Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife SFW
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see slw
When Don Peay founded Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife in 1993, few could have dreamed that it would blossom into a powerful multimillion-dollar operation with a presence in seven Western states and in national politics.
The group formed as Utah mule deer populations were crashing. Peay, an avid hunter, decided to do something about it.
There is little doubt that Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife has done much good. It has spent money to purchase or improve wildlife habitat and raised $7.2 million for conservation over the past 10 years. It recently wrote a check for more than $1 million to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Such expenditures bring the organization sway with state wildlife managers. Some think the relationship might be too cozy. Money and political clout often give the impression that SFW and not the DWR is in charge of wildlife in Utah.
Consider a 2010 Utah Wildlife Board meeting when SFW president Byron Bateman presented then-DWR director Jim Karpowitz with a check for $391,000 moments before the Wildlife Board passed a controversial proposal largely crafted and promoted by SFW to reduce the number of deer-hunting permits by at least 13,000.
I fear that the organization has become increasingly more about making money for its officers, commercializing Utah's wildlife and aligning itself with groups such as off-highway vehicle organizations and right-wing politicians intent on Utah taking over federal public lands. How these things help wildlife or the average hunter escapes me
Some of SFW's fundraising efforts concern me — especially those taking advantage of hunters' mythical fears that the main reason for the decline in big-game herds, such as mule deer, is predation. Damn the biology or the fact that the reasons deer herds are down are far more complex. Advocating killing wolves, coyotes, cougars and bears to save deer, elk and other big game is a great way to raise funds and gain members. No matter that wiping out predators is ecologically questionable and, except in a few specific units, not particularly effective.
The organization successfully lobbied the Utah Legislature to appropriate general tax dollars as well as raise hunting license fees to increase bounties on coyotes, encouraging the wanton killing of coyotes everywhere. I can't find a single reputable biologist who thinks this action will help deer herds. But the simplistic solution sounds good to uninformed legislators and hunters and helps raise money.
The Utah Legislature also gave an offshoot SFW organization called Big Game Forever a second $300,000 contract to lobby Washington politicians to keep wolves out of Utah. Though a few stray wolves may have wandered into northern Utah, there is no evidence wolves ever are going to be a major problem in the state. There has been no detailed report as to how Big Game Forever spent the first $300,000. The group is not registered to lobby in Washington, D.C.
SFW and its officers also donate money freely to dozens of politicians.
One of the recipients was State Sen. Ralph Okerlund, R-Monroe, who received $6,500 in campaign contributions from Peay and Ryan Benson, co-founder of Big Game Forever. Okerlund, the Senate majority leader, recommended spending $300,000 this year on Big Game Forever's anti-wolf lobbying campaign.
Figuring out just how much Peay and other officers make in salary or consulting fees is challenging. Money is moved back and forth from nonprofits to private corporations among groups such as Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, Sportsmen for Habitat, Big Game Forever, Arctic Red River Outfitters, Peay Consulting, World Trophy Outfitters, the Full Curl Society, the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, seven state chapters of SFW and the Mule Deer Foundation — which is part of a major wildlife convention where the state gives conservation organizations wildlife tags to auction. The groups get to keep 10 percent of the proceeds for administrative costs. In the case of application fees raised at the 2012 Western Hunting and Conservation Expo, hunters pay in hopes of drawing a difficult-to-get hunting tag, SFW and the Mule Deer Foundation reported $613,572 in expenses of holding the drawing, with the remaining $443,417 actually going to conservation projects.
Has any of this helped big game in Utah? You be the judge.
The number of deer hunters afield dropped from 146,008 in 1993, when SFW was founded, to 80,425 in 2011. The number of bucks killed dropped from 23,024 to 21,291. The number of antelope, moose and bison that hunters and animals harvested also declined during that same time period.
The success stories are elk and bighorn sheep. Utah elk hunters have increased from 48,372 in 1993 to 57,241 in 2011, with the bull harvest going from 6,066 to 6,923. The bighorn sheep harvest jumped from 17 in 1993 to 54 in 2011.
While SFW and its many subsidiaries might do some good for wildlife, those who donate thinking they are helping big game should realize that many of these groups' officers have a heavy financial stake in the operation. And the continued commercialization of the public's wildlife should cause concern that herds are being managed not on the basis of sound biology but in ways to produce more cash.
wharton@s....
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What do wolves, payday lenders, Blue Dogs, Richard Rawle, John Swallow and Jeremy Johnson have in common? A DC lobbyist, that’s what.
Tim Rupli is a well-paid DC lobbyist whose #1 client is the “Community Financial Services Association” – payday lenders. They paid him a cool million dollars last year.
He was also hired by Rep. Heath Shuler to resurrect the Blue Dog caucus in the 2012 cycle. An article in early 2011 says this about Rupli and Shuler:
Who is the host, Tim Rupli? According to House Lobbying disclosures, he appears to be a lobbyist for a variety of interests, including Numbers USA (an anti-immigration pressure group), PharmAthene (pushing hard in public relations and in court for government contracts to supply anthrax vaccines), Lasershot (seeking contracts for the use of video games to train soldiers in combat), and the Network Branded Prepaid Card Association and four other alternative banking interests (pushing for weaker consumer protections on gift cards and deregulation of payday loan operations).
Shuler has used the services of corporate lobbyist Tim Rupli to rake in campaign money before. At the end of this weekend, Shuler and his Blue Dog Coalition will be indebted to Rupli all the more.
Just in case you were wondering why Tim Rupli might be interested in Heath Shuler, consult this Senate lobbying report covering Rupli’s activities in 2009. It seems that Tim Rupli has been lobbying hard on Heath Shuler’s bill of last year, H.R. 2563: the Payday Lending Reform Act, which would establish the terms for regulation of the financial operations Rupli is paid to represent.
The late Richard Rawle, a hunting buddy of Don Peay, co-founder of Big Game Forever, was the one who hired Rupli to help clear Jeremy Johnson. A Salt Lake Tribune article from January 27, 2013 outlines the arrangement between Rawle and Rupli:
Rawle said, in a statement signed just three days before his Dec. 8 death, that of the $250,000 I Works provided to RMR, he “wired $100,000 to lobbyists and asked them to go to work” to help Johnson fend off the Federal Trade Commission investigation into I Works.
Subsequently, attorney Sam Alba — who represents RMR, Check City and the Rawle family — issued a statement saying $50,000 of that money was paid to T.R. Rupli & Associates, a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm. Alba has not answered two subsequent emails seeking more information.
Rupli & Associates owner Tim Rupli said he typically builds a case for clients with members of Congress about the worth of a product or industry and then persuades them to contact an agency or congressional committee chair to discuss the issue.
So what does this all have to do with wolves? Well, Tim Rupli is ALSO listed as the lobbyist hired to keep wolves out of Utah – at cost of $300 grand to Utah taxpayers.
The 2012 proposal says:
Big Game Forever also works extensively with several professional advisors on the wolf-delisting effort. Tim Rupli is Big Game Forever’s professional lobbyist in Washington D.C. on the wolf-delisting effort. Mr. Rupli has worked in Washington D.C. since 1992 as a registered lobbyist, successfully representing many clients in our nation’s capitol.
While I favor delisting wolves, I have to ask: Is this really a path we want to go down? Handing out hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars, with little to no oversight, to a group with ties into the whole Swallow-Rawle-Jeremy Johnson mess?
I think not.
guest post from Bob Ferris of Cascadia Wildlands, an Endangered Species Coalition member organization. It was originally published on their website.
Rudyard Kipling wrote a tale once about two pals in the British army serving in India who figured they could travel north to Kafiristan in present-day Afghanistan and essentially create their own mini-kingdom. The tale was fanciful and was eventually turned into a popular 1975 movie starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine called “The Man who would be King” named after Kipling’s novella.
