WATERVILLE – The Maine Warden Service Dive Team on Friday (May 16) received a generous gift of underwater camera and surveillance equipment from the family and friends of Thomas W. Kopp, the late dean of admissions at Colby College.

Mr. Kopp drowned on Nov. 10, 2007, when the aluminum skiff that he, his son and three grandsons were in flipped over on Great Pond in Belgrade. Mr. Kopp was located in the pond the next day by his son, Blaine, who used similar underwater camera equipment to assist the Dive Team in its efforts to find his father.

Mr. Blaine Kopp introduced the equipment to divers, and over the last few months a friendship has formed to share ideas on how to use technology to improve search and recovery missions, particularly those that occur in dark, frigid waters where numerous underwater obstacles such as logs and boulders pose hazards.

Nancy Morrione, associate dean of admissions at Colby College, heard of how Blaine located his father by using the underwater camera system and decided to collect funds to purchase the technological gear for the warden service.

“Thank you to the Kopp family and to Mr. Kopp’s friends for your generosity, kindness and support,” said Colonel Joel Wilkinson, who accepted the gift on behalf of the Dive Team. “This heartfelt donation will bring comfort to people who one day too may be forced to endure the drowning death of a loved one. By using this equipment, warden divers will be able to bring a victim home sooner.”

The underwater camera equipment, valued at $3,500, will be an integral part of the Maine Warden Service Dive Team’s operations when it is called to perform search and recovery missions throughout the state. It includes an underwater camera/scope, a recorder, GPS unit and other documentation tools. The camera/scope is capable of surveying underwater landscapes in most situations, including dark waters when visibility by the human eye is limited to inches.

The camera is being named the “T.K. Cam” by the Dive Team in remembrance of Mr. Kopp.

“With this equipment we will be able to assess an underwater situation before we put divers into the water,” said Maine Warden Service Sgt. Terry Hughes, who is assistant dive team coordinator. “There’s not a dive I can think of where this equipment won’t be useful.”

Parker Beverage, dean of admissions and financial aid, presented the equipment to Col. Wilkinson during a gathering of Mr. Kopp’s family, co-workers and friends at Lunder House on the Colby College campus.

“May you use it infrequently, and when you do use it use it efficiently and wisely,” Mr. Beverage said.

Posted by Tom Remington

If you missed the live presentation of Open Air With Tom Remington yesterday, here is your opportunity to listen to that recorded program.

The show was a bit different than others but one I think you’ll enjoy nonetheless. I share with listeners some of the new “gadgets” I have at my disposal to make me even more obnoxious than I already am.

I’ve also included an update on Skinny Moose Media’s plan to do a remote live audio stream from the Kittery Trading Post in Maine for the annual Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Moose Lottery. It should be a good time. We will go live with our broadcast sometime around 4 p.m. and live drawing will commence at 6 p.m.

Are we getting carried away with blaming everything, good or bad, on global warming?

I thought it important to spend a bit of time explaining about the different kind of visitors I have at my blogs and some of the problems that arise when a visitor lands on one of my articles for the first time, reads it and leaves a comment based solely on the contents of that article. This is not necessarily the readers fault as I explain that it is impossible to link every story to every other article that fully explains my position on certain issues. This is just one of the many challenges of being a blogger. I think the explanation will help listeners and readers to better understand the dynamics of reading blogs all across the Internet.

The last part of the show addresses political issues. The main point I wanted to clarify was why, if I am going to support John McCain in the upcoming presidential election, I am spending time criticizing some of the things he says and does. As most of you know, I am a conservative. John McCain says he is but to me it is more of a pick and choose kind of conservatism. I am not one to simply agree with everything John McCain says just to be a good republican. So listen in and find out why.

Listen to the broadcast now!

Tom Remington

Here’s another photo of a “Whatzit”. Some of you I know will know what it is and others probably have never seen anything like it before in your life. I can tell you that I believe, if this photo was taken where I think it was, my Great-Grandfather sat upon that thing.

Milt Inman took the photo and sends along this hint: “Down South neverbe; Up North usetobe”

Tom Remington

PORTLAND, Maine— Today the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, and a Maine river activist filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Division over the agencies’ failure to take action on a petition to protect the dwindling Kennebec River population of Atlantic salmon under the federal Endangered Species Act.

“The Kennebec River salmon are on the verge of extinction, yet the agencies continue to stall,” said Ed Friedman, chair of Friends of Merrymeeting Bay. “The salmon runs on the Kennebec were once the stuff of legend, but today only a few fish make it up the river. Will the government simply wait until even these survivors have disappeared?”

In 2000, responding to pressure from conservation groups, the federal government protected salmon runs on several small rivers in coastal Maine under the Endangered Species Act. However, the government refused protection for salmon inhabiting larger rivers in the more heavily developed regions of the central coast and western Maine.

