Liberty
Matters News Service
February 26, 2004
Ninth Circuit Rules Against Radical Environmentalists
The Ninth Circuit Court of
Appeals, yesterday, upheld a lower court's decision that wild salmon are no
different from hatchery-spawned salmon. The Pacific Legal Foundation argued
that The National Marine Fisheries Service counted only the Oregon Coast coho
salmon in determining the species' endangered status. That method kept the
numbers unnaturally low, resulting in protection under the Endangered Species
Act. District Judge Michael Hogan agreed that the agency had acted illegally.
Environmentalists appealed to the Ninth Circuit and lost. House Resource
Chairman Richard Pombo, (R-CA), said; "This could be the best precedent ever
set in Endangered Species case law…environmentalists have once again
revealed their radical beliefs that humans can do no good for species." PLF
attorney, Russ Brooks remarked; "With the Ninth Circuit's dismissal of this
appeal, the 'sky is falling' rhetoric of hard-core environmental activists has
been debunked and their true agenda exposed. This attempt to control private
land use in the name of species protection has been successfully shut down."
Ninth Circuit Court Sets Precedence
for Science in Landmark ESA Case
That Giant Sucking Sound You Hear
Is
western irrigation water draining into thirsty urban centers? Ron Aschermann is
among a growing number of farmers who are selling their water rights to big
cities for big bucks. Aschermann's family has farmed in the Rocky Ford,
Colorado area since 1911, but the $1.2 million the City of Aurora will pay him
for his water is a lot more than he presently earns farming his 300 acres.
"[I]t's not a healthy thing to do for the area," he admits. "The best dollar
for the asset right now is the water." But, Carl McClure, president of the
local farmers' union, shows visitors what happens when communities sell off
rights to that life-giving commodity. A tour of Crowley County reveals closed
railroad stations, empty store fronts, a shuttered car dealership, and, in
place of once lush alfalfa fields, stands the Arkansas Valley Correctional
Facility with its flood lights and chain link fences. "Crowley County is a
prime example of what shouldn't happen," McClure laments. However, the same
scenario is being played out all over the country. Last October, farmers in
California's Imperial Valley sold some of its water to San Diego for a whopping
$3.5 billion, rice farmers in Northern California have sold some of their water
supply to Los Angeles, the same thing in the Reno, Nevada and Albuquerque, New
Mexico areas, and in towns along the Rio Grande in Texas. Brent M. Haddad of
the University of California at Santa Cruz and author of "Rivers of Gold,"
thinks selling water may come back to haunt agriculture interests. "The bell
tolls when you create water markets because all this is going to do is shrink
the number of farms," he said. "What we're talking about is a means of moving
from farms to cities."
Water Sales to Cities Tempt the West's
Struggling Farm Industry
Forest Service Continues Plan to Log
Environmental groups continue
to take it on the chin, this time the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is going ahead
with plans to log areas that contain old growth timber despite the usual
protests. Volunteer vole-hunters said they had found evidence of more red tree
voles (rats or mice) than had the USFS in areas slated for timber sales in the
Mount Hood and Willamette national forests. The took their complaints to
federal court where the judge halted logging, saying the agency's environmental
analyses were incomplete. The Oregon Natural Resources Council (ONRC) had hoped
to force the Service to withdraw the timber sales from other areas too, but the
agency amended the offending analyses to address the shortcomings mentioned by
the judge. "It appears they're moving forward with old growth logging, which is
a big disappointment to us, because they are ignoring public sentiment and
ignoring the fact that there are non-controversial ways of creating
jobs…," said Doug Heiken of ONRC. This latest loss makes it two in a row
for ONRC. Last week, they lost to the Bureau of Land Management on plans to log
old growth timber in southwestern Oregon that supposedly contains critical
habitat for northern spotted owls.
Forest Service Not Dropping Old Growth
Timber Sales
Drop That Rock, Pilgrim
Two Bureau of Land Management
agents in Arizona caught some dangerous characters last month engaged in
illegal activities in the San Pedro Riparian Natural Conservation Area.
Apparently alerted by items seen in the back of their pick-up, one of the
agents followed the band of hikers to see what nefarious deeds they might
commit. When the hikers, three adults and three children, returned to the
parking lot they were detained for five hours while their belongings were
searched. Their crime? The little family group had picked up rocks and now the
adults face fines of up to $2,000 and possible jail time if they are convicted
of removing archeological resources from a protected area. As Bill Childress,
Manager of the Riparian field office in Sierra Vista, Arizona puts it; "[I]t is
a felony to collect or remove artifacts from federal lands of any kind; that
includes BLM and U.S. Forest Lands." "There were no signs, no warning, nothing
to alert people they were committing a serious crime," said Jim Brown, one of
the detainees. "Not knowing the law basically makes us all a criminal," he
added. Now we know, our federal lands don't belong to the public, they belong
to the government!
BLM Officer Detains Family Five Hours for
Picking up Rocks