But the absurd nature of this fictional exercise of kingdom creation has not stopped Don Peay, founder of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, Sportsmen for Habitat, Utah Chapter of the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, and Full Curl Society as well as co-founder of Big Game Forever LLC from seeing this as a model for taking the first steps towards bringing that oh-so-modern concept of feudalism to the United States. And—wait for it—having the taxpayers make significant contributions to the diminishment of their rights and privileges. Want details?
Let’s start with the fact that Mr. Peay believes that our current constitutional construct established under the 10th Amendment where the individual states have control and ownership of wildlife and hold it in the Public Trust is Socialism. Ouch—strong words for a system that was established so that everyone, not just royalty and gentlepersons, could enjoy this public resource without being branded, beaten or hung for simply hunting, trapping or fishing. (Mr. Peay should understand that both the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution are the functional equivalents of emancipation documents expressly written in response to past abuses and to protect us from future peril.)
“One state at a time, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife is dismantling the very idea of a public wildlife resource, and replacing it with special privileges for the privileged.” Ben Long in High Country News
There are some nuances and spins to what Mr. Peay and his colleagues like Corey Rossi—past head of Alaska’s wildlife agency—recently ousted for a dozen wildlife violations—are trying to do, but the “nose under the tent” on their grand scheme is creating programs that privatize wildlife and grant “special” people “special” rights to wildlife owned by all of us. Those special rights would include hunting outside of hunting seasons, creating areas free of predators, and providing economic incentives for creating super-productive areas on private lands that could include food plots and supplemental feeding (read large-scale baiting) which would likely act to draw game off surrounding public lands.
The introduction of the Canadian Grey Wolf into Northern Rocky Mountains was a wildlife management expirement (sic) which has gone horribly wrong. The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation calls it “one of the worst wildlife management disasters since the destruction of bison herds”. Quote from David Allen former NASCAR executive on Montana Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife website
The ecological, economic and social pitfalls of this approach are myriad. We—with the exception of trophy hunting groups like the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation—have seen the folly of creating feeding grounds for species such as elk and deer. This scheme taken to its conclusion creates large, fenceless game farms with greatly reduced biodiversity. It also creates a dynamic to spread more wildlife diseases faster. If you want chronic wasting disease and Brucellosis hot spots—please sign on the dotted line.
The economics are dicey, too. Right now many people derive income from hunting and fishing from guides and hotel owners to gas stations and restaurants. Game species are spread rather than concentrated and hunting licenses and access are managed in a manner that optimizes participation and spreads income across a broad base. What happens to this dynamic when portions of the harvestable game base are drawn away from their current distribution pattern into large, private refugia that can easily accommodate and would welcome their own, on-site facilities including private air strips? To understand this potential impact think about what Wal-Marts on the outskirts of towns have done to Main Street, America.
Socially this is a case where quality experiences become more and more reserved for people of quality. In Mr. Peay’s world the biggest and best would be reserved for the “knights” of industry in the land of corporate jets and the rest of us would simply have to suffer along with the leavings and obey rules.
This would also further enhance what are now huge ranches almost exclusively in the West. Given that these private ranchlands were made possible in large part because of past federal largess like the Homestead Act, made practical through past federal actions displacing their former native and human inhabitants, and made richer by current federal benefits such as farm subsidies and nominal federal grazing fees, you would think that these ranchers, Peay and their allies would first drop a little of their anti-federal rhetoric. Their near schizophrenic irony of uber-patriotic ranchers hating and badmouthing of the very hand that made their lives possible has always struck me as strange.
And you would also think that they would not be so quick about asking state legislatures and game agencies for privileges and monies that would further their campaigns to create what would essentially be modern-day Baronies—subsidized by the generosity of the “King” and enjoying a rarified legal setting. Mr. Peay’s recent request from the state of Utah for $300,000 so he could lobby the federal government on wolves is a perfect example of this entitled attitude and has drawn considerable ire from a number of quarters (see 1, 2, 3, 4).