In May 2005, Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, Maine Toxics Action Coalition, and Douglas Watts submitted a petition to list the Kennebec River salmon population as endangered. Despite an agency finding in 2006 that the petition presents substantial scientific information indicating protection may be warranted, and a subsequent scientific report supporting the concerns of the petitioners, the agencies have failed to act.

“Atlantic salmon are as much a part of the natural and cultural heritage of New England as Pacific coast salmon have been a part of the history and character of the Northwest,” declared Mollie Matteson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “If we lose an iconic species like the salmon, it will be a tragic blow to our unique identity as a people and as a region, not simply an ecological loss.”

Since the eighteenth century, Atlantic salmon populations have declined precipitously throughout most of their range, both from severe water pollution and from dams blocking access to spawning grounds. Conservationists hope protecting the salmon under the Endangered Species Act will allow these and other threats to be addressed in time to save the salmon and other native migratory fish species from extinction.

Douglas Watts, author of the salmon petition, noted: “A decision on listing is nearly three years overdue. The Gulf of Maine fishery is in deep trouble; further delay on a listing decision is biologically and legally inexcusable.”

Posted by Tom Remington

Fish Stocking Report Now Available With Daily Updates

The spring 2008 stocking report now is available on the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife’s Web site, and it features daily updates from hatcheries staff.

Instead of hearing when and where the hatcheries have stocked well after the season has ended, anglers now will be able to easily locate waters freshly stocked with catchable trout.

Waters are grouped by county, listed by town, and include the date of stocking as well as the species, quantity, and size of fish released. Here is the web address to visit the fish stocking report page:
http://www.maine.gov/ifw/fishing/reports/stocking/index.htm

- Todd Langevin, Superintendent of Hatcheries, Augusta

Region A – Sebago Lakes

The month of May could be the favorite month of this fishery biologist. The birds are singing, the fish are biting and the black flies can’t quite carry you away yet. The best part of May for me is the start of field season, the time when the fishery staff of the Sebago Lakes Region begins to spend more time outdoors than in!

For the last two weeks Assistant Regional Biologist Jim Pellerin and I have been training Bill Yeo, our new creel survey clerk, to collect catch and effort data from anglers on Sebago Lake. Bill will be out on a boat speaking with anglers twice a week during the regular open water fishing season.

This week I will be out on various ponds boat stocking trout and salmon. Boat stocking is a method by which fish are transported and scatter planted by boat to reduce predation on newly stocked fish by shoreline predators like bass and pickerel. This method also spreads out the fish to better distribute the catch among anglers, particularly for legal size brook trout.

Low water temperatures at Lake Auburn went a long way towards reducing thermal stress on newly stocked togue during boat stocking last week. Stocking numbers of both togue and salmon have been significantly reduced at Lake Auburn in response to a noticeable drop in salmon growth observed during our annual sampling last November. My colleagues and I have transferred a fair number of smelt eggs to Lake Auburn to augment the recovering smelt population and to hopefully put the salmon and lake trout fishery back to its splendor of recent years.

No weekly fishing report this time of year would be complete without a mention of Sebago Lake salmon. The lake still is producing good numbers of 3- to 4-pound salmon with the occasional 5- to 7-pounder caught. The largest salmon confirmed by us was 7 pounds 10 ounces, although we have received reports of salmon exceeding eight pounds.

As the weather warms I begin to see more and more families bringing young children out to try their hand at fishing. I think it’s a wonderful thing to see a dad introducing his 4- or 5-year-old to fishing. While the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife stocks trout in several ponds for youth only fishing, I can make a pretty good case for targeting sunfish for that first ever fishing experience. Sunfish can be seen in schools off many public access docks in southern Maine and are easily caught without any special equipment. Best yet, sunfish are eager to bite on those warm summer days that are ideal for introducing a young child to fishing. It may be a bit early yet for sunfish angling but warmer days are swiftly coming. Best of luck!

–Brian Lewis, Fishery Biospecialist, Gray

Region B – Sidney and Belgrade Lakes

In recent years an important focus of the Region B fisheries staff has been to survey the region’s numerous brooks and streams. To our delight, our survey work has revealed a surprising number of populations of wild brook trout. But this is on the basis of biological surveys – electrofishing observations. Interesting to anglers but to at least some fishermen, not nearly so convincing of a straightforward probe with a fly rod!

So, when last week end’s promise of rain did not materialize, I decided to put off yard chores for the morning and go fishing. I know of several small streams within a few miles of the house that I wanted to check out. I had fished several of them before and had had some really fine brook trout angling. But there are others that I had never spent any time at. It was high time, plus, the work wasn’t going anywhere, it could wait at least until the afternoon.

