From the Green Party website:
The Green Party of Michigan (GPMI) joins over 130 Michigan scientists in strongly opposing “anti-biodiversity bill” SB 78.
The bill, introduced by Senator Tom Casperson of Escanaba, passed both houses of the state legislature in the lame-duck session. Governor Snyder has until next Friday to sign the bill into law or not. GPMI urges him not to sign, and asks all Michigan citizens to call his office at 517-335-7858 and say the same.
“The problem with SB 78,” says GPMI chair Fred Vitale of Detroit, “is that it would prevent the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) from effectively protecting our state’s wildlife and natural ecosystems. SB 78 would change provisions in Michigan’s Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act in order to prohibit DNR from managing any of our public land to promote biological diversity. Yet that kind of management is exactly what is needed from DNR today!”
Linda Cree of Skandia, a member of GPMI’s Platform Committee and a representative to the national Green Party, agrees. “SB 78 would compromise DNR’s abiliity to fulfill its responsibilities to all of Michigan’s citizens. DNR works with various interests, from landowners to multi-national corporations to sportsmen and environmentalists, and the most important job they perform is to assure protection and proper management of our natural resources. This includes taking a long-range view and keeping future generations in mind. How can they do their job if they’re denied the important tool of managing for biodiversity?”
Tom Mair, a Green Party candidate for County Commissioner in Traverse City, points out: “The UN has recognized the critical need to protect biodiversity, and has declared 2011-2020 as the Decade on Biodiversity. Governments are being encouraged to develop strategies for protecting biodiversity. How ironic that our legislature would pass a bill that will have the opposite effect. Governments are supposed to protect biodiversity, not stop recognizing it.”
Adds Aimee Cree Dunn, a GPMI State Central Committee member and an instructor of Native and environmental history at Northern Michigan University: “Any knowledgeable hunter, fisher, or hiker knows we can’t have healthy wildlife populations without biodiversity. SB 78 was proposed and passed by legislators who are either ignorant of what it takes to maintain the land’s health, or are working for corporate interests against the best interests of the people. History shows that such measures to boost profits for corporations impoverish the land and the quality of life of the people who live, hunt, fish, and recreate there.”
Ellis Boal, GPMI’s candidate in the First Congressional District, says, “The corporate pressures on our public lands are tremendous. Our DNR is not meant to be a mere lackey for timber, mining, fracking, and other business interests. It needs to have the ability to set aside some lands for the purpose of maintaining critical species diversity, even when under heavy pressure from corporations. By undermining DNR’s power to do this, SB 78 would work against the public good.”
Linda Cree concludes, “Approving SB 78 would be a disaster. As the 133 Ph.D. scientists from Michigan universities say, conserving biodiversity is ‘crucial for maintaining healthy, sustainable ecosystems.’ Our forests are already reeling from tree deaths due to the damaged ozone layer, acid rain, invasive pests, and diseases. The best defense for our trees is to return their ecosystems to peak health. It’s urgent that we restore, maintain, and protect biodiversity, and allow DNR to manage for it.”
The scientists’ letter is at:
http://www.environmentalcouncil.org/mecReports/MIscientistsspeakoutagainstSB78.pdf