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Re: Proposed anti-plant legislation
>Why this legislation does not impose a fee on boat owners.
Because they lobbied hard to prevent that maybe ?
Sounds like a crock to me.
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Richard J. Sexton
richard at aquaria_net
Bannockburn, Ontario, Canada +1 (613) 473 1719
It is a crock. Increasingly the legislators in the U.S. (state & federal)
are selling their services to the highest bidders. Much of the introduction
of exotic aquatic plants can be traced to the movement of boats between
bodies of water. But that won't be addressed because boaters (sport and
commercial) are big-time lobbyists. Instead, the goal of the legislation is
to prohibit the sale of exotic plants--as if people purchased the plants in
order to introduce them into the local waters.
Aquatic gardeners--a non-lobbying minority--are being made a scapegoat.
Eutrophication is caused much more by agricultural runoff and improper
sewage treatment than by the introduction of exotic plant species, but the
weasels behind this legislation are not about to admit it.
Likewise the decline of native fish species is more likely the result of
their being supplanted by bait-bucket dumping and by the stocking efforts of
state's Game & Fish people.
Unfortunately, the only way to get your legislator's attention these days is
to outbid the special interests that currently own him/her.
Steve Gates
swgates at worldnet_att.net
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