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Hypocritical attack on EPA and supporters of water rule

A June 17 opinion piece from Will Coggin of the Environmental Policy Alliance attacks the EPA’s recently released final rule to clarify protections of the Clean Water Act. Coggin also attempts to disparage the honesty and integrity of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and other sportsmen’s groups who support the clean water rule, which will help stem the tide of wetlands loss and definitively restore water quality protections to trout habitat and salmon spawning waters.

{mosads}These attacks are disingenuous and blatantly hypocritical. The folks behind the Environmental Policy Alliance are lobbyists and PR spinmeisters who are paid by industry to roll back conservation, yet they presume to tell Beltway readers who the real sportsmen are and what we should support. Character assassination is easy. Working on complex policy solutions—that seek to balance the needs of fish and wildlife, and in turn America’s hunters and anglers, with the many other demands on our nation’s natural resources—is difficult.

The TRCP is beholden to no funder. The only litmus test we ever apply is what science indicates is good for fish and wildlife and, therefore, what is good for America’s sportsmen. And that is why I joined Collin O’Mara, CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, and Chris Wood, CEO of Trout Unlimited, in writing to The Hill in support of the clean water rule on June 5. Our community has celebrated the rulemaking process, which allowed sportsmen, farmers, businesses, and other stakeholders to provide feedback on initial drafts of the rule, and the EPA’s move to release more than half America’s streams and 20 million acres of wetlands from legal limbo. This process worked, and we’re pleased with the results—protection of the waters and wetlands that are the backbone of our sporting traditions and outdoor economy.

When sportsmen work together, sportsmen win. But this is something Coggin clearly does not want to see happen. I urge your readers to see through these attacks and question why he so desperately wants to weaken the voice of hunters and fishermen in Washington.

Fosburgh is the president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.

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