I got the same reply as well. I took the time to respond and made sure to cc everyone again but I doubt any of us will receive any further response and I doubt they even took the time to read most of our emails in the first place...
The fact that this program is "designed to answer why" these populations haven't recovered tells me these bios either haven't done the proper research on these waterbodies, haven't taken the proper steps to recover them or don't know what they are doing. After this many years of research, surveys etc these bios should have a pretty clear picture of what is going on in these waterbodies and they should have a pretty good idea of the main changes that need to be made to fix them. Making these water bodies C&R didn't fix them like they hoped and I highly doubt these closures will play any role in fixing them either.
It obviously is not possible to change these bios minds so it seems we need to get someone to tell them to change their minds. The people that are taking time to contact or meet their MLA's are probably on the right track but likely on too small a scale to have any effect. I am thinking it will take some sort of petition with 1000's of signatures to have any serious effect.
For example a petition against these closures until it can be proven that all significant habitat related issues have been dealt with on a water body and that there is evidence it is still not recovering.
|