Editor:
The targeted people, businesses, communities and counties should be concerned about the decision to put the Gunnison Sage Grouse on the IUCN's Red List as a globally "endangered" species. The USFWS is a member in the foreign IUCN alliance, and briefly mentions the Swiss international organization in the Federal Register Notice.
The IUCN Red List information states that the threats to the species are, "Residential and commercial development, housing and urban areas, agriculture and aquaculture, annual and perennial non-timber crops, agro-industry grazing, ranching or farming, energy production and mining, oil and gas drilling, transportation and service corridtors, roads and railroads, utility and service lines, biological resource use, hunting and trapping terrestrial animals, intentional use (species is the target), human intrusions and disturbances, recreational activities, work and other activities, natural systems modifications, dams and water management use, small dams, invasive and other problematic species and genes, problematic native species." See www.iucnredlist.org/details/classify/160030035/0.
Needless to say, the IUCN's list of threats and targets for regulation will adversely affect everyone and every business in the targeted counties and beyond. There is much more to the proposed listing of the Gunnison Sage Grouse that is not disclosed in the Federal Register notice. The Endangered Species Act is based upon numerous "treaties" and "other international agreements" and operates under "international standards." An additional clue might be found in the National Environmental Policy Act, Section 102, 42 U.S.C. 4331(F) where Congress directed "all" federal agencies must ("shall" support international "initiatives, resolutions and programs." Those could include the integrated initiatives, resolutions and programs of the IUCN, the World Conservation Congress, the World Parks Congress, the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development's recent 10-year program entitled "The World We Want," the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of the Party's "Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2012" and their related "Aichi Targets."
When integrated and taken together, the targeted people, businesses, communities, counties and state will have to "do more with less" unless they stand up and timely object and assert their respective liberties, rights and powers.
John Nelson
Yellow Jacket