Wetlands Proposal Has Hunters Mad

10/28/2003 9:21:00 AM
Cox News Service

http://nrdc.org/news/newsDetails.asp?nID=1149

ATLANTA _ Hunters aren't just aiming at deer this fall _ they've got
Washington politicians

in their sights, too. A rebellion is brewing among sportsmen over Bush
administration

proposals to eliminate protection of wetlands crucial to wildlife.

"I don't get it," says Chuck Rabolli, who's hunted for 20 years. "I
know President Bush and

Dick Cheney fish and love the outdoors. I always thought they had the
same feelings I do

about it." A past chairman of the Georgia Wildlife Federation Board,
Rabolli is trying to

set up a meeting with U.S. Rep. Denise Majette (D-Ga.) to urge her
support for legislation

to halt the proposed rule change.

Maybe it's a sign of just how bad the Bush environmental policies have
gotten that hunters

_ dedicated gun owners who should be natural allies of this White
House _ have found time

at the onset of the deer season for political protest.

Even a winning lottery ticket wouldn't have kept the North Georgia
hunters in our family

from being in their deer stands before daylight last weekend. When I
hear them talk about

packing cold biscuits for breakfast and waiting for hours in the dark
woods, I try to

figure out what the thrill is. But when I hear them talk about seeing
a pileated woodpecker

against a morning sunrise or marveling at the handiwork of a perfect
beaver dam, I can

relate.

For Tommy Gregors, hunting is about family tradition as well as
experiencing the outdoors _

getting up before dawn, the aroma of deer sausage on the campfire in
the evening. He hunts

in the same southwest Georgia spots with his three sons that he once
did with his father

and grandfather. He's contacting Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) and U.S.
Rep. Sanford Bishop

(D-Ga.) about the issue.

Ron James likes to hunt in Georgia's Hancock County, where the small
town of Sparta comes

alive during hunting season. He calls the proposed rule "a hidden
tax," referring to the

cost to taxpayers of the loss of wetlands' cleansing qualities.
'`We'll just pay to clean

up the water when natural wetlands do it for us a lot cheaper," he
said.

According to the National Wildlife Federation's Julie Sibbing, a
recent directive to field

staff from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers

that some wetlands are no longer part of their jurisdiction threatens
a sporting legacy

that knows no partisan or philosophical lines. Agency officials claim
the rule change is

mandated by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that "non-navigable" wetlands
can't be protected on

the sole basis of their harboring migratory birds.

But that was an extremely narrow ruling and no reason to throw out
long-standing

protections of small bodies of water that may run dry at times:
mountain springs, tiny but

crucial to some of the headwaters of major rivers; Midwestern prairie
potholes, prime

breeding grounds for ducks; some forest swamps, ideal for hunting
ruffed grouse and wild

hogs, but also precious habitat for rare birds.

David Waller, who recently retired as director of the Georgia Wildlife
Resources Division,

wrote EPA officials several months ago to warn that failure to protect
so-called isolated

wetlands would have a particularly acute impact on coastal Georgia,
where five new

developments are poised to eliminate more than 30,000 acres of coastal
habitat.

"The term `isolated wetland' is actually a misnomer since all of these
habitats are

connected hydrologically to other water bodies," Waller said. "They
are crucial to ground

water and surface water quality."

That is precisely what 43 of the nation's leading ecologists, members
of the National

Academy of Sciences, said in a letter to the president opposing the
change. That letter

fell on deaf ears as did the cryptic words of writer Ted Williams of
Fly Rod and Reel

magazine, who took aim at the vice president. ``Cheney, a dedicated
fly fisher, adores

trout,'' he wrote, ``except, apparently, when they get in the way of
rich developers.''

Martha Ezzard writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution