The nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said in a statement this week that the national seashore’s announcement is “blatantly deceptive.”
The PINS news release does not mention that the National Park Service last year revoked $300,000 from the sea turtle program, “downplays” that twothirds of the new funding is going to the U.S. Geological Survey and does not mention that the rest is going to a researcher in Florida, PEER’s statement said.
PEER has filed complaints on behalf of Shaver asking for the 2020 review of the program, which called for for scaling down various aspects of turtle conservation, to be retracted. Those requests were denied.
Jeff Ruch, director of PEER’s Pacific regional office, told the Caller-Times the sea turtle program’s base funding for 2022 was reduced by $100,000, and that money was used to fund an environmental protection specialist role in the national seashore’s Resource Management Division.