I packed a lunch, rounded up the dog and my fly rod, and headed out on foot. I passed my parked ATV on the way out, but decided that it was a perfect day for a walk. With fine weather and a pursuing cloud of black flies, I headed down my road to a network of woods paths and logging roads. Just in case I ever wanted to return to my intended destination, I took my GPS along. Of course, I really didn’t have an exact “intended destination” at the time.

In a short time, I crossed several small brooks. All of them looked like they might hold stream brookies and some I knew did, but I kept walking. My goal was trying to find the right combination of an open tree canopy for casting and a light breeze for the black flies.

Finally, I found the breeze, but not the mature tree canopy I had wanted for casting. But the stream itself was the picture of a wild brook trout fishery. It was about 10 feet wide. Trees and shrubs crowded the banks and grew low to the water. With pools between drops and a number of snags, there looked to be lots of terrific hiding places for squaretails.

I tied on the smallest black woolly bugger I had, thinking that it was too still darned big for this little brook. Casting was out of the question. It was strip and flip downstream with a staggered retrieve back up. After two strikes and no sets, I put on a bead head prince, and bounced it off the bottom as it drifted downstream.

Switching to the nymph and drifting it changed everything. The brook came just “came alive” with fish. Within an hour, I had hooked and released a half dozen beautiful wild brook trout. The largest of these was 8 inches in length! Not bad for such a small stream. I decided that next time out here, since I had marked the site on GPS, I would bring my spinning rod and see what kind of luck I might have with a lure.

This sort of fishery exists throughout the region, and the state for that matter. For the most part, it is an underutilized resource. If you think about your own “neck of the woods”, you can most likely think of a brook or stream that is similar to the one I speak of above. That brook or stream might even be in your own back yard. Next time you have a moment, gear up and take that walk, you might be surprised at what you find. But be sure to ask for permission to access private property.

– Robert Van-Riper, Regional Fisheries Biologist, Sidney

Region C — Downeast

Primetime May fishing is here! Your favorite spring gamefish is feeding heavily and biting well, so now is the time to visit your favorite lake, river, or stream to enjoy the fishing.

Stream water temperatures have reached and are remaining in the mid-50s, triggering daily hatches of mayflies and caddis flies, sending brook trout into feeding binges. Trout hold a special place in Maine’s angling traditions. And what brook trout angler doesn’t pause while unhooking each fish to take a long, lingering look and a mental picture of the trout’s green flanks, orange and white belly, tri-colored orange-black-and white fins, and red spots with blue halos? Do your part to keep our trout populations healthy for the future – practice catch and release on part of your catch.

Good brook trout producers this spring have been Long Pond in Aurora, Simmons Pond in Hancock, Fox Pond in Twp 10 SD, Lower Hadlock and Witch-Hole Ponds on Mt. Desert Island, Pineo Pond (fly fishing only) in Deblois, West Pike Brook Pond in Twp 18 MD, Salmon Pond in Twp 30 MD, Berrypatch Pond in Twp 31 MD, Monroe Lake in Twp 43 MD, 6-Mile Lake in Marshfield, Indian Lake in Whiting, Lily (Anderson) Pond in Trescott, Huntley Creek Reservoir in Cutler, and Keene’s Lake in Calais.

Spring trolling for landlocked salmon and togue is producing good action on many eastern Maine lakes. Salmon are “on top” much of the time, but getting down 5-15 feet with a few colors of lead line or a downrigger may produce better action, especially on sunny or flat calm days. Landlocked salmon fishing is peaking, with the silvery leapers cruising the surface and the shores as the water warms in search of their favorite food – the smelt. Trolled streamer flies, metal wobbler spoons shaped like fish, and lures like Rapalas will trigger strikes followed by a few trademark salmon jumps before the fish is landed. Eastern Maine lakes like West Grand, Big Lake, Green Lake, Phillips Lake, Brewer Lake, Donnell’s Pond, and Cathance Lake have all been good producers of salmon this spring, with some quality-sized fish.

If you want to try brown trout fishing, visit Great Pond in Great Pond Plantation, Pennamaquan Lake in Charlotte, Simpson Pond in Roque Bluffs, Rocky Lake in Whiting, or Flanders Pond in Sullivan.

This week is landlocked salmon stocking week in Hancock and Washington County, when we stock 7- to 9-inch salmon. At most lakes, biologists boat the fish in aerated metal tubs, carrying them out to deeper water before stocking them. Once the fish are dumped into about 40 feet of water, most of them disappear within 3 or 4 seconds and will soon begin feeding on their natural foods in the lake – primarily smelts. Boat stocking has produced a higher survival rate compared to shore stocking in lakes with numerous shoreline predators.