Also Baron Von Peay should also understand—as many of us do—that the most vocal and visible opponents of Socialism are typically Fascists. But Mr. Peay’s dealings are a little bit more complex than first meets the eye and it is a mistake to simply characterize him as a politically motivated hater of wolves and serial founder of conservation organizations. In addition to his “conservation” actions, he has manufactured an intricate spiders’ web of non-profits and for-profits that has put hundreds of thousands of dollars into his own coffers (see page 7 and page 8 for examples).
“We have been in the business of selling big game hunting packages to high end clients who sought to hunt with the top tier big game outfitters.” World Trophy Outfitters profile
Spider’s web may even be an understatement. One rapidly gets tired and fuzzy when looking at the mélange of entities set up by this ambitious chemical engineer and petroleum industry consultant turned wildlife entrepreneur. From his first attempts as a hunting impresario with World Trophy Outfitters, Inc. to his current, more successful efforts to do essentially the same thing in his non-profit empire, this has been a story of building a well-connected—yet cryptic—universe.
Some of these relationships are easy to sort out and some are more complicated. Take for instance the relationship with Chris Carling and Brand X Communications in Salt Lake City. Brand X does the web work for several of Peay’s non-profit ventures and Mr. Carling is also the public relations contact for Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife. Brand X is apparently connected with the domain Donpeay.comin some manner as well as the website for the proposed Jordan Cove LNG export facility near Coos Bay which will be facilitated by fracking in the very states where Peay’s groups are most powerful. The business suite where Brand X is located is also the business address listed for Big Game Forever LLC and the former address of record for Sportsmen for Romney.
“As of March 31, 2007, we had acquired fourteen Dall Sheep hunts for the 2007 and 2008 seasons with Kelly Hougen of Arctic Red River Outfitters, ten of which have been resold. The relationship between Arctic Red River Outfitters and WTO is that of a purchaser and seller of services and these organizations are not affiliated.” World Trophy Outfitters Inc. Securities and Exchange Commission filing Form 10-KSB for Fiscal year 2007 page 4
And then there is the whole issue with Arctic Red River Outfitters which appears to be owned in part by Peay but also partially owned by Sportsmen for Habitat with officers in common. And yet on their IRS 990 forms SFH claims no business relations with current or former board members. What? It is all very interesting but I will leave this to some ambitious investigative reporter who has the time and energy to sort out this can-o-worms or a similarly motivated IRS or SEC agent who ought to be asking some questions.
“As a conservationist, it outrages me that animal rights extremists are using wolves as biological weapons to destroy 100 years of conservation in the western United States.” Jeff Foxworthy—Comedian on Big Game Forever LLC website
Peay’s business model is unfortunately a simple one that we have seen before: pedal wolf hatred to those most vulnerable to the messaging and then take millions of dollars’ worth of public resources (in the form of game permits) and sell them to the rich, privileged and influential. His one variation from this is when he and his entourage sell chances for a coveted permit—letting hundreds act as a virtual “person of privilege”—keeping the myth of equality alive.
“My MacMillan River Adventure partner Keith Mark and I are extremely proud of our relationship with Big Game Forever because they are the one organization that recognized the damage that was occurring and the potential total devastation that would occur to our precious wildlife if the wolf issue was not addressed.” Shawn Michaels WWE Hall of Fame on Big Game Forever website
He has been quite effective using the Four Horsemen of American Ignorance (i.e., NASCAR, Wrestling, Redneck Humor, and Ted Nugent) in recruiting an army of willing wolf killers. The Montana Chapter of the Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, for instance, gives away free memberships to individuals who furnish pictures of themselves with dead wolves. SFW-MT is careful, however, to point out that they do not want pictures of wolves in traps. Apparently, they understand that there are limits.
