[NHCOLL-L:1019] Re: Science at Smithsonian Endangered

[Tim White]

This just in...cross listed from AVECOL-L.


-----Original Message-----
From: Dennis Paulson [mailto:dpaulson at UPS.EDU] 
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 4:20 PM
To: AVECOL-L at listserv.lsu.edu 
Subject: Re: Science at Smithsonian Endangered

Here is my effort at a letter. I'm posting it so anyone who feels a bit too
busy to write a letter might be able to change the wording and incorporate
some of this into your own letter, making it a little easier. This
administration seems so anti-environment and anti- many kinds of science
that I do think museums are in trouble. The public face, where families
bring their children to ooh and aah over the dinosaurs, will be sacrosanct
(as usual), but the behind-the-scenes gathering and curating of all that
material may suffer, and we need to rally our troops in defense of
specimens and research on them. As Van and Kevin noted, the National Museum
could be next, and stopping the pogrom now, if at all possible, would be a
very good thing. I kept my letter to one page, figuring that's all a
politician (or politician's aide) would be willing to read. On rereading
it, I think I should have put more emphasis on pointing out the value of
the CRC to the citizenry at large. I think that's surely the best way to
sway politicians. 


Dear Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents member: 

I urge you to take a stand against Secretary Lawrence Small's decision to
close the Conservation Research Center. This center, which works
effectively in both conservation and research, is one of the institutions
that make a real difference. Our natural ecosystems and the wildlife in
them are beleaguered as never before, by illegal hunting, which reduces
their populations, and habitat destruction, which destroys their homes.
Only by the dedication of men and women like those that work at the CRC can
this trend be slowed, if not halted. The CRC is an organization like no
other funded by the federal government. Its approach to the problems of
conservation of the Earth's biodiversity combines education and research
much like our best institutes of higher education do. 

There are so many species, even among the large and charismatic ones, that
need the three-pronged approach of ongoing research, education of the
public, and immediate conservation, that we must move quickly and
decisively to offer it. The CRC is pre-eminent among groups practicing this
approach. 

The breeding programs for endangered species at CRC, coupled with active
research on animal diseases and reproduction, puts the organization at the
forefront of the worldwide conservation movement. I cannot think of another
institution any better suited to carry out research and education on
wildlife conservation. The problems are so large that the solutions must be
similarly broad-based, carried out at institutions with adequate facilities
and funding and staffed with the best scientists we can train. CRC has
these things, and it would be nothing less than a national tragedy to
eliminate it. 

CRC outreach to the community has been substantial, both at home and
abroad. 	I personally know students who have participated in programs there
and have returned home with a new and more optimistic outlook on life
because they were involved in an endeavor literally to save their home
planet. Many biologists and conservationists from developing countries have
benefited from training at the CRC, which puts into practice the idea that
people must be responsible for their own environments. 

As a Regent of this institution, I am sure you know better than I do the
work that is performed at the CRC and its value not only to the Smithsonian
but also to our entire society, both American and World. At the very least,
the fate of the CRC should be discussed and weighed at congressional
hearings, so both its value and the rationale for closing it down will
become known to all. 

Thank you for your attention. 



Dr. Dennis R. Paulson 

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798 
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352 
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu 
Tacoma, WA 98416 
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html