Last Chance to
Defeat Senate Bill 129
Dear Friends of Wildlife, Now we are asking you to contact the state Representatives in your town, who work for you. Ask them to please Vote No on SB 129. The House session is June 4, next Friday, so please write or call before then. Thank You!
Find Your Representatives' Email Addresses by going to this link http://gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/default.aspx
You may also give them a phone call. NH's legislators are usually happy to hear from constituents and often like getting phone calls. But email is good too, whatever your preference is fine.
SB 129 will sell out the threatened and endangered wild animals of NH to land developers. It will be disastrous for the survival of species such as this Blanding's turtle.
Loss of habitat is the primary threat to our wildlife. With climate change emerging as a threat to the existence of wildlife, it is time to increase wildlife protections and not weaken them.
SB 129 will weaken NH's 1979 Endangered Species Conservation Act, RSA 212-A.
SB 129 passed out of the House Fish and Game and Marine Resources Committee, but the vote was close, 10-8. Below is the committee's minority report, summarizing their reasons for opposing the bill. Also below is a good letter to the editor published in the Eagle Times that explains the issue well. We hope every Representative in the NH House hears from us. So please share this request with your family and friends. Thanks, Everyone!
House Fish & Game & Marine Resources Committee's MINORITY REPORT:
SB 129 is a bill that impacts the habitats of endangered or threatened species. The minority believes that by adding the undefined word "appreciable" when determining the results of the destruction or modification of habitats of such species weakens the endangered species act RSA 212. The minority further believes the bill provides a mechanism in which realtors and developers may bypass the endangered species act by making a donation to the nongame species account, the threatened and endangered species account, or the threatened and endangered species compensatory mitigation fund established in this bill. 
May 8, 2021 

Letter to the Editor: A threat to wildlife
 
Are New Hampshire legislators trying to fool us? SB 129, now under consideration by the NH House of Representatives, is ironically and misleadingly, officially described as "designed to minimize environmental impacts to endangered or threatened species habitats." Sounds good doesn't it? 

Yet, this developer-inspired bill would actually decrease the protection of such habitats. Currently, developers must show in their permit applications that their plans "will not result in adverse impacts" on threatened or endangered species of animals. 

But, SB 129 proposes that developers' plans "not appreciably jeopardize the continued existence of such species or result in the destruction or modification of habitat of such species which is determined by the executive director to be critical, by requiring that all such action is designed to avoid and minimize harm to such species and habitat designated as critical." This is a much lower standard and, because of its vagueness, much more difficult to enforce. Tragically, it would result in increased risk to a wide range of wildlife whose existence has already been deemed threatened or endangered — like the spotted turtle, the peregrine falcon, and several species of butterflies. 

At a hearing of the House Fish and Game and Marine Resources Committee, 147 citizens opposed SB 129, while only 13 supported it. Yet the committee voted to pass the bill despite this strong opposition to SB 129. 

Please contact your representatives and tell them to vote against this anti-wildlife bill.

Jack Hurley
Claremont, NH
Do you agree that in these changing times it's more important than ever to protect wildlife?
Yes
No