Economic crisis a big threat to the environment

Bow. Arrows. Binoculars. Camera. Gloves. Face mask. Masking scent. Eau de Doe. Safety vest. Lifting rope. GPS. Energy bars. Water bottle. Pee bottle (don’t confuse with previous). That backpack’s going to weigh 20 pounds.

The opening of the archery deer season is one of the best days of the year.

A tree stand is a good place to fill a tag, as well as to think deep thoughts and solve the world’s problems. So while scouting the other day, I ruminated on the $700-billion bailout for the nation’s financial markets and what it means for the environment where we hunt and fish.

The thoughts were jump-started by a newspaper story about Asian snake eels discovered in a New Jersey lake, where they survived winters under the ice.

Describing the Asian eel the story said, “Snake-like and aquatic, it can change its sex—a convenient quality when trying to breed and infest new turf. It’s a deadly predator, gobbling up all manner of aquatic life. Yet, in times of drought, the slippery creature also can remain burrowed in mud for weeks without food or crawl ashore and walk to a more suitable environment.”

How would you like those in the Great Lakes or Columbia River? But the fiscal crisis will become an excuse by politicians to justify reduced funding for efforts to keep more exotic species from entering our waters, fields and woodlands, even though the damage they do will continue long after our financial ship is back on an even keel.

The buyout will mean less money for federal environmental projects, such as fixing problems in the Everglades, and less trickle-down to state governments for projects that use matching grants.

We’ll be so focused on the short-term problem of keeping the economy from collapsing that people who want to do things that will harm the environment will have a field day. The economic mess will become an excuse to open more public lands and offshore waters to oil drilling, even though that won’t do anything to lower the cost of the gasoline we buy for our cars.

It will be an excuse for cutting the budget of the National Park Service while continuing subsidies to rice, orange and sugarcane growers.

It will be an excuse for companies that foul air and water to avoid spending to fix those problems, even though much of the cost could be covered by the annual salaries of the top dozen officers of the firms.

A tighter economy also will reduce private donations and foundation money for groups such as the National Wildlife Foundation, the American Lung Association, the Audubon Society and the Sierra Club, which have had to play a watchdog role that should be the purview of Congress.

Just remember that the long-term harm caused by lowering our environmental guard will be with us for decades, maybe even centuries after the current fiscal problems have faded into memory, like the Great Depression of the 1930s.

It’s something to contemplate while doing your wise-old-owl-in-a-tree act.