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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsGOP’s Pro-Python Policy Devastates Florida’s Everglades
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/31/415422/gop-python-policy-everglades/GOPs Pro-Python Policy Devastates Floridas Everglades
By Pat Garofalo on Jan 31, 2012 at 11:45 am
Florida, the location of todays presidential primary, is dealing with a host of problems, including a moribund housing market and long-term unemployment that is the worst in the nation. As if that wasnt bad enough, according to a new study out today, Floridas Everglades ecosystem is being devastated by Burmese pythons:
The first reports of Burmese pythons in the Florida Everglades began in the 1980s; a breeding population wasnt confirmed there until 2000.
Since then, the numbers of pythons sighted and captured in the Everglades has risen dramatically. According to Linda Friar with Everglades National Park, park personnel have captured or killed 1,825 pythons since 2000.
Now researchers have shown that just as python populations established themselves, the native mammals of the regions began to decline severely.
What if the stock market had declined that much? Think of the adjectives youd use for that, said Gordon Rodda, an invasive-species specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
The Obama administration has actually moved on new regulations meant to limit the damage wrought by these snakes, finalizing a rule making it illegal to import or move Burmese pythons across state lines. We must do all we can to battle its spread and to prevent further human contributions of invasive snakes that cause economic and environmental damage, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.
House Republicans, notably, derided this regulation as damaging to small businesses and job creation, going so far as to bring a snake breeder to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who said the rule could devastate a small but thriving sector of the economy. A House Republican report even derided the regulation as a solution in search of a problem. But that problem is all too real in Florida, where Snakes on a Plane is closer to a horrifying reality show than it is to a job creation plan.
proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)MadHound
(34,179 posts)Put a bounty on every dead snake brought in. Hunters will clear out the Everglades in no time. Mankind has a knack for hunting creatures quickly to extinction.
Lochloosa
(16,068 posts)visited, put it on your list of places to visit...just go in the early spring. Summers can be really nasty.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)The 'glades are pretty core, but they're not unnavigable.
Make the bounty high enough, and people will get in there.
MadHound
(34,179 posts)Yes, it is tough territory, but if you put a decent bounty out there, a lot of the locals will take you up on it.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)XemaSab
(60,212 posts)so they don't suggest eating them.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)It can't be coincidence that *every* *single* *thing* they do seems to be intended to make things worse... and it's always for profit. Always.
Botany
(70,581 posts)And then the snakes need to be killed .... the same thing for
wild hogs, goats, and other invasive critters.
This reminds of John Kasich stopping an executive order banning
the trade of exotic animals in Ohio in March 2011 because he didn't
want to "stifle the free markets" (rough quote) and then we had the
tragedy of last November when the police had to kill all those
wild animals when they got turned loose.
tabasco
(22,974 posts)are wrong about everything.
Spirochete
(5,264 posts)but here they are, valiantly defending their fellow reptiles...