Hatcheries also are busy stocking legal-sized brook trout into numerous eastern Maine ponds. Next week, we will stock togue at Green Lake in Ellsworth and will institute a low-density stocking at Donnell Pond in hopes of producing some above-average sized fish by controlling numbers stocked.

– Rick Jordan, Regional Fisheries Biologist, Jonesboro

Region D – Western Mountains

We began conducting a creel survey at Rangeley Lake on May 9. The survey will continue into July, when the fishing activity begins to slow down. In the first couple of days we interviewed 30 anglers that had logged 145 hours of fishing time. They reported catching 11 legal brook trout and 32 legal salmon. The salmon kept are averaging 17.8 inches, with the largest being 21 inches and over 3 pounds. The brook trout kept are running about 13.7 inches. The average length of the salmon in this year’s survey is smaller than the average lengths observed in past surveys, while the brook trout lengths are similar to those measured in earlier surveys.

Aziscohos Lake also will be surveyed this summer, but this study is not yet underway. However, Fern Bosse of Magalloway Plt. has placed creel survey boxes at launch sites around the lake. If you are coming off the lake after fishing, please report your catch by filling out a card at one of the survey boxes. The data collected will supplement the clerk survey and be very useful for the future management of Aziscohos Lake.

With the summer heat returning, the waters are warming and aquatic insect life is beginning to emerge. Anglers should target small brook trout ponds in the evening to take advantage of eagerly feeding fish. A few waters to try are Saddleback Lake in Dallas Plt., Little Jim Pond in Jim Pond Twp., and Big and Little Dimmick ponds in Caratunk.

Bass fishing also is starting to pick up as water temperatures warm. Smallmouth anglers should try Wilson Pond in Wilton, Webb Lake in Weld, Wyman Lake in Moscow, or the Kennebec River in the Norridgewock area. When the conditions are right, any of these waters will provide action for respectable sized bass.

– Dave Howatt, Fishery Biospecialist, Strong

Region E – Moosehead Lake

This spring we used trapnets to capture and mark wild brook trout in Secret Pond, a 14-acre pond located in Greenville, to obtain data on the population dynamics and to evaluate the regulations on this small trout pond. Secret Pond has a special slot limit regulation where all trout less than 6 inches and longer than 12 inches must be released alive at once. This regulation is designed to bolster the number of brook trout greater than 12 inches to produce a better quality fishery.

From April 30 through May 8, we fished 2 trapnets in two different locations for a total 378 net hours. We applied a temporary upper caudal fin clip then we released 161 brook trout, which ranged from 5 to 16 inches. The brook trout averaged 11.3 inches in length and 8 ounces in weight.

The number of recaptured fish from the 10-day netting operation provided enabled us to estimate the abundance of the brook trout population in Secret Pond. The population estimate of brook trout was approximately 321, about 23 brook trout per acre. We plan to estimate harvest and use on Secret Pond this summer by counting anglers and relying on voluntary angler and voluntary box data.

To get a grasp on the relative success of the region’s fisheries the Moosehead fisheries staff relies heavily on voluntary information. These records influence our management strategies such as including stocking and regulations. This information provides us with a general knowledge of the fishery and allows us to monitor various management plans and help determine their success. Your contributions as a voluntary record keeper or by filling out survey cards at access sites are a valuable asset to the Region’s fisheries staff. So next time you use an access site that has a survey box, we encourage you to take the time to fill out a survey card. Also, if anyone is interested in becoming a Record Book Keeper don’t hesitate to contact the Greenville Headquarters to obtain a Personal Fishing Record Book.

Annual spring stocking of legal- size brook trout is in full swing. Hatchery staff will be stocking these trout in easily accessible waters through out the region to create “instant fishing”. These waters are stocked on more than one occasion during the spring to insure fishing success longer into the season. Some of these waters would provide no fishing without a stocking program. Region E waters that receive catchable trout in the spring include: Fitzgerald Pond, Big Moose Twp.; Whetstone Pond, Blanchard Twp.; Hebron Lake, Monson; Shadow Pond, Greenville; Shirley Pond, Shirley; Gravel Pit Pond, Little Moose Twp. (Family Fishing Area); Drummond Pond, Abbot; Power Trout Pond, Little Moose Twp.; Spectacle Ponds, Monson; Long Pond, Long Pond Twp.; Doe Pond, Monson; Sawyer Pond, Greenville; Bennett Pond, Parkman; Prong Pond, Greenville; Big Wood, Jackman; Parlin Pond, Parlin Pond Twp.; West Outlet Kennebec River, Sapling; and Piscataquis River, Dover-Foxcroft and Guilford.

