Service plans
call for increasing wilderness areas?

103. to include local governments and real resource based industries
The Wildlife Council Coordinates with Federal Agencies and with the Stakeholders Advisory Group which is heavily weighted with environmental groups or entities with environmental group leanings.
There is no reference
in the document
to include local governments
and real resource based industries
in the coordination and development
of the information on which land use
decisions affecting
those entities are
made. WHY?

104. Does it not seem strange that the very organizations
Funding
“WGA has raised a total of $4.1 million since 2009 from the U.S. DOE, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Wilburforce and Hewlett Foundations to support state wildlife agencies and this initiative. Individual state wildlife agencies have provided substantial in-kind and budgetary support to this effort. State agencies have also raised outside funds. For example, state agencies have raised almost $1 million through Landscape Conservation Cooperatives to support data and CHAT development and maintenance.”
Does it not seem strange that the very organizations
who have openly stated they want to make the west mostly
wilderness, are the same ones funding the implementation of the
Wildlife Corridors initiative? And the states are OK with that?

105. Both are PDF files to be downloaded
There is much more in the white paper and other documents referenced in this presentation that should be examined in detail, which unfortunately, cannot be done justice in this format.
Please go to:
when you open the page on the cover sheet look to the column on the right, under background you will find the WCWG White paper revised July 2013 at the top and the Wildlife Corridors Report (2008) on the bottom of that section.
Both are PDF files to be downloaded
Pg 105/108

106. Where do we go from here?
Realize that we are in a war for our very existence in the western states. It has not happened overnight, but incrementally over many years. It will continue until our communities and economy are gone..
Be willing to connect with other local governments, local industries and citizens at large to engage in legal actions to protect our states, our industries, our livelihoods and our homes..
Understand that some seemingly insignificant or unrelated requests or regulations by Fish and Game Depts. and other state and federal agencies are, in fact, an implementation of a component of the Wildlife Corridors Initiative.
Educate your legislative body and ask the legislature to reject the wildlife Corridors Initiative and defund any Fish and Game Dept program that does not adhere to the original mandates in the legislative Act creating the agency. Vote out elected officials who support the Wildlife Corridors Initiative.

107. “We have to bring the enemy to the battlefield
and not be brought there by him”
We have to fight hard or
we cease to exist in the west

108. Share this presentation to help inform the residents of the west
what is happening and how it will impact them.
For more information or to get involved in the effort to stop the implementation of these policies Send an to: