The Republicans don;t want any research or conservation work being done
that might link profitable businesses like oil and cattle to damage to the
natural world...just like NRA shut down research into gun violence...we now
are in the control of a political force that welcomes an anti-science dark
age...I think we should take away all their modern medicine, smart phones
and graphite golf clubs!
On Mon, Feb 26, 2018 at 2:25 PM, Joel Geier <joel.geier@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
According to a Washington Post article today, the Biological Survey Unit
of the US Geological Survey may be slated for shutdown next month. This
link will take you to the Denver Post's reprint of the article, if you're
not a Washington Post subscriber:
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/02/26/donald-trump-government-slash/
To quote the article: "Having cut a deal earlier this month to increase
agency spending over the next two years, lawmakers expect in March to
approve formal appropriations bills that will allow them to re-order agency
priorities. Once the legislation passes, a House Appropriations Committee
aide confirmed Friday, USGS will be able to shutter both the crane program
and the Biological Survey Unit."
I couldn't figure out from the article whether and how this will impact
the Breeding Bird Survey and other programs that are run out of the
Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. The article specifically mentions that
the six staff who curate the unit's specimen collections could be cut,
along with the Whooping Crane recovery program.
This link lists some of the Patuxent center's current functions related to
birds:
https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/birds/
and this one gives a brief history of the Biological Survey Unit.
https://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/history/bsphist2.htm
"[Newt] Gingrich, a passionate naturalist [who knew???], said he does not
know whether it makes sense to eliminate the Biological Survey Unit.
Cutting the $1.6 million program, he acknowledged, would hardly make a dent
in the nation’s $4.4 trillion federal budget."
--
Joel Geier
Camp Adair area north of Corvallis