– Stephen Seeback, Fisheries Biology Specialist, Greenville

Region F – Penobscot

I’m happy to report that over the past week the last lakes in the northern areas of the region lost their covering of ice (except perhaps some of the lakes and ponds in Baxter State Park). With the winter that we had, many were predicting late May ice outs on these northern lakes, it’s amazing how quickly spring has progressed. In the next week to 10 days the fishing on these lakes should really pick up. As for the central and southern areas of the region, now is the prime time for spring fishing for salmon, trout and togue as the lakes have turned over, surface water temperatures have warmed and fish are in the mood for a feast.

We’ve heard that salmon are biting at both Upper and Lower Sysladobsis (Dobsie) Lakes, as well as East Musquash, Duck and West Lakes. Anglers should try sewn smelt trolled slowly, alternating between shallow rocky shoals and deeper water areas of the lake to locate feeding salmon. If using streamer flies plan to speed up quite a bit (2.5 to 3 mph). Occasionally pumping the rod when trolling streamers helps give the fly some action, imitating the movements of a wounded baitfish, thus producing more strikes. There are a plethora of spoons on the market these days that work well for all cold water fish, in fact spoons when trolled correctly often will out fish sewn smelts. The old stand by Mooselook Wobblers and Flash Kings are long time favorites of Mainers, however new lures introduced in recent years worth a try include the DB Smelt and Harry Lure. When it comes to trolling style, some folks like to troll around the entire lake, while others have traditional “hot spots”, or troll until they get a bite and then concentrate their efforts on that area, figuring that must be where the smelts are, and hence the salmon.

Cold Stream Pond still continues to produce salmon and lake trout; however we’ve noticed a drop off in fishing pressure over the last week now that other lakes are open. I’ve personally fished the lake three times this year with no luck (nothing new for me), but I know others that have caught some handsome salmon weighing 4 to 5 pounds! We’ve had several reports that the salmon and lake trout are biting at East Grand Lake as well. Remember, you are only allowed to fish with one line per angler at East Grand, and the daily bag limit on togue is one fish.

Finally, the State hatchery in Enfield started stocking fish this week in area ponds and lakes. Kids should take note that Pickerel Pond on the Stud Mill Road near Old Town was stocked with some beautiful brook trout that averaged over a pound a piece!
The Fire Pond in Burlington and Rocky Brook in Lincoln were also stocked this week with some fine looking spring yearling trout. As a special treat for youngsters, all of these waters are also receiving a few large retired trout as well, with most of these fish weighing between 2 and 4 pounds! Good luck and be safe.

– Richard Dill, Regional Fisheries Biologist, Enfield

Region G – Aroostook County

The ice sheet has retreated from most of the major fishing lakes in the region save those that are at high altitude and perhaps in the far north. Smelts are running in many of the lakes and anglers are starting to troll in Long Lake looking for the big salmon. Trout fishing in the small trout ponds in eastern Aroostook County is going straight ahead with many anglers being observed on the shoreline. Stocking of spring yearling brook trout has commenced in some area waters. Black flies will be out soon.

The rainfall of April 29 combined with melting snow pack caused flooding problems in northern Maine. You have read about the damage caused in Fort Kent and other communities. Water runoff also washed out hundreds of culverts and damaged several dozen major bridge crossings on private roads in the forests of northern Maine.

From Al Cowperthwaite, executive director of North Maine Woods, we bring this information for anglers planning trips to the back country:

“Roads were most severely impacted in the region east and west of Oxbow Township extending west to the Allagash River and north to the American Realty Road. Once above the American Realty Road, damage extended west to the St. John River, east to Route 11 and from there all the way north towards Estcourt, St. Francis and Fort Kent. Water crossings at Umsaskis and Henderson Brook on the Allagash River are still under water and indications are the bridges under the water may not be passable for some time. Although roads in the southern parts of North Maine Woods did not receive as much damage, the causeway across the west end of Seboomook Lake is impassable.

“Landowners, members of the Maine Warden Service and Maine Forest Service Ranger have been reporting locations where passage is not possible and, with mapping capabilities provided by the Maine Forest Service, we are mapping this information as a service to the public. The map is available at www.northmainewoods.org. This is a dynamic situation with road repairs taking place daily so information on the web site will be updated on Mondays and Fridays until conditions are somewhat back to normal.

“There are significant safety issues related to this event. Water has undermined many roads leaving only the top few inches of road surface remaining. Many bridges have also suffered unnoticeable structural damage. Passing over these road sections and unstable bridges can cause cave-ins, vehicle damage and serious personal injury.

