CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The Austin-based Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club is asking folks across the country to join in its quest for answers on what’s going with the turtle program run by the world renowned Dr. Donna Shaver.
The conservation organization made up of 20,000 members across Texas doesn’t understand why Shaver’s turtle program has been cutback so much because they have observed that the conservation works. Program officials said the number of nests were going up each year until the deep water horizons disaster.
The Lone Star Sierra Club Conservation Chair, Craig Nazor, pointed out that the well-known turtle releases used to take place around 25 times a year and now that only happens a few times.
He said the organization has also been concerned about money earmarked for the turtle program and ending up being distributed elsewhere.
Nazor said the Sierra Club is asking for people to fill out the organization's petition that calls on the Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior to meet with the organization about why the turtle program has been cutback.
"Assistant Secretary Shannon Espinoz is the Assistant Secretary over the National Park Service and US Fish and Wildlife so we have a petition now to meet with us, just meet with us," Nazor said. "This is for a nice online meeting where we can tell you what the problems that we see, the alarm of the community and what can be done to save this program.”
When the petition is filled out, information goes straight to the Interior Secretary the organization wants to meet with.
Nazor said he has already seen a great response to the petition.
He also told 3NEWS there’s evidence that the parks service has been cutting back on a lot of its endangered species programs and said he’s concerned because they’ve also had their budgets cut as well. He’d like to see funding restored, including the work being done by Dr. Donna Shaver.
We asked the parks service for a comment on the petition, but we did not initially receive a reply to the Sierra Club's actions.
The regional office sent the following statement on Saturday:
Padre Island National Seashore is committed to contributing to the protection and recovery of all at risk species. The park will continue to maintain a robust and comprehensive sea turtle program at Padre Island National Seashore now and into the future.
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