I agree, it's important to be polite when writing your comments, but people also don't need to be afraid or intimidated for wanting to tell the truth. Sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade.
On page 107 of the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (DPEIS), under §22.24 Eagle Falconry, the FWS writes (in part):
"the Service's Mountain-Prairie Regional Office (Region 6) has adopted a policy of requiring all golden eagles trapped for depredation to be released".
Well, that about excludes any more passage eagles to be taken out of the wild ever again by falconers, since falconers can only get eagles from the wild because of depredation.
And this is in a draft EIS! And that language was in the falconry section of the draft EIS! How many times has language like this ever been written in a Draft EIS where the specific falconry wild take of a non endangered , non threatened raptor was specifically crossed off the list?
I'm sorry, but sometimes you just have to call a spade a spade, even though it may appear to be aggressive and accusatory! We had eagle trapping open in depredation areas for over a decade. It took years to get eagle trapping opened the first time. I'm just lobbying to keep wild take of passage eagles open.
We are stakeholders, whether the FWS likes it or not. Congress said so. We are one of only two groups specifically mentioned by name in the Eagle Act allowing us to acquire eagles from the wild to practice our legal sport!
All my best,