“Due to these safety concerns, and to hasten the repair process, we are closing the American Realty Road and Fish River/Big Brook road systems to public travel until at least Memorial Weekend. Frost is still coming out of the ground causing unstable road surfaces and keeping unnecessary traffic off road systems will allow crews to do their job without interruption. If you have questions about a specific road, please feel welcome to contact us at the info@northmainewoods.org and we will do our best to help you.

“Forest roads south of the damaged region are in better than average condition for this time of year, so there are still many other opportunities to enjoy the North Maine Woods.”

– David J. Basley, Regional Fishery Biologist, Ashland

An Earmark + “K Street” Lobbyist = Massive Federal Land Grab

by David A. Ridenour

With his signature on May 8 to S. 2739, the ‘Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008,’ George Bush has now signed on to the establishment of de facto federal zoning along a 175-mile corridor running from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to Charlottesville, Virginia. It’s one of the largest federal land grabs in history.

On April 29, the U.S. House of Representatives passed this massive, pork-laden bill that included a provision creating the Journey Through Hallowed Ground (JTHG) National Heritage Area. Debate was limited to just 40 minutes.

Heritage areas are National Park Service preservation zones in which environmentalists, federal officials and local elitists influence local land-use decisions, frequently in ways that restrict property rights and move property ownership beyond the means of the less well-to-do.

Environmentalists and preservationists love heritage areas, because they can be used to curtail development.

Local elitists like them because they can help keep people they consider to be undesirable out of their communities. Minorities are harmed disproportionately when land-use restrictions cause home prices to soar. (It is perhaps no coincidence that lily-white Waterford, Virginia was at the epicenter of the effort to create the JTHG Heritage Area. Waterford has a rich black history — and history is apparently where the village would like to keep it.)

Politically well-connected developers like heritage areas because they can be used to establish near monopolies on real estate development opportunities. As the Heritage Foundation’s Ron Utt discovered, that’s precisely what the JTHG Heritage Area would do.

And federal bureaucrats love heritage areas because they allow them to get around little inconveniences to their central planning — inconveniences such as local elected officials.

House passage of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Heritage Area was hailed by its chief sponsor, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), and by the Journey Through Hallowed Ground foundation, the chief lobby organization behind the effort. Both noted the overwhelming vote in the House, 291-117.

The bill received support across party lines. In the House, supporters included Representatives Alan Mollohan (D-WV), Don Young (R-AK), William Jefferson (D-LA), Rick Renzi (R-AZ), and John Doolittle (R-CA). (Now all these gentlemen can say they have a second thing in common.)

But it is unlikely that support for the land grab was as great as the tally might suggest, as it was buried in an omnibus bill of over 60 other proposals — some enjoying wide support.

As Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT) noted during the limited debate, “Many of the sections of this bill are unable to stand on their own and have subsequently been bundled into a $300 million brew to avoid individual scrutiny… this omnibus was created with enough prizes that inevitably the bad will be overlooked and everything, the good, the bad and the ugly, will be able to cross the finish line.”

Approval of the JTHG Heritage Area is a case study in what is wrong with American politics.

The JTHG Heritage Area wasn’t approved by Congress due to overwhelming public demand for it. Borrowing from the Beatles, perhaps it got by with a little help from Wolf’s friends — a lot of Ben Franklins, Alexander Hamiltons, Abe Lincolns and George Washingtons.

You see, Congressman Wolf slipped a $1 million dollar earmark in the 2005 federal transportation bill — buried among 6,372 other earmarks — for the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Foundation. This is the very group that has led the lobbying effort for Wolf’s bill. More unusual still is that at the time of the earmark, the foundation had yet to even be incorporated and was operating out of the personal post office box of its executive director, Cate Magennis Wyatt.

It appears as though Congressman Wolf used taxpayer money to fund the lobbying campaign for his own bill. (Read more about his here)

Then there’s the unseemly Wolf-”K Street” lobbyist connection. Wolf’s land grab bill was written by Don Pongrace, who runs the Indian practice (yes, a lobbyist for Indian gaming interests) for Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, a large law firm with offices in D.C., London, New York and Moscow.

Not only that, but Pongrace apparently was authorized to speak for Congressman Wolf in meetings about the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Heritage Area.

It turns out that Pongrace serves on the board of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground foundation — the group receiving Wolf’s earmark largesse — and Pongrace’s wife has served the group as vice president.

Apparently, the concept of a conflict of interest is lost on the mega law firm of Akin Gump.

Interestingly, at the very time Frank Wolf was collaborating with Akin Gump on his bill, he criticized the firm for working for the Chinese government in its bid to acquire Unocal.

Wolf wrote to Akin Gump, “I question the appropriateness of an American firm… being on the payroll of the Chinese government… I immediately thought, ‘Is there no bright line to separate who lobbyists in Washington will and will not represent?’”