Montana-Sportsmen-for-Fish-and-Wildlife2-300x361
There are a lot of chicken and egg issues with Peay and his operations. Is he trying to forward big game recovery or trying to maximize his connections and curry favor with rich donors to forward his political fundraising? Why is the Western Hunting and Conservation Expo run by Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and Mule Deer Foundation a non-profit event rather than a for-profit enterprise because it looks like there is a whole lot more commerce taking place than conservation? And where is the non-profit argument of public good and benefit in creating better hunting opportunities for folks with an extra $20,000 or $100,000 rolling around in their jeans and in making sure outfitters are fully booked and taxidermists busy? The charitable purposes of these entities simply seem swamped by the commercial and the political undertones. And this impression is only magnified by the public financial reporting which lacks a certain openness in detail.
Like Kipling’s Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnehan, Peay is of humble beginnings. When you read his self-narrative you almost feel sorry for the boy whose family lacked the $35 to let him play football, but when he compensates for that missing “sport” in his life by taking 500-yard shots at rare animals the sympathy factor melts away quickly. He is all about trophies whether it is being photographed next to whatever carcass he has recently created or standing near Dick Cheney, George W. Bush or Orin Hatch.
Peay should realize in all of this that the Kipling tale is also a cautionary one. It describes the ultimate consequences to one who climbs too high and then falls when the myths he has created and promoted are shown to be without merit. What will happen in all of this when the enabling state wildlife agencies realize that they would probably get more value and benefit if they sold these game permits themselves instead of allowing them to be used to build this convoluted financial empire and thinly disguised political machine? And when will the everyday hunters out there understand that they are complicit in enriching these groups who are aggressively creating a system designed expressly to grant their precious rights to the privileged few while they are left with the leavings?
So what needs to happen? Folks need to tell their wildlife agencies in western states that they do not want their precious wildlife in the form of hunting tags and permits given to Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, Sportsmen for Habitat, Big Game Forever, or the Full Curl Society to be used in their campaigns to enrich themselves and privatize wildlife. We also need to remind these agencies of their Public Trust responsibilities to manage wildlife for the public and not just for wealthy trophy hunters and ranchers. And we need also to remind these wildlife agencies and their governing boards that wildlife should be managed based on the best available science. In other words, let wildlife agency employees use the degrees that they worked so long and hard to earn. Here are the electonic links (e-mails and forms) as well as the snail mail and phone for Wyoming. Please let them know how you feel and pass this blog post around so that others do the same. Thank you!
Alaska
Arizona
Idaho
Montana
New Mexico
Oregon
Utah
Washington
Wyoming:
Wyoming Game & Fish Department Headquarters
5400 Bishop Blvd. Cheyenne, WY 82006
ph: (307) 777-4600
News and Editorial Coverage:
Salt Lake Tribune: Anti-wolf group likely to get second $300,000 Utah payment
Salt Lake Tribune Editorial: Just cry wolf
Salt Lake Tribune: Attempt to strip dollars for anti-wolf lobbyist fails
Salt Lake Tribune: Editorial Cartoon by Patrick Bagley
The Wildlife News: Utah legislature likely to fund alternative education program using wolf fairy tales
Holly-on-the-Hill: Wolves, Payday Lenders, Rowle and Swallow
Salt Lake Tribune: Wharton: Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife about wrong kind of bucks
ref
https://www.fieldandstream.com/blogs/conservationist/2012/03/group-founder-declares-north-american-hunting-model-%E2%80%9Csocialism%E2%80%9D
even weeks ago, Chad Love of Field Notes posted an article describing the resignation of Alaska Fish and Game's Conservation Director, Corey Rossi, after Rossi was charged with 12 violations related to an illegal black bear hunt in 2008.
Now, Anchorage Daily News reporter Richard Mauer has uncovered Rossi's radical plan to privatize some of Alaska's hunting and wildlife:
Six weeks before he learned he was under criminal investigation for violating his department's hunting rules, state Wildlife Division Director Corey Rossi told his staff about a pet project -- unprecedented in Alaska -- to give private landowners special rights to hunt big game, even out of season, and to be able to sell those rights to whomever they want.
