Government Elk

FORTUITOUS QUESTIONS

Two night ago a distraught friend from Minnesota called me and went on at length about how upset he and his son living in Denver were about the (Rocky Mountain National Park?/Department of the Interior?/President?/whoever?) deciding to reduce the elk herd in that National Park. He mentioned that not only would government “sharpshooters” (a costly and inefficient waste of the wildlife resource) be used instead of hunters; his son was incensed that government employees were mentioning that they could and might use poisons or introduce wolves to control the elk herd.

This morning, as I was writing an article for a magazine, the following e-mail arrived from a radio program that I have appeared on in the past:

Jim,

Eugene called The Show to ask who owns the National Park Service.

I told Eugene that you were the best person to answer that question.

Perhaps you could send Eugene some of your articles where you cover the issue.

Thanks, Jim!

So here is my attempt to kill two birds with one stone: what is going on at the Rocky Mountain National Park and who owns the National Park Service.

Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) is a popular National Park northwest of Denver. It has had way too many elk in it for years. They eat everything in the Park and, like all the Eastern National Parks where deer are overpopulated, anyone with a rudimentary appreciation for what a woodland or grassland should look like is appalled at the lack of plant and animal biodiversity and the poor condition of the plants and animals themselves. Although the ideologues of the National Park Service and their allies in the media refer to the elk as “introduced”, the elk are every bit as “natural” and “native” and “desirable” as elk and buffalo and deer and antelope and wild sheep and goats in other Parks or on private property in the western states.

The present herd of 3,000+ elk in RMNP is considered to be 1,000 to 2,000 too many. Any sensible and non-ideological person would design and execute a hunt each year that 1.) reduces the numbers of male and female elk in the park to several hundred each and 2.) subsequently keeps the herd at a desirable level (perhaps very low for several years while plant communities blossom). The hunters would hunt where and when (8AM-12, Mondays and Wednesdays, etc.) while using all the elk from their meat and antlers to hooves for gun racks and teeth for jewelry AND GENERATING LICENSE FEES FOR THE STATE AND REVENUE FOR THE PARK. But alas, remember that I quantified this with the caveat “sensible and non-ideological person”, there are no such persons in the National Park Service and precious few in other state and federal natural resource agencies today.

The National Park Service was founded in the late 19th century to save things like Yellowstone and big game herds and other things that were “vanishing” (i.e. changing). They have never abandoned this Messianic role (anti-hunting) and that is why National Parks are natural disasters (overgrazed fire traps with overpopulated animals and simultaneously “disappearing” and “invasive” animals and plants) that have fewer plants and animals than similar public or private lands nearby. This “nature worship”, unmanaged (call it what you will) view of the world has been greatly intensified in the past 35+ years as state fish and wildlife agencies and other federal agencies like the Forest Service and Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management have likewise swerved into this “close-it-all-down” and “save-everything-by-loving-it-to-death” mentality. All these agencies as well as their UN counterparts and US Universities serve the agendas of the Sierra Clubs and Natural Resources Defense Council and PETA and the Humane Society of the United States et al rather than the people of the United States today.

The elk in RMNP, like the elk that have all but disappeared from Yellowstone (due to wolves and grizzly bears) like the “endangered jumping mice” in Colorado and the salmon in the Columbia River, are just surrogates for the radical agendas of the extremist organizations I mentioned above. In the case of RMNP, the elk “problem” is a means for the federal government to further steal what little is left of state jurisdiction and authority over plants and animals in each state and in this instance Colorado. I will not justify all the “laws” and “regulations” and “studies” and “public participation” and “alternatives” and “impact statements” etc. that reportedly “went into” this “decision” by even mentioning them since they are nothing but window dressing anymore for abuse of American citizens. Rather I will briefly analyze what is wrong and what must be done.

RMNP is NOT Yellowstone National Park. The recent travesty of wolves and grizzly bears being protected and spread throughout the manufactured area labeled the “Yellowstone Ecosystem” by radicals, has no counterpart at RMNP. Yellowstone Park is one of the very few spots in the US THAT WAS NEVER IN A STATE OR TERRITORY AND THEREFORE IS UNDER EXCLUSIVE FEDERAL JURISDICTION. This means that the feds (not the state) OWN the plants and animals therein (BUT NOT WHEN THEY STEP OUTSIDE THE PARK.)

The federal government has been buying private and state land throughout the nation for over a century to make Parks and National Forests and National Wildlife Refuges. The lands held by BLM are likewise first and foremost under the jurisdiction of the state wherein they occur. In the past 50?, 100? years the federal government has shifted from benevolent land managers that tried to pay their share of county expenses and who respected state authority over plants and animals INTO bureaucrats ignorant of and hostile to the management of land and resources, disdainful of any obligation to or recognition of local authorities, and destroyers of state authorities over plants and animals. In fact, like any other landowner, the federal government should not be able to kill elk or introduce wolves or poison anything on their property WITHOUT STATE AND LOCAL PERMISSION. However, who even believes this any more? We think of this abuse of power like we do laws that “have” to take private property without compensation: something for an overwhelming good that doesn’t take “our” property and is therefore OK.