Is there no bright line, indeed.

Congressman Wolf introduces a bill written by a “K Street” lobbyist, arranges a $1 million earmark for the group lobbying for that bill — and employing the lobbyist’s wife — and he asks about bright lines?

Congressman Wolf also received help pushing his bill from National Park Service employees, who acted contrary to the Service’s official position, which calls for the creation of no additional heritage areas until a formal NPS program is created through legislation. Nonetheless, the NPS’s Brenda Barrett and Alma Ripps were dispatched to defend creation of the JTHG Heritage Area.

The full extent of the National Park Service’s assistance with the legislative effort is still unknown, as the Service has so far failed to fully comply with a Freedom of Information Act request. In violation of the FOIA law, it provided only incomplete records and documents that obviously had been altered (helpful hint for NPS employees: if you plan to alter documents, you might want to avoid using ruled paper).

Ethical questions surround the process through which this national heritage area was approved. A presidential veto was warranted.

-David A. Ridenour is vice president of the National Center for Public Policy Research.

Remember this photo of a “What is it”?

The photo was taken by Milt Inman at the Andover, Maine Historical Society. Here’s his explanation:

What Is It? The machine was used to safely let a team of horses and a large sled full of logs slowly down from a mountain side to the valley below. The sled, with 4 wheels or pulleys, was taken up to near where the logs were cut and anchored to a large tree. The cable wound around the pulleys in away that it went around each one twice and then back down the mountain to a pulley chained to a tree and then back up to the braking machine. Moving the long levers on the rear of the machine would apply the braking force needed to do its job of snubbing up the load of logs hooked to the cable and going down the mountain. I think it was called a “SNUBBER” or something else. Milt

If you would like, you can return to the original post and read what some of the guesses were.

Posted by Tom Remington

A federal judge this past week told the Department of Interior it had until May 15, 2008 to make a decision on whether to list the polar bear as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. And the environmentalists went wild!!!

If you follow the link category to the right under “Endangered Species“, you’ll find plenty of articles and links to the ongoing debate about whether the polar bear is in danger, whether the world is in danger and if it’s all caused by anthropogenic (man-made) global warming from carbon dioxide.

I laughed out loud a few days ago, when Al Gore, during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes said that those of us who won’t jump on his flim-flam bandwagon, were like the Flat Earth Society people and that we believe the lunar landing was staged on a lot in Hollywood. What was hilarious about it was that the Flat Earth Society was made up of people like Al Gore, who refused to listen to any kind of reasoning whether logical or scientific, that showed the earth wasn’t flat. I know of hundreds of people personally that are not sold on Al Gore’s theory of man-made global warming but are open to listening to debate on both sides of the issue. So who’s a Flat Earther?

Without debate, media, politicians and American citizens are blindly plowing ahead, often times willy-nilly, to save the planet - in this case the polar bear. Yesterday, the Houston Chronicle provided readers with an editorial about the plight of the polar bear. 100% of the piece (and yes I realize it’s an editorial) was presented as fact that ice is melting everywhere in the arctic, that this is caused by man and that the polar bear is dying off. They even repeated projections from recently discovered to be faulty models that said the bears would be extinct by the year 2050. There is just as much scientific evidence, particularly the newest data, to refute everything the Chronicle repeats as climate change facts.

But what I find as the most disturbing part of the editorial is their position on what they deem to be more important to the American people; affordable energy and a healthy economy or swallowing a politician’s theory on global warming.

It’s unlikely that in its final year in office, the administration will reverse its policy of protecting business interests instead of the environment and endangered species. The courts should not have to tell the administration to enforce environmental statutes rather than undermine or ignore them.

Protecting the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act isn’t a simple matter of adding it to a list and then we hope it gets better. There has to be intelligent discourse among sane people in order to realistically determine the all-encompassing affects of making such a move.

I have worked some in my past articles that I hoped would, if nothing else, get readers to ask questions and think more about this issue other than how it is going to affect next Christmas’ Coke commercials. Huge Hewitt of Townhall has also covered more in depth as to what actually can happen to our economy, through the federal permitting process for growth and development. He offers more thoughts on that today.

The short version: If the polar bear is listed, every activity that emits a greenhouse gas of any sort in the lower 48 AND which receives a federal permit or requires federal agency action of any sort –even if that permit or action is unrelated to the emission of the gases– those activities will be subject to new review by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and the approval may not be forthcoming, will certainly at least be delayed, and will almost certainly come with massive new costs attached.

Thus coastal building programs that require federal flood insurance or Army Corps of Engineers permits, highway construction that gets FHA funding, or joint NASA-private industry initiatives that result in launchings, all these and hundreds of thousands of additional federal permits and actions get gathered in under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act.

