To put it politely, the US Department of Agriculture is batty.

Whenever a government entity or an attorney inappropriately appends a non-disclosure warning to an email, you can be pretty sure – without reading the email – that it will be nonsense … often nefarious nonsense.

It holds true for the USDA’s email about caving in to “cavers” over the White Nose Syndrome epidemic that is killing bats.

Farmers shouldn’t have to track everything that the USDA does; but it looks like they’re going to have to – the USDA has put recreational pursuits ahead of protecting their crops.

Whenever farmers’ crops are in jeopardy, we’re all in jeopardy. 

 

From: Susan Chandler

Date: March 29, 2013 1:56:50 AM EDT

To: FS-White Nose Syndrome <wns@fs.fed.us>

Cc: jennifer_solomon@billnelson.senate.gov, darren_achord@rubio.senate.gov

Subject: Re: U.S. Forest Service – Cave and Abandoned Mine Management for White-Nose Syndrome (WNS): record # 1 – 138 u

 

Dear Mr. Schillie,

 

I don’t understand the report conclusions, sir.

 

White-Nose Syndrome is an epidemic threatening to make bats extinct – an epidemic spread by human activity – and the USDA and is not going to press the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to put bats on the endangered species list.

 

A great deal of tax dollars were spent on this process. Proportionately, little of those dollars came from “cavers” whose recreational desires were duly noted in the report, while a great deal came from unmentioned farmers, whose crops will be endangered by an exponential increase in insect populations from bat die-off. Logically, farmers’ pesticide use will increase as bats die off … and our waterways, aquifers, estuaries and ocean fronts are already awash in agricultural pesticide runoff.

 

Frankly, the United States Department of Agriculture failing to note a looming threat to agricultural production nationwide is stupefying, Mr. Schillie; every bit as stupefying as the Keystone XL EIS being authored by industry insiders.

 

Sincerely,

 

Susan Chandler

 

http://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5414178.pdf

 

 

On Mar 28, 13, at 5:55 PM, FS-White Nose Syndrome wrote:

Dear Interested Party,

The U.S. Forest Service has recently completed an Environmental Assessment (EA) for Cave and Abandoned Mine Management for White-Nose Syndrome.  This assessment covers Rocky Mountain Region National Forest System lands in Colorado, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Kansas. 

Please visit the following website for a copy of the EA and Forest Supervisor decision documentation:

Http:// www.fs.usda.gov/goto/r2/wns

For general questions, please contact Rick Truex at (303) 275-5022.  To request hard copy versions of this information, please contact Daniel Mundell at (303) 275-5255.

Sincerely,

Trey Schillie, Interdisciplinary Team Leader

 

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