Another Outrage!
Klamath Falls - Fish First, People Last
By Jeff Elkins
lewrockwell.com
7-17-1
The embattled community of Klamath Falls, Oregon is under siege. The US Fish and Wildlife Service, under pressure from environmental radicals, ruled that the diversion of water from the Klamath River would threaten the continued existence of the endangered suckerfish. Upheld by a federal judge, the ruling led the US Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the Klamath Project, to shut off the water to more than 1,400 farms.
Refusing to knuckle under, the citizens and farmers of Klamath Falls protested at peaceful rallies on March 9th and May 7th . The rallies drew thousands of area residents, but were ineffective ñ the US Bureau of Reclamation refused to re-divert water to the stricken area. The masters deemed the humble suckerfish of more value than productive American farmers and what right do the serfs who work the land have to complain anyway?
Effectively, the USBR has doomed the area farms and ranches to a dry and dusty death. Economic losses to the farming communities have been estimated to be in excess of $220 million. Exacerbating the situation, rainfall in the area this year is only about 25 percent of normal. This growing season is ruined beyond repair, and the future of any crops for Klamath are in grave doubt. But the suckerfish will thrive.
On Independence Day a group of concerned citizens decided to bravely take matters into their own hands. A group of over 100 modern minutemen took industrial saws and cutting torches to the irrigation canal's headgate, reopening the flow of water to their parched land.
However, FBI agents and US Marshals are now in the Basin, supposedly to observe and prevent escalation of protests. Gordon Compton, an agent attached to the FBIís Portland office, says "We are there to let people know we are concerned about the situation." Given the past behavior of federal police agencies, the patriots of Klamath Falls should be concerned as well. Thereís no word on whether Lon Horiuchi has been dispatched to the Basin, but the FBI has no lack of cold-eyed enforcers.
Despite the presence of the federal Gestapo, the farmers have again breached the locked fences of the Klamath Project. Using crowbars, they forced their way through to the headgates and again started the flow of precious water to their thirsty fields. Water is flowing, but as yet, no blood.
The farmers of Klamath Falls have also been betrayed by those elected to represent them.
The US Senate defeated an effort Thursday to amend the Endangered Species Act and release water to parched Klamath basin farmers. The 52-48 vote killed an amendment to a 2002 Interior Department spending bill that would have restarted the flow of water.
Senator Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., spoke out for the suckerfish. "Wildlife has no voice, and we have to protect the wildlife," Boxer sneered.
The so-called compassionate conservatives of the Bush administration have abandoned the farmers as well. Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton refused to accept a petition brought by the Pacific Legal Foundation that sought reversal of the decision to shut off irrigation water. The justification for refusal was a technicality concerning the statutory standing of the water districts to request relief under the Endangered Species Act.
"The federal government's decision is a travesty," said PLF attorney David Haddock. "It says that communities that are economically devastated by reckless bureaucratic decisions under the Endangered Species Act have no recourse for getting the administration to reconsider those decisions. First, the government victimized thousands of people in the Klamath Basin with a 'fish first, people last' policy that cut off water and threatens to destroy people's livelihoods and futures. Now it victimizes them a second time by denying them the opportunity to make their case for relief to the Endangered Species Committee."
Nortonís action and the Senateís vote has left the farmers no avenue of recourse except a lengthy and probably futile battle in the federal courts or physical protest against property under federal control and now guarded by federal enforcers who have often displayed no compunctions whatsoever about assassinating citizens.
Unfortunately, Klamath Fallsí situation is not unique. All over the country, federal and local bureaucrats from a myriad of agencies constantly insert themselves into land management issues, ignoring private property rights by protecting imaginary wetlands and species of creatures hitherto unheard of. The agenda of environmentalism provides thin cover for the true philosophy of these bureaucrats and interfering busybodies. Socialism and a hatred of humanity.
The farmers of Klamath Falls are fighting back. Shall we join them?
Jeff Elkins is a freelance consultant and writer living in North Central Florida. His personal website is located at www.elkins.org.
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