CHATHAM – A delegation of Chatham officials was in Washington D.C. last week to testify before the House Federal Lands Subcommittee on the legislation which would resolve the Monomoy Wildlife Refuge western boundary dispute.
Earlier this year, Congressmen William Keating refiled legislation that would restore control of about 4,000 acres of submerged lands and waters to the state and town taken by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in its new refuge management plan approved last year.
The delegation was invited to testify by the subcommittee.
“This step of actually appearing before the subcommittee that has the bill before them is an enormous step forward,” said Chatham Selectman Seth Taylor.
Taylor, who was joined in Washington by Town Manager Jill Goldsmith and Natural Resources Director Robert Duncanson, said the testimony helped the committee understand the “four corners” of the dispute with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and see it in “human terms” so they could advance it.
“We are advancing in a positive way,” Taylor said.
He believes the legislative route is the best option to finding a solution.
“The town of Chatham is carrying the legislative effort and that is our principle responsibility,” Taylor said.
A second option of litigation is also still on the table after the attorney general gave notice of intent to file suit.
An administrative option seems much less likely as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is without a director.
The town, state and the Fish and Wildlife Service could not reach a Memorandum of Understanding last year for fishery management in the area until ownership of the disputed lands could be determined.
“We object philosophically to an unlawful taking because that just is fundamentally wrong,” Taylor said. “But more than that, we really object to what that implies and that is that only Fish and Wildlife can effectively manage, for the benefit of the resource area, the submerged lands and open waters.”
Taylor said there has been no evidence or argument presented to show that these waters and submerged lands have ever been mismanaged.
Since 1944 the waters have been owned by Massachusetts and have been managed by Chatham in cooperation with the state.
“The Fish and Wildlife Service did not even have a presence at Monomoy until [the late 1980s] and at that point they had one person there,” Taylor said. “I was told on Wednesday that they have lost a full-time position and are apt to be losing more positions.”
By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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