Posted on 01/12/2015 4:24:30 PM PST by Olog-hai
California farmers struggling with drought say a U.S. Supreme Court decision issued Monday that keeps strict water restrictions in place to protect a tiny, threatened fish has forced them to leave thousands of acres unplanted in the nation’s most fertile agricultural region.
The justices rejected appeals from farmers in California's Central Valley and urban water districts who had challenged a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plan to safeguard the 3-inch-long Delta smelt, a species listed as threatened in 1993 under the federal Endangered Species Act.
The smelt only lives in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast that supplies much of California with drinking water and irrigates 4.5 million acres of farmland. Farmers contend that vast amounts of water sent into the ocean under the smelt regulations have made the three-year drought worse for them.
Farmers say their economic interests have been ignored while officials seek to protect the fish. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
I pray when our farmers are no longer able to grow crops may judges and politicians starve to death. Let them get their food from China laced with their special ingredients.
Every environmentalist is a socialist.
Every environmentalist believes there are too many people and favors a reduction in the world’s population.
Every environmentalist values wildlife/nature above the life of man.
That their actions harm the economy, that their actions harm you financially, that their actions may result in the harming of humans hardly matters.
They care nothing about farmers. They have little idea what it takes to feed the world nor do they care.
May I add, there is a thin line between people favoring animal rights and the socialist/environmentalist.
this us not the first time the fish have beaten out the farmers for water...in California..
not that it not being the first time makes it any more SANE...
Califirnia only????
As a kid I remember going with my Dad and other men from the church in Michigan to get Smelt so we could have Chuch Fish Fry
CONgress could fix the problem overnight, they have the authority. The ruling class will never allow it though. They want to own the land first. First rule of Debt Based Monetary Systems, Strip the Real Assets from as many people as possible before the MATH catches up.
DING DING!! We have a winner!. Exactly. It will make the “proles” more willing to to accept Eminent Domain so Moonbeam can have his Choo-choo train project to connect Merced with Burbank and coincidentally pay back the unions that supported him in his last run for Guv.
Follow the example of previous Fish and Wildlife Service projects: Just add Rotenone. Problem solved.
Delta smelt are three inches long; what was your congregation doing penance for?
I don’t remember, I was only 8 then.
there you go , the affected should announce that they will start releasing that pesticide into targeted waterways , if the water restrictions are not eased immediately . Impossible to stop . They better comply . No, this is not terrorism against fish ; it is an effort to keep our food supplies on line and American farmers employed and at work . THIS GOV bollixes up all of that for the enviro nazis sake . To hell with them .
There is a fine line between insanity and environmentalism.
Why do they keep electing those who destroy their livelihood? I am so fed up with idiots who have no vision or common sense about the repercussions of their actions.
What?! You mean "winning" in 2014 didn't work? Imagine that!
WHY can't laws be changed?
Absolutely right! This fish originally came to the SF bay and delta from Louisiana as a hitch hiker in the bilges of transport ships.
Why make assumptions about how they vote? California is a BIG state with MANY CONSERVATIVES. The Central Valley is by-and-large Conservative! Try not to paint with such a broad brush...
Desalination plants would be a much more useful purpose for tax payer money than a high speed rail.
There are fish hatcheries all over the US.
Why haven’t they been used to increase the delta smelt population and introduce them to other compatible areas?
Such action has been successful with catfish, bass, trout, etc.
Exactly - feast on them until they are no longer an impediment...
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