Wyoming Wildlife Federation, Audubon Wyoming, do not support NREPA
Organizations ask for corrections and clarifications to their position statements
by Dawn Ballou, Editor, Pinedale Online!
April 24, 2009
The Wyoming Wildlife Federation and Audubon Wyoming contacted Pinedale Online on Friday, April 24, to ask that their names be removed as supporters of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA H.R. 980).
Their names were listed as supporters in an article we wrote on April 21st about H.R. 980, the proposed new legislation to designate 24-million acres of new wilderness in five Rocky Mountain States, including Wyoming: ("Wilderness designation proposed for Fremont, New Fork Lakes, Wyoming Range" By Dawn Ballou, Pinedale Online!)
Their support was listed on a page on the Alliance for the Wild Rockies website, http://wwwwildrockiesalliance.org, on their Letters of Endorsement page: http://www.wildrockiesalliance.org/issues/nrepa/endorsement.html.
While the copyrights on some of these pages are fairly old, their website lists recently updated current information for H.R. 980 including this statement: "The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act has endorsements from President Jimmy Carter, world-renowned scientists, and more than 700 organizations and businesses nationwide, including the national Sierra Club. Read more endorsements from across the country," which links to their webpage with the, apparently, very outdated endorsements.
The AWR website endorsement page lists a quote attributed to John Zelazny, Assistant Director for issues Cheyenne, WY, as saying, "Wyoming Wildlife Federation Board of Directors voted unanimously to support the NREPA." The page also lists endorsements by several chapters of Audubon (Washington and Montana), including one from Michael T. Leahy Forest Campaign Coordinator, National Audubon Society Washington, DC, quoted as saying "we fully support NREPA."
Based on the adamant corrections we received from the Wyoming Wildlife Federation and Audubon Wyoming, we have to call into question all of the endorsements listed on the AWR "NREPA-Letters of Endorsement" page on the Alliance for the Wild Rockies website.
Below are current position statements from Audubon Wyoming and the Wyoming Wildlife Federation:
Audubon Wyoming:
"Audubon doesn’t support NREPA, but neither do we actively oppose it. Given that we haven’t had time to analyze the legislation and haven’t worked on the issue for many years as an organization, our stance, to date should be neutral. Please remove Audubon from the bill’s list of supporting groups."
Mac Blewer
Grassroots Organizer
Audubon Wyoming
(307) 745-4848
mblewer@audubon.org
Wyoming Wildlife Federation:
"Wyoming Wildlife Federation was incorrectly listed as a supporter of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act. The staff and board of directors of Wyoming Wildlife Federation in no way endorse this proposed legislation. We ask that Pinedale Online post a correction immediately."
Joy Bannon
Field Director, Wyoming Wildlife Federation
307-335-8633
joybannon@wyomingwildlife.org
|
