Tag: ruch

Fish and Wildlife Service to Cut Staff

More job cuts might be on the way at National Wildlife
Refuges, but the new Congress will apparently be taking a
closer look at reductions announced by the US Fish and
Wildlife Service. Chuck Quirmbach reports:

Transcript

More job cuts might be on the way at National Wildlife
Refuges, but the new Congress will apparently be taking a
closer look at reductions announced by the US Fish and
Wildlife Service. Chuck Quirmbach reports:


The fish and wildlife agency already has announced plans to
cut more than 250 jobs over the next three years. Further
cuts are expected soon.


The agency blames a flat budget and rising operational and
personnel costs, but Jeff Ruch of Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility says visitors to the affected
refuges will find a less enjoyable experience at no real
savings in tax dollars:


“All the cutbacks in the refuge system are less than what
we’re spending in Iraq in a day. I mean to put it in some
perspective, we’re talking about literally millions of
dollars versus billions of dollars that are being
hemorrhaged out of other government operations.”


Democratic Congressman Ron Kind co-chairs a caucus on
wildlife refuges. He says he’ll try to address the job cuts
in the next federal budget.


For the Environment Report, I’m Chuck Quirmbach

Related Links

Budget Cuts to Close Epa Libraries?

An environmental watchdog group is criticizing President Bush’s proposal to slash funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s library system. The GLRC’s Sarah Hulett reports:

Transcript

An environmental watchdog group is criticizing President Bush’s
proposal to slash funding for the Environmental Protection
Agency’s library system. The GLRC’s Sarah Hulett reports:


The proposed budget would cut two million of the two-and-a-half
million dollars that pays for EPA’s libraries and reading rooms.


Internal EPA memos suggest the cuts could close EPA’s main
library and some of its regional libraries, and shut down the
system’s electronic catalog.


Jeff Ruch is with Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility. He says the proposed cuts threaten an invaluable
resource the serves government scientists and the public.


“And so for reports on particular sites – like for example:
contaminated sites or Superfund sites – they’re the only place in
the world where you can get some of the detailed investigations
that have been done.”


An EPA spokeswoman says the agency plans to make its physical
collections more widely available online, but it’s not clear how the
agency will pay for digitizing the documents.


For the GLRC, I’m Sarah Hulett.

Related Links

Corporate Marketing in National Parks?

The National Park Service is deciding whether to recognize corporate donors through plaques or banners in national parks. Some environmentalists are slamming the proposal. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner
reports:

Transcript

The National Park Service is deciding whether to recognize corporate
donors through plaques or banners in national parks. Environmentalists
are slamming the proposal. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin
Toner reports:


The National Park Service proposal says private donations could be
recognized in the form of nameplates, donor walls or commemorative
plaques. It says under no circumstances would company slogans or
logos be allowed.


Jeff Ruch is the director of Public Employees for Environmental
Responsibility. He’s afraid the change would lead to the
commercialization of national parks. Ruch also says his group has been
contacted by parks managers who fear the policy would make them
salespeople.


“They went into the parks service to work with nature, not to be a
fundraiser, and under these new rules, the workforce, the rangers and the
custodians, may be transformed into a sales force.”


But a spokesman for the Park Service says workers would not be asked
to raise money. Al Nash says the proposal provides strong direction for
parks managers to find appropriate ways to recognize philanthropy.


For the GLRC, I’m Erin Toner.

Related Links