Hewitt practiced Endangered Species Act law for two decades and should have a pretty good understanding on how administering the Act works. In several of his articles about the polar bear listing, he refers to Section 7 of the ESA(pdf - scroll down to find Section 7) often. The first part of Section 7 I believe spells out quite clearly, even to those of us without a law degree.

SEC. 7. ø16 U.S.C. 1536¿ (a) FEDERAL AGENCY ACTIONS AND CONSULTATIONS.—(1) The Secretary shall review other programs administered by him and utilize such programs in furtherance of the purposes of this Act. All other Federal agencies shall, in consultation with and with the assistance of the Secretary, utilize their authorities in furtherance of the purposes of this Act by carrying out programs for the conservation of endangered species and threatened species listed pursuant to section 4 of this Act.
(2) Each Federal agency shall, in consultation with and with the assistance of the Secretary, insure that any action authorized,
funded, or carried out by such agency (hereinafter in this section referred to as an ‘‘agency action’’) is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered species or threatened species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of habitat of such species which is determined by the Secretary, after consultation as appropriate with affected States, to be critical, unless such agency has been granted an exemption for such action by the Committee pursuant to subsection (h) of this section. In fulfilling the requirements of this paragraph each agency shall use the best scientific and commercial data available.
(3) Subject to such guidelines as the Secretary may establish, a Federal agency shall consult with the Secretary on any prospective agency action at the request of, and in cooperation with, the prospective permit or license applicant if the applicant has reason to believe that an endangered species or a threatened species may be present in the area affected by his project and that implementationof such action will likely affect such species.
(4) Each Federal agency shall confer with the Secretary on any agency action which is likely to jeopardize the continued existence
of any species proposed to be listed under section 4 or result in the destruction or adverse modification of critical habitat proposed to be designated for such species. This paragraph does not require a limitation on the commitment of resources as described in subsection (d).

The two biggest remaining questions which may never get answered are; Is the polar bear really threatened and to what degree should we as a society carry out the protection of an animal species while putting our own well being at risk?

I know of nobody who wants to see the polar bear disappear. Many scientists don’t believe it will nor that it is threatened. What the Houston Chronicle failed to reveal, as has many other media sources, is that only two areas of polar bear populations are decreasing somewhat in size. The remainder are holding steady or growing. It is my opinion that we have as yet to scientifically determine whether the bear is in danger.

Remember that should the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decide to list the bear, it will be because they think man-made climate change will destroy the bear down the road somewhere. This has never been done before. Hewitt, from a perspective of having been there and done that, clearly points out that we don’t know what we are in for. The courts can only make rulings that are based on the content of the Endangered Species Act.

Do we really know what we are doing?

Tom Remington

This link takes you to a short story about the history of didymo or rock snot and some are asking if this new outbreak of the alga is some kind of more resilient hybrid form.

Tom Remington

On Thursday I posted a picture for readers to guess what it was. If you haven’t taken the chance to wager a guess, now is the chance to do that. In the process of gathering comments from readers, one of my faithful reminded me that I hadn’t revealed the previous “Whatzit” picture. That picture is below and this link will take you back to the original post so you can read all the comments about it.

So, what is it? As a reminder, this photo was sent to me by Gary Inman in Maine. Gary is a surveyor and needless to say he covers a lot of territory. Gary says the picture was taken in back of an old barn in Newry, Maine and the “thing” was taken from an old barn. He says it is actually the remains of a “six-holer”.

He was also eager to point out that he didn’t investigate closely enough to determine which hole got the most use.

Thank you Gary.

Tom Remington

As I was heading out the door late yesterday afternoon, my good friend Kevin from Congressman Don Young’s office sent me the below email. Congressman Young, from Alaska, is the ranking republican member of the House Committee on Natural Resources. I couldn’t help but have a laugh…….for more reasons than one.

Dear Colleague,

Is this Speaker Pelosi’s “commonsense plan” for reducing Americans’ energy costs?

NO! to ANWR’s 30 year, 1 million barrel per day supply of American oil

NO! to 2 Trillion Barrels of American oil shale

NO! to more clean burning natural gas

NO! to Clean Coal.

NO! to more energy exploration in the 85% of OCS off-limits to energy development

NO! to more energy exploration in the Intermountain West

NO! to more Nuclear Power

NO! to more Hydropower Energy

NO! to expediting alternative energy development

NO! to any form of energy that will provide meaningful relief from record high energy prices

NO! to 90% of the energy that fuels America’s economy

NO!! IS NOT AN ENERGY PLAN

Tom Remington

The May 1, 2008 edition of Open Air With Tom Remington is available for podcasting and streaming. Follow this link for information about the show and important links to topics discussed on the show.

Tom Remington