Carbon Rule Testimony: EPA Hearing Washington D.C. May 24, 2012 

Docket# EPA-HQ-OAR-2011-0660 

Submitted By: G. Richard Mode 

Affiliate Representative, North Carolina Wildlife Federation 

206 Wood lawn Drive 

Morganton, NC 28655 

Members oft he panel myna me is G. Richard Mode. I am from Morganton, North 

Carolina. I have been involved in wildlife conservation for four decades. During 

my adult years I have had the opportunity to serve as a volunteer leader with 

organizations that champion wildlife conservation. I served through all the 

volunteer leader offices in Trout Unlimited from loca I chapter president through 

national president and chairman ofthe board. Currently I am a senior member of 

the North Carolina Wildlife Federation Board of Directors and serve as Affiliate 

Representative to Nationa I Wildlife Federation. During that volunteer service I 

was blessed to receive the highest awards all three organizations bestow. In 2007 

I received the Budweiser/ National Fish and Wildlife Foundation national 

Conservationist of the year award. 

I review that background only because as a lifelong angler and hunter and wildlife 

habitat advocate I have had the opportunity to communicate with and work with 

hundreds of thousands of sportsmen and wild life enthusiasts from the length and 

breathe of our country. Like me they spend their time outdoors and spend their 

hard-earned dol Ia rs on the outdoors interest they love. It is the very nature of a 

passionate angler, hunter and wild life observer that they experience and observe 

our natural world and wildlife habitats. 

When you spend your time afield for a period of years it is easy to see the impacts 

of climate change on our natural world. It is the consensus ofthe sportsmen and 

the wildlife communitythat wildlife habitats are changing and changing quickly. 

As a dedicated trout angler I have observed trout streams warming. Streams that 

are marginally cold enough to maintain a trout population are warming to a point 

they will no longer sustain trout. Cold water scientists predict that a small rise in 

temperatures will reduce the range oft he Appalachian Brook Trout, North 

Carolina's only native salmonid species to a small percentage of its contemporary 

range. 
For almost forty years one of my family's favorite trips is to go to Eastern North 

Carolina to fish Phelps Lake for largemouth bass. We have always gone in June 

because this Pocosin, spring fed, natural lake was warm enough for the kids to 

swim in and warm enough to wade wet and throw popping bugs to bass in the 

grass beds. The past two summers we went down a few weeks early. The water 

was so hot it was uncomfortable to wade in. Bass were driven out of their normal 

feeding and nursery grounds in the shallow weed beds to deep water with no 

cover. The bass were nowhere to be found in cover. 

fic:,n 

As an · duck hunter I have tracked migratory bird patterns for forty five 

years. For years we hunt our local wood ducks and mallards early in the season. 

After they migrate away from our area we usually have only few ducks but then 

sometime after Christmas the large flocks of migratory birds move into our area 

from up North. Over the last few years those birds have come later and later. 

Last year they did not come. It was the season that wasn't in the foothills of 

Western North Carolina. A much anticipated trip to Southern Maryland the last 

week of the season in February was ca lied off when our host called and said 

"don't come, the birds are still doing the back stroke in Canada." 

Conservative estimates of sea level rise on the coast of Eastern North Carolina 

show that we are going to lose 1500 square miles of prime estuarine habitat. This 

is incredible wild life habitat and supports a robust seafood nursery habit at and 

migratory bird habitat. 

We currently have mercury advisories on fish consumption in North Carolina from 

The Great Smoky Mountains to the Outer Banks. It's appalling that North 

Carolinians can not consume the fish they catch due to toxins spewed into the air. 

Our loss ofthe special places and the special pursuits we hold dear and our call to 

protect them from the worst consequences of climate change and toxins is 

admittedly self serving but these pursuits are also an economic driver in the state 

and serve a II North Carolinians. Two and a quarter million people hunt, fish and 

observe wildlife in the state. We spend 2.6 billion dollars a year in the pursuit of 

our passion and create over forty six thousand jobs. Additionally outdoor 

recreation related tourism is a major economic driver in the state. This business 

relies on a robust natural resources base to continue to attract visitors. 
I have two GrandDaughters and another on the way. I want them to be able to 

experience the joys of wild North Carol ina the way I have. I do not want their 

children to be drawing cartoons of you and me with our heads in the sand fifty 

years from now. I do not want them editing a caption over the cartoon that says 

something like "you had the opportunity, why didn't you act?" 

The sportsman and wildlife community applaud the development of these carbon 

rules, welcome the mercury rules and hope you will proceed with speed to 

implement these rules as the next step to protecting wild life habitats and our 

natural world from the worst impacts of climate change and toxic emissions.