Utah wolf lobby payments

Big Fin

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Thought some of you Utah guys would find this to be humorous, or possibly infuriating. A friend sent me these exerpt notes of a subcommittee hearing of the Utah Legislature where Don Peay, Founder of SFW, testified of the value of Utah paying $300K to fund lobbying efforts in Washington, DC.

Almost in disbelief, I decided to listen to the comments myself on the Utah Legislative website. Below is a link to the video and audio recording of all Utah legislative hearings.You are looking for the February 21 Utah Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environmental Quality Appropriates Subcommittee video. It is a big file (119MB). The exerpts are from testimony that starts around the 20:00 minute mark.

http://le.utah.gov/#iframe

Funny stuff. Could use some serious fact checking on some of these details, but facts have never been a currency that some are comfortable dealing with.

Wonder who te "WE" is that Mr. Peay keeps referring to?

Evidently, now that the gray wolf battle was won by the folks who SFW hates and despite the efforts of SFW to stop those successful efforts, now they have found a new money machine in the form of the Mexican Gray Wolf. Wonder if this funding will come DWR or from the general fund of Utah?

If the Utah hunters are paying for this, they should at least be privy to who gets the money and how it is spent. Last time I looked at SFW tax returns, they had some line item expenditure that stated "Wolf Lobbying." Wonder who that money actually got paid to?

One Representative stated he thinks the value received by Utah is worth the cost ($300K). A comment like that is enough to make you fall off your chair in laughter.

Really, what value did Utah receive by SFW/BGF trying to kill the bill that got us the delisting of the gray wolf in MT/ID and that has since lead to delisting in pretty much every other state with wolves and soon delisting in the entire lower 48? :confused:

I know Utah got a lot of benefit from the work done by all the other groups who SFW threw under the bus. I know Utah got a lot of benefit from Representative Simpson and Senator Tester, two guys SFW has thrown to the wolves whenever they could. I know Utah got a lot of benefit from hunters in MT/ID/WY who spent years of time working on this delisting issue and finally getting the ball across the goal line.

But, I am confused as to what benefit Utah got from SFW/BGF being in the peanut gallery lobbing cheap shots at those actually getting the work done. :confused:

Anyhow, here are the pertinent exerpts that Utah hunters might want to know of.

Wolf Re-introduction by Senator Ralph Okerlund

To appropriate $300,000 this year for Washington lobbying against the Endangered Species Act and to prevent wolves from being reintroduced into Utah.


Sen. Okurlund : "For the last couple of years the Legislature has been making sure we are protecting our agricultural interests and our livestock interests and our wildlife interests in the state by making sure wolves are not reintroduced. We've been very successful. We have good news on the gray wolf but not so good news on the Mexican Spotted Wolf. The request is for $300,000 to continue our efforts to make sure we do not have wolves in the state of Utah depleting our wildlife and livestock herds."

Don Peay [Founder of Sportsman for Fish and Wildlife] got the committee laughing about the Senator's confusing the Mexican wolf with the Spotted Owl.

Peay: "We've spent a great deal of industry and private money and effort to solve this problem for the whole state of Utah."

Peay reported that Idaho has lost $50 million, minimum, in the last years from lost revenue (hunters licenses, taxidermists, hunting guides) because of the wolf.

Peay: "We want to keep Utah a great place to hunt and fish................ We were able to work and get the United States Congress to remove wolves from the endangered species act. The three states Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have actually killed 1,230 wolves in the last 16 months............"

Peay reported that the Montana legislature just passed and the governor just signed "a bill that will allow them to kill a bunch of more wolves and make it a lot easier. It's destroying jobs, private property, the economies rural."

To keep ahead of this, Peay reported that the USFWS expects to delist for Utah and the lower 48 states for the gray wolf sometime this spring or summer.

Peay: "We've been having a battle with some people who don't want it to happen; we've been winning; they've been losing. We just want to keep that pattern going. And lastly, we've done a lot of preemptive work to keep the Mexican Wolf...they wanted to put Mexican wolves into Utah since the Mexicans don't want Mexican wolf recovery. And that would destroy, literally, all of Senator Okurlund's and Representative's Noel's -- all of your game."

Speaking about the large draw of people from around the world to last weekend's hunting expo in Salt Lake City:

Sen. Margaret Dayton: "If we have wolves we're not going to have any."

Peay: "It will all go away."

Dayton: "My question is this. The northern wolf isn't indigenous to Utah and the Mexican wolf which keeps getting killed in Mexico, and they escape and come up here, and they weren't ever indigenous to Utah either. Isn't that correct?"

Peay: "I'm quite sure in the scientific data the Mexican wolf was never native to Utah. It was never here so they're trying to actually fudge the ESA [Endangered Species Act] and put them here. There were wolves here when the pioneers came so there were some wolves; they probably weren't the Canadian wolves, but there were some wolves here."

Dayton: "Scientists say its a different DNA."

Peay. "Yeah."

Dayton: "Would you just remind us what the request is and what you've done with the money you've had. We probably have to have this restated."

Peay: "Yes, the request was for $300,000 for the second year and it's just been used to do a do a very complex political, legal grass roots effort administrative working to -- I'm a chemical engineer-- this is the most complicated thing I've ever worked on if you look at all the things, so in a simple way, very complicated process. I'll just say this, Jim Hansen said, Don, if you get this done they'll make a bronze [statue of you], if you get this done. No one has changed the ESA in 30 years except for the snail darter in Tennessee. Well, we changed it for this issue."

Rep. Mike McKell: "I'm looking at some numbers for Idaho. I'm an avid sportsman. I hunt and fish and I've done it all over the west. I'm looking at numbers. Lolo elk numbers before wolf introduction 20,000. After wolf introduction 1,700. I've hunted the Lolo Pass and the herd has been absolutely devastated and I would encourage members of this committee to support this proposal. Wolfs [sic] in Utah are serious and the amount of money we would lose far exceeds the $10 million dollars that Idaho loses. It would be devastating to the State of Utah. Devastating to our citizens. I think this [$300,000] is a small price to pay for what we receive in return. We have a tremendous asset. As a sportsman, I want to let the committee know that we harvest more Boone & Crockett bull elk than all of the other western states combined every year. We have an asset that we can't afford to let dissipate."
 
So, if I red this correctly, the State of Utah is going to give SFW $300,000 to lobby against wolves and against the ESA.

This would seem to be a huge misapplication of state revenue. I wonder how I can get in on this racket? Daddy needs a new truck!
 
So, if I red this correctly, the State of Utah is going to give SFW $300,000 to lobby against wolves and against the ESA.

Kind of reads that way to me, but I am not much good at politics, so my read could be off base. Not sure who the "WE" is that is asking for the money, but if I was a Utah hunter, I would be asking that question and demanding some answers and accountability.
 
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. I will never cease to be amazed at what Don Peay and SFW will do. The people of Utah will give them money, tags ect. with little to no conditions.
 
I'm a little confused about Mr. Peay's dislike of of the North American Model and his referencing it to socialism when his entire model is based on the idea that state resources fund his operations. First it's the Tags up for auction and now it's a direct appropriation from the state?

It would seem that Mr. Peay is, at heart, a great socialist.

Furthermore, Peay seems to want to extend the war on wolves out beyond it's own carrying weight. We were able to get Simpson-Tester because it was prudent and judicious in it's application. Continuing the idea that their bill is the vehicle to get things accomplished is delusional. I don't think there's much love between Senator Reid and Don Peay, so how does he think he'll get any legislation through the senate and then signed by the President? Peay was a bundler for Romney and the Obama camp knows it.

The lack of political vision by those Mr. Peay is approaching with his hand out is appalling.
 
The SFW spin machine has answered Don Peay's declaration that the North American Wildlife Model is socialism. It was explained on MM two different times. First SFW supporters denied the Alaskan article existed. Next they said Don was misquoted. They also explained at great lengths that they never opposed the Simpson Tester rider and that they were the reason it got passed. Please try and keep up. Don is a good guy, just ask him. Please note the HEAVY sarcasm in my post. It is funny that he claims everybody else is a socialist but then puts his handout to the government 1st.
 
I'm a little confused about Mr. Peay's dislike of of the North American Model and his referencing it to socialism

Branding something as socialist is the quickest way to gain a strong following of us unejumacated rednecks that hate Obama and his Marxist cronies that are hell bent on destroying the American way of life.
 
The SFW spin machine has answered Don Peay's declaration that the North American Wildlife Model is socialism. It was explained on MM two different times. First SFW supporters denied the Alaskan article existed. Next they said Don was misquoted. They also explained at great lengths that they never opposed the Simpson Tester rider and that they were the reason it got passed. Please try and keep up. Don is a good guy, just ask him. Please note the HEAVY sarcasm in my post. It is funny that he claims everybody else is a socialist but then puts his handout to the government 1st.

We wouldn't want the facts to get in the way of a good fantasy now, would we. :)
 
If wolves make it back to Utah then the Expo will go away.

Sweet! I may run some from Wyoming into Utah. This will help get those tags back in the draw pool.

$300K to fight against the ESA? That sounds about right. Shouldn't be too much resistance to that fight. If DP convinces Utah to do it, which shouldn't be too difficult from a state afraid of darn near everything, SFW will be set for the next decade. Scare tactics have worked well for NRA why not SFW.
 
The first cash cow was stealing piles of tags; his new one seems to be wolves of any size, shape, or color. Whats next the eastern reds?
 
Rep. Mike McKell: "I'm looking at some numbers for Idaho. I'm an avid sportsman. I hunt and fish and I've done it all over the west. I'm looking at numbers. Lolo elk numbers before wolf introduction 20,000. After wolf introduction 1,700.

I see the exaggeration has not ended. I did a little bickering with someone making this exact comment in the past. I have never seen any documentations that the herd was ever at 20k. I've seen grahps that indicate numbers in the 15k range. The winter of 1996 and 1997 cut those numbers down to about 8k. Im pretty sure that wolves did not kill 12k wolves in the Lolo area a year or two after they were introduced. Funny stuff :)
 
The first cash cow was stealing piles of tags; his new one seems to be wolves of any size, shape, or color. Whats next the eastern reds?

Welfare tags in other states should be in that list of possible revenue streams.
 
Give me $300,000 or I will quit taking 200 of your best tags every year. Did I read that right?

Tony Soprano would have been proud.
 
I'm ashamed he is from Utah.

Does anyone have realistic suggestions how we can dismantle the SFW?

SFW has the money which gets the political connections and we left out of the discussion.
 
I'm ashamed he is from Utah.

Does anyone have realistic suggestions how we can dismantle the SFW?

SFW has the money which gets the political connections and we left out of the discussion.

Show up at any meeting that Peay will spout off and return speak with facts to debunk his BS
 
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