From: alra@governance.net Subject: Grassroots ESA Coalition Works To Fix ESA Land Rights Network American Land Rights Association PO Box 400 – Battle Ground, WA 98604 Phone: 360-687-3087 – Fax: 360-687-2973 E-mail: alra@landrights.org or alra@governance.net Web Address: http://www.landrights.org Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE – Washington, DC 20003 Grassroots ESA Coalition Works To Fix ESA DO YOU WANT TO FIX THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT? *****After reviewing this message, please return the information at the bottom with your name and address, town, zip, phone, fax and e-mail. Be sure to let us know if you want your organization to be listed as a participant in the Grassroots ESA Coalition. Are you concerned about the Endangered Species Act? If so, you may want to consider participating with over 300 other organizations already part of the Grassroots ESA Coalition. Congress is getting geared up to modify the Endangered Species Act. Several bills have been introduced. The debate will be furious during the first two years of the Bush Administration’s second term. Many landowners and users of the Federal lands have felt powerless to influence the course of events. Over 300 organizations got together in 1994 and formed the Grassroots ESA Coalition to help guide the direction of the ESA debate and the final result in Congress. After reading this material we hope you feel that you and your group should become a participant. Please examine our Mission Statement and a short list of a few of the organizations who are participants in the Grassroots ESA Coalition. If you feel comfortable with the goals and perspective of the Grassroots ESA Coalition, please fill out the coupon at the bottom of this message. There is no charge to join the Coalition at this time. However, it is very expensive to pay for the conference calls, printing, postage and telephone charges for faxes. It’s likely that over one million letters, faxes and e-mails will need to be sent over the next year. It could be well beyond that. Your contribution of $500, $200, $100, $75, $50 or $25 is entirely voluntary but is really important to make sure Congress hears your voice. There is a great deal to do and very little time and money to do it. Your participation will help broaden the Coalition and quickly give us more credibility in Congress. MISSION STATEMENT A diverse and large coalition of organizations representing everything from environmental groups and property owners to farmers, ranchers, miners, loggers and outdoor recreationists has publicly unveiled principles for establishing a new way to conserve our nation’s endangered species. The Grassroots ESA Coalition organizations united to promote these principles so that the old Endangered Species Act could be reformed in a way that benefits both wildlife and people, something the old law has failed to do. The old law has been a failure for endangered species and for people. It has not led to the legitimate recovery of hardly any endangered species while costing billions of dollars and doing tremendous harm. The old way destroyed trust between people and our wildlife officials. We need to reestablish trust so we can conserve wildlife - no program will succeed without the support of our farmers, our ranchers, our citizens. The old law failed because it is based on flawed ideas. It is founded on regulation and punishment. If you look at the actual law by section you see it is all about bureaucracy - consultation, permits, law enforcement . . . there isn’t even a section of the law called “conservation”, “saving” or “recovery”. It is a bureaucratic machine and its fruits are paperwork and court cases and fines - not conserved and recovered endangered species. What the Grassroots ESA Coalition and all Americans want to see is a law that works for wildlife, not one that works against people. The future of conservation lies in establishing an entirely new foundation for the conservation of endangered species - one based on the truism that if you want more of something you reward people for it, not punish them. The debate that will unfold before the public is one between methods of conservation. The old way is shackled to the idea that Washington bureaucrats can come up with a government solution through national land use control. It’s supporters do not want to acknowledge that the law has failed because doing so would mean an end to the influence and power they have under the old system. The Coalition sees a new way that can actually help endangered species because it stops punishing people for providing habitat and encourages them to do so. It creates an opportunity for our officials - for government - to reestablish trust and work with and earn the support of citizens. The Grassroots ESA Coalition is working to promote this new way. If you think that government bureaucracy works, that welfare stops poverty, or that the DMV and Post Office operate the way they should, then the old endangered species program is for you. If you do not, and you want to conserve endangered species without wasting money, intruding on people’s lives and causing more pain and problems, then the Grassroots ESA Coalition is for you. Grassroots ESA Coalition, P. O. Box 423, Battle Ground, Washington 98604 -- (360) 687-2471 — FAX (360) 687-2973 Short List of Sponsoring Organizations (300 others): Alaska Miners Association Alliance for America American Land Rights Association American Policy Center Americans For Tax Reform Alliance for Resources and Environment Blue Ribbon Coalition California Forestry Association Communities for a Great Northwest Common Sense for Maine Forests Competitive Enterprise Institute Curry County Oregon Project Davis Mountain Trans-Pecos Heritage Defenders of Property Rights Family Water Alliance Grassroots for Multiple-Use Idaho Farm Bureau Landowners Association of North Dakota League of Private Property Voters Montanans for Multiple-Use National Association of Mining Districts National Center for Public Policy Research National Trappers Association Nationwide Public Projects Coalition New Mexico Cattle Growers Association Oregonians In Action Oregonians for Food and Shelter Pennsylvania Landowners Association Rhode Island Wise Use Washington Contract Loggers Association Please respond to these questions and return to the Grassroots ESA Coalition. ----- 1. I want to participate in the Grassroots ESA Coalition as an individual (YES) (NO). -----2. Please list our organization as a co-sponsor. (YES) (NO) Name Address Town State Zip Phone Fax E-mail Organization (Reminder – Can you authorize this group to be a participant in the Grassroots ESA Coalition? There is no cost.) Please e-mail your response back or fax to (360) 687-2973 Please forward this message as widely as possible. -- To unsubscribe from this mailing list; please visit http://governance.net and enter your email address.