MSBA Letter to OMTF Requesting Clarification of its Purpose:
An excerpt follows and the full text may be found at...
http://www.msba.net/f2f/msba_omt_2.htm
I think this letter helps to illustrate just how entrenched environmentalist
groups are in the processes that may decide the fate of your favorite
fishing holes.
Best,
Mike Flaherty
MSBA Political Committee Chairman
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On November 13, 2003 MSBA and a number of other Massachusetts organizations
attended a hearing before the Joint Committee on Natural Resources and
Agriculture at the Massachusetts State House in order to testify in favor of
bill S2043. This bill is also known as the Freedom to Fish Act. This bill
calls for scientific justification before a fishing closure can be put in
place. It also calls for evaluation criteria to be met in order to see if
the goal of a closure is being met. If the goal is being met then the
closure would stay in place, if not then the closure would be removed. It
is a very straightforward and reasonable bill. However, it is being
strongly opposed by The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) and The
Massachusetts Audubon Society. Both of these organizations have members on
the OMTF and these individuals were also in attendance at the state house
that day to testify against this bill.
MSBA does not question the right of these environmentalist groups to oppose
the Freedom to Fish Act. However it is now very clear to us that these
environmentalist groups are using the OMTF work in order to help persuade
legislators to vote against the bill.
This concerns our organization greatly. It seems clear that these groups
are in the OMTF pushing their own agenda and not working in an open-minded
voyage of discovery with regard to addressing the issues that may or may not
be needed in the OMTF Framework.
...
MSBA believes that the efforts by OMTF members Priscilla Brooks and Jack
Clark are clearly not in the best interest of the OMTF. In fact these
members could actually undermine the legitimacy of the hard work put forth
by the other members on the OMTF who are sincerely working hard to develop a
fair and balanced framework that would benefit the citizens of the
Commonwealth. As we have written before, the fact that Ms. Brooks' former
superior at CLF, Douglas Foy, is now the head of the Commonwealth's offices
of Environment and Energy should raise serious concerns about what CLF hopes
to gain by being a part of the OMTF.