Such a plan echoes the message of the controversial group Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, which is not surprising, since Rossi served on the board of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife-Alaska before his appointment to the state wildlife agency by then-Governor Sarah Palin. In the Anchorage Daily News story, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife founder Don Peay says that it's time to "revisit" the widely accepted principle in the United States and Canada that game is a public resource.
Peay described that egalitarian doctrine, found in Alaska's state constitution and laws throughout the West, as "socialism." It offers no economic incentive for landowners to kill predators, improve big game habitat and even provide food and water for target species.
Read the entire story here.
As a conservation writer and hunter, I am fascinated by this story. Since 1842, Americans have created the world's most successful model of wildlife management, based on the notion that wild game belonged to the people, held in trust by the states. We flatly rejected the Old Europe ideas of big game belonging to the King, and peasants and serfs forbidden to enter the royal forests upon pain of death. The effort to create a new way of wildlife management was a powerful part of the American experiment in democracy and liberty.
By 1876, there were already over 500 sportsmen's clubs across the US fighting for conservation laws and policies to rebuild the dwindling wild game herds and outlaw market hunting, and, in the 1900s, to enact self-imposed taxes like the Pittman-Robertson Act, or the migratory bird stamp, to fund the restoration of the wildlife and habitat. It worked.
What we created is now known as the North American Model of Wildlife Management. We live on the last continent on earth where hunting is popular among outdoorspeople from every walk of life, from the wealthy to the financially destitute. I'm not sure how that equates to socialism. I'm still studying on that one.
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slt 2013
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The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary — H.L. Mencken
One of those imaginary hobgoblins is being trotted about on Capitol Hill by legislators and a sportsmen's group who are pointing at it and sounding the alarm, which goes something like this: Citizens of Utah, the wolf is at the door. But don't be alarmed. We're going to make sure he stays there. We just need to take $300,000 of your tax money and hand it over to this sportsmen's group. They'll know what to do with it, and you'll all be safe, at least until next year.
This the second year in a row that someone from Big Game Forever, a Utah-based nonprofit hunting advocacy group, has shown up at the Utah Legislature with his hand out, spouting dire, wholly suspect warnings that the federal government is considering reintroducing the gray wolf to the Beehive State.
The group's founder, Don Peay, told the Legislature's natural resources budget committee last week that the money is needed to lobby the feds against such a move. "They want to put Mexican wolves in Utah because the Mexicans don't want them," he told lawmakers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says such claims are overblown.
But Peay's pitch for public money to fight this four-legged hobgoblin doesn't require much more from him than to cry wolf, just as the organization did last year and was promptly handed $300,000 with virtually no questions asked. At an appropriations hearing last month, when someone had the temerity to ask Peay what last year's $300,000 had bought the state, he saw no reason to get specific.
"It's been used to do a very complex, political, legal, grass-roots effort," he said.
That pat on the head must be reassuring to taxpayers, who perhaps were under the impression that their elected representatives are actually doing what they repeatedly tell us they are doing — sweating buckets to scrape together enough tax revenue to keep Utah's public schools at least as underfunded as they were this year.
Well, not quite. Senate Majority Leader Ralph Okerlund, R-Monroe, who asked for this line item gift, apparently believes that the needs of the classroom aren't nearly as pressing as the need to pay a private concern more than a quarter of a million tax dollars to stick its finger into a dike that isn't leaking.
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west rim
arctic red
500k fundraise
1.5 mil gov't grants?!
15 mil?!
bateman foutz, bryce pilling
600 K permits?!
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Additional Background on Employers of Note:
Greg Sheehan opposed the reintroduction of Mexican wolves into Utah when he was Director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR).
