DEC's Mute Swan Management Plan

[NE Waterfowler]

The DEC has recently issued its revised draft of the Mute Sway Management plan. As many of you know, these birds are a non-native, invasive species that can, and do cause problems for the local ecology. Last year, the plan was scuttled by state senator Ken LaValle. He is a known bunny hugger and introduced legislation that stopped the DEC's study until a "proper study" could be done. I found that a curious choice of words, since the DEC is supposed to be the state's profe...ssional and expert arm in the area of our environment. I recently received an email from the senator regarding the new (2015) draft that the DEC put out. I sent him an email expressing my outrage at his misuse of his political power to further his personal agenda and interfere with a state sanctioned scientifically backed proposal. Still, Mr. LaValle is a long time and powerful member of the state senate. One email from an unhappy constituent will hardly alter his course. In fact, I doubt that a flood of emails would change his opinion.

 

Over the years I've come to realize that it is very difficult to politically mobilize even the most dedicated interest groups.  Ideally, we'd want to flood the politicians and the DEC with emails and letters.  Sadly, for whatever reason that seldom happens.  So, I recently tried another approach.  I posted a link to a poll regarding the proposed waterfowl season dates for next year. I received a good response, so banking on that, I created another poll to determine the climate for a hunting season on mute swans. If the results of the poll are favorable to a hunting season, I will forward the results to the DEC and every member of the state senate and assembly urging them to support the DEC's efforts.

Please take a minute to participate in the poll:
http://www.poll-maker.com/poll268663x40C5ec73-10

 

NEW

 

[mike rossi]

1) If you click on the link you provided this is what loads:

 

Something Went Wrong
Sorry, there was a problem with this link: http://www.poll-maker.com/poll268663x40C5ec73-10
You can now continue to this website, or go back to the page you were on before.
Remember, only follow links from sources you trust.

 

This part: Remember, only follow links from sources you trust, is going to scare people. The reason the link is directed to that intermediate page is becuase you copied off of face book. That is not restricted to face book, if you copy a link off of this site for example , it does that sometimes. The solution is simple, don't copy the link from a site you posted it on, instead, open the page and then copy the link. No doubt if you fix that, more people will take your survey.

 

2) Expanding on our discussion about Senator Lavalle on the other post, which is already too long; Lavalle is 75 years old. Thus, I wouldn't be overly concerned about him. 

 

He did succeed in passing the Pine Barrens Protection Act of 1993, so he is not all bad. Bills he is currently sponsoring do not include any mute swan legislation, but a deer management bill he sponsored is pending, S - 4151-2015.  

 

Lavalle's top campaign contributer is the NY State Teachers Union. He is on the Senate Environmental Conservation Committeee in 2015. He is a republican representing senate district 1. He won the last election with 66.4% of the votes cast. Like I said, however, he is 75 years old...

 

The information I stated was derived from  http://www.nysenate.gov/senator/kenneth-p-lavalle/legislation   and   http://ballotpedia.org/Kenneth_LaValle

 

As I responded to you elsewhere, the finalization of the DEC mute swan plan is currently hinging on the outcome of the pending public review, it is not the legislative nor the court arena at this time. As I also indicated, I am skeptical that any additional legislation will be introduced to block the DEC, and I believe even if it is, it won't see the light of day. I am emphasizing this not to be combatant and argue with you. I am stressing it because the hunting community tends to allow certain politicians to become (*) Red Herrings of sort. We have a culture of bashing politicians, however, what we need to develop is a culture of participating in public review and other policy processes, as well as understanding various issues as they are.  The current action regarding the mute swan plan epitomizes this and is a prime example. We still have people refusing to engage in public comment. And no offense, focusing on a 75 year old state senator. 

 

(*) Definition of Red herring

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue.[1] It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or characters towards a false conclusion. A red herring might be intentionally used, such as in mystery fiction or as part of a rhetorical strategy (e.g. in politics), or it could be inadvertently used during argumentation.

 

The origin of the expression is not known. Conventional wisdom has long supposed it to be the use of a kipper (a strong-smelling smoked fish) to train hounds to follow a scent,( and train them to stay on the correct trail, not switch or trail non target game) or to divert them from the correct route when hunting; however, modern linguistic research suggests that the term was probably invented in 1807 by English polemicist William Cobbett, referring to one occasion on which he had supposedly used a kipper to divert hounds from chasing a hare, and was never an actual practice of hunters. The phrase was later borrowed to provide a formal name for the logical fallacy and literary device

 

Edited March 20, 2015 by mike rossi