Aaron asked:

> Speaking of which, what was the decision regrading comment
> period and proposed APHIS policy changes?

The short answer is that the "comment period" was not extended.

As mentioned in "Bee Culture", the "American Bee Journal", and
a number of state newsletters, one can read about the current
situation, with updates provided in real-time, here:

    http://www.beeculture.com/imports
    ("When news breaks, it is likely our fault.")

Be sure to check out the "Ministry of Truth" section, as it will
provide some needed comic relief.

I do not expect any changes to anything until the newly-elected
Congress starts up in January.


...and as far as "Comment Periods" go in general, the NY Times did
a great job of explaining exactly how the game is really played in an
article published on Nov 17th:

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/17/weekinreview/17SEEL.html?pagewanted=print

(Which is pasted below for those who don't want to "register" at the Times
website)

November 17, 2002
Flooded With Comments, Officials Plug Their Ears
By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE
Copyright The New York Times Company

WASHINGTON

OVER the last several years, the Interior Department has proposed a number
of controversial ideas, like reintroducing wolves in Yellowstone, that have
generated lots of mail during a public comment period. But few proposals
have flooded the department with more mail - paper and electronic - than
the one by the Bush administration to keep snowmobiles in Yellowstone and
Grand Teton National Parks.

Last week, Interior Department officials said they had received 360,000
comments on the matter, the most ever on any question related to the
national parks. The verdict? Ban the machines. Fully 80 percent of the
writers wanted snowmobiles barred from the parks, just as the Clinton
administration had proposed.

Yet even as officials of the National Park Service acknowledged the results
of the comment period, they proposed to do just the opposite. They not only
would allow the use of snowmobiles to continue in Yellowstone and Grand
Teton and on a part of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Memorial Parkway that
connects them, but they would also allow for a 35 percent increase in the
numbers, up to 1,100 a day from an average of 840 a day.

How did such overwhelming opposition to snowmobiles result in such a
snowmobile-friendly decision? Officials said that there would be more
snowmobiles, but that they would be newer, cleaner and quieter and that
therefore any environmental damage would be reduced.

Beyond that, officials say the sheer volume of public comment is not a
determining factor. "It was not a vote," said Steve Iobst, assistant
superintendent of Grand Teton. The point of the comment period, he said, is
to yield substantive, informed letters that alert park officials to
something they might have missed in reaching their conclusion.

In fact, the public comment period has become a widely discredited measure
of public sentiment because it has been susceptible to what critics call
AstroTurf campaigns, the opposite of real grass-roots efforts, in which
advocacy groups encourage their members to sign their names on form
letters.

This is especially true since the emergence of e-mail. Mr. Iobst said that
over the three-day Memorial Day weekend alone, the Park Service received
45,000 e-mail messages on snowmobiles. He said the agency considered those
comments in its decision, "but not at face value."

A court decision in 1987 gave officials clearance to ignore mass mailings.
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, in a
ruling written by then Judge Kenneth W. Starr, said that a determination of
a clean-water issue should not be based on the number of comments, most
urging the Environmental Protection Agency to allow them to discharge
pollutants into the water.

"The substantial-evidence standard has never been taken to mean that an
agency rule-making is a democratic process by which the majority of
commenters prevail by sheer weight of numbers," Judge Starr wrote.

Has a comment period ever truly influenced a decision? Chris Wood, a senior
adviser to the Forest Service chief in the Clinton administration, said
that typical agency behavior is to "develop the plan you want, announce a
public comment period and then do what you want to do."

But, he said, the Forest Service actually relied on public comment when it
developed its "roadless rule," intended to protect 58 million acres of
undeveloped national forest from most commercial logging and road building.
It drew 1.6 million comments, the most ever in the history of federal
rule-making. Almost all the comments - 95 percent - supported the
protections but wanted the plan to go even further, which it eventually
did.

But the Bush administration delayed putting the rule into effect and sought
more comments, receiving 726,000. Of those, it said that only 52,000, or 7
percent, were "original," meaning that the administration discounted 93
percent of the comments. The rule is now being challenged in court.

Bush administration officials still say they value public opinion. In a
speech in July, John Graham, head of the office of regulatory affairs in
the Office of Management and Budget, said he was actively seeking public
comment on various regulations and making an electronic comment form
available.

Although the snowmobilers won their battle, the groups representing them
say that the public comment period should be abolished. "What this outcome
shows is that these huge hate-mail campaigns are not effective now and
won't be in the future," said Clark Collins, executive director of the Blue
Ribbon Coalition, an industry-backed lobbying group based in Idaho.

If the public comment periods ceased, he said, both sides could save a lot
of time.