While he was Director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR), Greg Sheehan opposed reintroduction of Mexican wolves, “one of the most critically endangered mammals on Earth,” into their historic range in Utah. Sheehan said that bringing Mexican wolves into Utah was “‘just not really a very sound approach to recovery planning on a highly endangered species'” because Utah was a “‘new region where they didn’t evolve in the first place.'” Wildlife advocates said that “refusing the Mexican wolf’s entry” in Utah was “taking a ‘selfish’ approach” and that there were only “a few swaths of public land large enough for management of a long-ranging species like wolves are left.”
House Natural Resources Democrats, [Press Release, 06/29/17, Brian Maffly, “Conservationists blast long-awaited recovery plan for Mexican wolves, which excludes Utah, Colorado from lobos’ range,” Salt Lake Tribune, 06/29/17, Morgan Jacobsen, “Wildlife Advocates Hold Rally in Utah to Save Mexican Gray Wolf,” KSL, 01/14/16, and “Conservationists howl for Mexican wolf protection in Utah,” Standard-Examiner, 01/14/16]
When Greg Sheehan was Director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, DWR was criticized for accepting a $1 million check from Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife (SFW) and for giving SFW preference over other groups as a permit distributor.
Although on their website Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife (SFW) brags that they are “dedicated to the perpetuation of wildlife,” that that they are “passionate about hunting,” SFW has “ties to energy interests.” Founded by Don Peay, “one of former President George W. Bush’s top fundraisers,” SFW has defied “mainstream sportsmen groups by not opposing the Bush administration’s oil and gas policies on public lands.”
“[About SFW,” Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, accessed 08/10/17 and Matt Lee-Ashley, “Oil and Gas Industry Investments in the National Rifle Association and Safari Club International: Reshaping American Energy, Land, and Wildlife Policy,” Center for American Progress, 04/14]
In 2012, while Sheehan was Director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, the Executive Board of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife “presented the Utah DWR Director, Greg Sheehan, and the Utah Wildlife Board a check for $1,071,284.58.” After the December 2012 donation, some observed that “money and political clout often give the impression that SFW and not the DWR is in charge of wildlife in Utah.”
“[SFW Donates $1 Million Dollars to the DWR,” Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife, 12/05/12, and and Tom Wharton, “Wharton: Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife about wrong kind of bucks,” Salt Lake Tribune, 03/21/13]
Also under Greg Sheehan’s leadership as Director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, the DWR came “under fire” for a December 2015 decision when they “approved a wildlife conservation group, Sportsman for Fish and Wildlife, as a permit distributor for a hunting expo that [took] place in Salt Lake City every year.” DWR had the option to choose the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which pledged to donate “100 percent of the proceeds from the hunting tags, back to Utah Conservation Efforts,” as the permit distributor, but instead they chose SFW, even though SFW “only designated 30% of the tag proceeds to conservation efforts. The decision created a firestorm amongst Utah outdoorsmen” who “accus[ed] the DWR… of corruption, catering to special interests and accepting bribes from Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife.”
Chris Miller, “[Allegations of corruption surround Utah Hunting and Conservation Expo,” KUTV, 02/26/16] :{
}:===...Vincent DeVito met with Independent Petroleum Association of America and representatives from oil and gas companies on October 10, 2017.
According to his calendar, Counselor for Energy Policy Vincent DeVito met with Mallori Miller, Director of Government Relations of IPAA on October 10, 2017. Also in the meeting were representatives from QEP Resources, EOG Resources, Chesapeake Energy Corporation, Devon Energy, and Encana. Interior employees Christopher Stolte, William Dove, and Joshua Campbell were also in the meeting. [OS-2017-001063 (Sage Grouse Comms from Industry), Page 512]
In September 2017, Deputy Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Greg Sheehan called in a favor to his old friend, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife Founder Don Peay. Sheehan had been contacted by a concerned individual who was trying to save privately-owned cabins in a wilderness area in the Tongass National Forest. The land is managed by the United States Forest Service, and the cabins could be saved if Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue intervened and changed the policy. Sheehan said Peay had a “very strong relationship” with the “now Assistant Secretary of agricultural [sic]” and Sheehan wanted to get Peay “engaged” on the issue. When he worked for the state of Utah in 2015, Sheehan was criticized for giving Peay’s organization, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife,preferential treatment.
