Center for Biological Diversity Sues Trump for Signing HJR 69 Allowing Slaughter of Bear Cubs, Wolf
Center for Biological Diversity Sues Trump for Signing HJR 69 Allowing Slaughter of Bear Cubs, Wolf Pups
(EnviroNews USA Headline News) — Washington D.C. — The Center for Biological Diversity (the Center) filed a lawsuit in federal district court in Anchorage, Alaska, on April 20, 2017, against the U.S. Department of Interior (Interior) and Secretary Ryan Zinke, after President Donald Trump signed House Joint Resolution 69 (HJR 69) into law earlier this month, in a move that rescinds the Alaska National Wildlife Refuges Rule (Refuge Rule).
HJR 69 is a controversial bill, in part, because it rolled back Obama-era safeguards for Alaskan wildlife using an obscure law from the 90s called the Congressional Review Act (CRA) — a legislative loophole allowing a new Congress to overturn rules from the previous administration within its first 60 legislative days.
Quashing the Refuge Rule removes protections for Alaska’s iconic predators, and defaults wildlife management on Alaska’s 16 national refuges back to the state, under the Alaska Board of Game (BOG). The BOG’s wildlife management plan includes what is known as “Intensive Management” (IM), which allows wolves with pups to be gassed in their dens, bear sows with cubs to be killed, bears to be taken down with areal gunning, bears to be lured and shot pointblank at bait-stations, and steel-jaw traps to be used on black bears. All of the aforementioned vexed practices were outlawed by the Refuge Rule — but no longer.
While the BOG says it promotes these practices to keep deer, elk, moose and caribou herds at sustainable levels, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), an ancillary arm of the Interior, implemented the Refuges Rule in late 2016, it said, “In recent years, concurrent with its adoption and implementation of [Intensive Management (IM)] plans for predation control areas, the BOG has also authorized measures under its general hunting and trapping regulations that potentially increase the take of predators to a degree that disrupts natural processes and wildlife interactions.”
More:
http://www.environews.tv/042117-center-biological-diversity-sues-trump-signing-hjr-69-allowing-slaughter-bear-cubs-wolf-pups/
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