What is wrong? The State of Colorado, like many other states, is neutered. The state fish and wildlife agency is partners (financially and motivationally) with the federal agencies and the radical groups that control them and future funding to the state for everything (they imagine) from “native ecosystem restoration” to “invasive species eradication” that will not only replace hunting and fishing revenues but also provide unlimited access to federal funding through federal agencies for unlimited and un-quantifiable work far into the future. This means they represent these international agendas and radical organizations instead of state residents.

Colorado is getting more and more urban with lots of refugees from the laws and regulations strangling west coast communities. This make for more political activism in line with the international agendas and environmental imaginings like getting all worked up over “too few” willows along the streams or cutting trees or hunters (not bureaucrats) killing elk. Like residents of Illinois or New Jersey or Massachusetts, they want “more” federal “help” and “less” natural resource use and management

The Governor and legislature of Colorado, like their counterparts everywhere, have evolved into seeing their fish and wildlife responsibilities (like their highway and education responsibilities) as being to “get every federal nickel ‘due’ us ASAP”. Besides, the Colorado politicians just have to look north to see how the radical organizations and the US Fish and Wildlife Service made the wolves and grizzly bears into political suppositories for the Governors and legislatures of a liberal state like Montana and two conservative states like Idaho and Wyoming. Why fight something you will only lose anyway and then anger the very federal agencies that will be “giving” you federal funds for all the projects the federal agencies will tell you to do in the future?

What about Colorado’s federal politicians, couldn’t they “do something”? US Representatives get reelected by keeping everyone happy in their District. RMNP is in two urban voting Districts. Other than a few disgruntled hunters, busy commuters don’t care. Then there are two US Senators. For almost 150 years the 2 US Senators from each state represented the State Legislature that appointed them. Since 1913 (when the US Constitution was amended) the US Senators have been elected by a statewide vote. This has meant (particularly in the past 35 years) that they represent the national and international agendas and groups that will get them reelected by donating people and money and publicity to them. Bottom line; they represent the state less and less just like state fish and wildlife agencies. I believe that very many of these modern abuses by government would NEVER have been passed by a US Senate composed of US Senators appointed by their State Legislature as opposed these popularly elected aristocrats in the Senate today.

What about the hunting organizations that “represent” hunters. I have explained about this (they are just shills for the agencies they hope to work one day and for or the agendas that will get them personally future funding just like the state agencies) until I am blue in the face. Suffice it to say they are AWOL or just doing a double pirouette before dancing off stage to say they “appeared”. By their works shall ye know them.

So there you have the RMNP elk “problem” explained. Now Eugene, the answer to your question is “all of us”. We “all” “own” the National Park Service. We elect federal politicians to “administer” (i.e. manage) the National Park Service just like all federal agencies. We elect state politicians to “administer” state agencies and to preserve the rights of the state and it’s residents under our Constitution. We authorize them (the politicians) to hire “experts” to do the work of these agencies and to pay them accordingly. This is the answer from Civics classes 50 years ago (do they still teach “Civics”?) Today it no longer applies.

Today the bureaucrats in the federal and state agencies are like chauffeurs that we hired to drive us somewhere and who sit behind the wheel and drive us where they tell us to go. The politicians have devolved into panderers every bit as spineless as amoebas concerned only with their own temperature and food. The radical groups have manipulated these bureaucrats and politicians (and Universities and courts) with all the skill of Richelieu or Machiavelli.

What needs to be done? Simple. Change the federal laws regarding National Parks and National Forests and National Wildlife Refuges. Reform University curriculums to reinstitute natural resource management. Make environmental and animal rights reforms and reaffirmation of state and local authority a state and federal political issue and then elect politicians that will change things. Rebuild a professional (as opposed ideological and one based on sex and race preferences) federal workforce. There are other things like being very cautious about UN Conventions and Treaties because they replace Constitutional guarantees and whittling down Wilderness Areas and opening roads on public lands, etc.

Only if and when we accept the feasibility of doing such things is there any chance of a serious discussion about remedying the arrogance of RMNP or the way to solve the elk issue or the hope to ever again experience the freedoms and liberties that our forefathers experienced upon arrival in America after fleeing the very things we see arising around us today. Only difference now is that there is no place left to flee to.

Jim Beers
20 December 2007
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- Jim Beers is a retired US Fish & Wildlife Service Wildlife Biologist, Special Agent, Refuge Manager, Wetlands Biologist, and Congressional Fellow. He was stationed in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York City, and Washington DC. He also served as a US Navy Line Officer in the western Pacific and on Adak, Alaska in the Aleutian Islands. He has worked for the Utah Fish & Game, Minneapolis Police Department, and as a Security Supervisor in Washington, DC. He testified three times before Congress; twice regarding the theft by the US Fish & Wildlife Service of $45 to 60 Million from State fish and wildlife funds and once in opposition to expanding Federal Invasive Species authority. He resides in Centreville, Virginia with his wife of many decades.