[[January 11, 2018 – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today applauded President Donald J. Trump’s selection of Ken Barbic to be the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Assistant Secretary for Congressional Relations. Following the announcement, Secretary Perdue issued this statement:
“I am very excited by the nomination of Ken Barbic to fill this key role. Ken will bring a wealth of knowledge, insight, and experience to USDA, and I am eager to get him on the job right away,” said Secretary Perdue. “Unfortunately, two other qualified nominees, Bill Northey and Stephen Vaden, are still awaiting Senate confirmation. I urge the Senate to take up all three nominations as quickly as possible
]]
“90 privately-owned cabins were grandfathered into the Tongass National Forest in Southeast Alaska when areas of it were designated as wilderness. But once the cabins are passed down one generation, they are slated to be removed or destroyed.” Some of the residents of the cabins have started a campaign to try to save them. Some of Alaska’s state and federal legislators have also reached out to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, asking him to “use his authority to intervene and change the policy.” [Nora Saks, “AK: Petersburg family leads charge to save historic cabin in Tongass National Forest,” Alaska Public Media, 08/31/17]
On September 21, 2017 Thu Vo-Wood, an administrative assistant in the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, emailed Principal Deputy Director of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Greg Sheehan asking for Sheehan’s help with the issue. Vo-Wood and Sheehan had previously discussed the issue at an Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies event. Vo-Wood wrote, “Mike Schwartz asked me to help him escalate it to someone higher up with influence and an interest within the administration.” Schwartz is a Petersburg, Alaska resident who previously had a cabin “taken away” from him, and has been a leading force behind the campaign. [OS-2017-001063 (Sage Grouse Comms from Industry), Page 354; Nora Saks, “AK: Petersburg family leads charge to save historic cabin in Tongass National Forest,” Alaska Public Media, 08/31/17]
Greg Sheehan responded to Vo-Wood saying that he knew “exactly” who could help. Sheehan CCed Don Peay, the founder of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, on his response to Vo-Wood. Sheehan explained, “The now Assistant Secretary of agricultural was in Utah last summer and Don and I spent two days with him. Don has a very strong relationship there. Let’s get him engaged. This plan to eliminate cabins would effect thousand of hunters, anglers, and campers each year. I have stayed at and hunted out of one of these cabins while bear hunting.” Sheehan promised Vo-Wood that he would talk with Peay about the issue. [OS-2017-001063 (Sage Grouse Comms from Industry), Pages 353 – 354]
In 2015, before he worked at the Interior Department, Greg Sheehan, as Director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, came under fire for accepting a $1 million check from Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife (SFW) and for giving SFW preference over other groups as a permit distributor at the Western Hunting and Conservation expo,a hunting expo that happens annually in Salt Lake City. Although on their website SFW brags that they are “dedicated to the perpetuation of wildlife,” that they are “passionate about hunting,” SFW has “ties to energy interests.” SFW has defied “mainstream sportsmen groups by not opposing the Bush administration’s oil and gas policies on public lands.” “[About SFW,” Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife, accessed 08/10/17; Matt Lee-Ashley, “Oil and Gas Industry Investments in the National Rifle Association and Safari Club International: Reshaping American Energy, Land, and Wildlife Policy,” Center for American Progress, 04/14; “SFW Donates $1 Million Dollars to the DWR,” Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife, 12/05/12; Tom Wharton, “Wharton: Sportsmen for Fish & Wildlife about wrong kind of bucks,” Salt Lake Tribune, 03/21/13; Chris Miller, “Allegations of corruption surround Utah Hunting and Conservation Expo,” KUTV, 02/26/16]
ANALYSIS OF STATE BLM COMMUNICATIONS NOT SPECIFIC TO THE SAGE GROUSE REVIEW
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