[env-trinity] Field & Stream Magazine Gives Schwarzenegger “Outdoor Villain of the Year” Award

[Tom Stokely]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Dan Bacher 
Sent: Tuesday, November 25, 2008 4:27 PM
Subject: Field & Stream Magazine Gives Schwarzenegger “Outdoor Villain of the Year” Award 


Field & Stream Magazine Gives Schwarzenegger �Outdoor Villain of the Year� Award�


A national magazine, Field & Stream, has bestowed California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger with the well-deserved top honors in this year�s �Heroes & Villains Face-Off" � as a villain - for his absymal record on fish and the environment.�


Photo: Schwarzenegger gushes about "solving" global warming while California's salmon and other fish populations collapse, due to his devastating environmental policies. Photo from the Governor's Office.




schwarzenegger_at_climate...


Field & Stream Magazine Gives Schwarzenegger �Villain of the Year� Award�


By Dan Bacher�


National magazines and corporate media have often lauded Governor Arnold Schwarzeegger for being the �Green Governor.� By failing to research how Schwarzenegger has actually governed since taking office in California in fall 2003, these publications have accepted at face value the constant stream of photos, press releases, video clips and other propaganda from the Governor�s office that portray the former actor as the �green energy� guru.�


Schwarzenegger�s face has graced magazine covers depicting him as the voice of �responsible� environmentalism in spite of his abysmal record in regards to fish and the environment. While Schwarzenegger jets off to one �green energy� and �climate change� conference after another throughout the country, his environmental policies have brought salmon and other fish species to the brink of extinction.�


Finally, the editors of a national magazine, Field & Stream, have refused to join the cult of Schwarzenegger worshippers and have bestowed the Governor with the well-deserved top honors in this year�s �Heroes & Villains Face-Off � as a villain.� The magazine is blasting the �Fish Terminator� for slashing funding for salmon and steelhead restoration, attempting to close many state parks and recreational areas, and presiding over the collapse of Central Valley fall chinook salmon.�


�Playing the rake is not new for Gov. Schwarzenegger, whose first turn as the Terminator saw him working to destroy the world instead of saving it,� the magazine said. �And the governor�s win will not come as any surprise to fishermen in the Golden State, where funding for salmon and steelhead restoration has been dramatically cut despite sharply declining populations for years. During the governor�s tenure, the Chinook salmon fishery in California collapsed, and on May 1, 2008, commercial and recreational salmon fishing were both banned along the West Coast in California and much of Oregon.��


The magazine also criticized Schwarzenegger for signing a ban on .50 caliber rifles and presiding over the dropping of the percentage of licensed hunters in California to 1%.�


Worst of all, he�ll "be back" in 2009, according to the magazine, Russian Prime Minter Vladimir Putin, R&B singer Bobby Brown and CBS News Sunday Morning contributor Nancy Giles were also on the Villain list, but considered lesser offenders than Governor Schwarzenegger.�


�Schwarzenegger will be enjoying a stocking full of coal as the biggest outdoor 'Villain' of the year; while country musician Miranda Lambert, named the 'Hero' of the year, should receive a mountain of gifts,� the magazine stated.�


I congratulate Field and Stream for doing their research and giving Schwarzenegger, the worst Governor for fish and the environment and California history, the dubious �villain� award.�


In addition to the transgressions that Field & Stream has mentioned, Schwarzenegger has presided over the unprecedented decline of four Delta pelagic fish species � delta smelt, longfin smelt, threadfin shad, and juvenile striped bass. The collapse occurred due to increased state water project exports from the California Delta under his administration, in addition to increases in toxic chemicals and invasive species in the West Coast�s largest and most significant estuary.�


Rather than trying to restore these rapidly dwindling fish populations, Schwarzenegger has only worked to make matters worse by campaigning for an environmentally destructive and enormously costly $9.3 billion water bond with Senator Diane Feinstein. Although Schwarzenegger and Feinstein failed to generate the political momentum to place the bond measure on the November ballot, there is no doubt that they will be working to get the bailout bond for corporate water contractors on the June ballot this coming year.�


Schwarzenegger's $9.3 billion water bond, opposed by a broad coalition of recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, Indian Tribes, conservation groups and outspoken farmers, would provide for the construction of two new reservoirs and "improved water conveyance" - the Governor's code language for a peripheral canal.�


Most recently, Schwarzenegger promoted his water bond proposal at a press conference with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Mike Chrisman, California Secretary of Resources, in Los Angeles on November 14, the day after �an agreement in principle� was reached between Oregon, California, PacifiCorp and the Bush administration over Klamath Dam removal�


"Now, let me just say that we all know that we have a very serious water problem in California and, of course, we want to make sure that we build more water storage, above-the-ground and below-the-ground water storage, but they have to be strategically located," stated Schwarzenegger, changing from his role as the "Green Governor" to "Arnold the Dam Builder."�


These proposed dams and the canal would create the infrastructure to export even more water out of the imperiled Delta when what we actually need is reduced pumping and water exports.�


In addition to his push for a water bond, the Governor's war on fish and the environment has included:�


� The refusal of his appointed officials on the State Water Resources Control Board and regional boards to hold agricultural polluters to the same standards as industry and municipalities, in spite of pleas by fishermen, conservationists and farmworkers.�


� His veto of historic suction dredge mining legislation, sponsored by the Karuk Indian Tribe and California Trout, last year. More recently, the Governor pressured the Legislature to remove interim suction dredge mining restrictions that were to have been incorporated as part of an omnibus resource trailer bill, AB 1338 (Huffman) that was adopted by the Legislature last Monday night as part of the state budget package and sent to the Governor.�


� His persistent fast-track advocacy of "no fishing zones" on the California Coast, under the guise of "Marine Protected Areas." These areas kick sustainable commercial and recreational fishermen off the water while doing nothing to stop water pollution, habitat degradation, water diversions and water exports that have resulted in huge fishery declines. Could it be that Schwarzenegger is removing fishermen from the water, forcing them to find work elsewhere, in order to eliminate the most persistent critics of his water policies?�


� The failure by the DFG under the Schwarzenegger administration to support a volunteer rescue of 1831 striped bass, Sacramento and tens of thousands of blackfish, Sacramento split tail, largemouth bass and other species last November when the Bureau of Reclamation drained Prospect Island in the California Delta. Before the volunteers were finally allowed to do the rescue, thousands of fish died, making Prospect Island the largest fish kill ever documented on the Delta and one of the largest fish kills in California history.�


� The vetoing of AB 1806, legislation sponsored by Assemblywoman Lois Wolk (D-Davis) to provide for fish rescue plans in order to prevent future fishery disasters - like the one at Prospect Island - from taking place.�


Finally, a national magazine has recognized Schwarzenegger for the environmental villain that he is. I greatly applaud Field & Stream for refusing to swallow the �Green Governor� hype hook, line and sinker, pardon the pun, as other publications have done and for actually looking at his dismal record on fish and the environment.�


For the complete list of Field and Streams villains and heroes, go to http://www.FieldandStream.com/villains. To read more about all of the 2008 F&S heroes and villains, see �A Year in Review: The best (and worst) of hunting and fishing� in the Dec. �08/Jan. �09 double issue.�
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