Posted on 01/30/2002 1:52:07 AM PST by brityank
Klamath Crisis affect ranchers as well as farmers
By Jeffry Mullins: 01.30.02While cattle ranchers across the West suffered through another year of drought last year, those in the Klamath Basin faced even greater losses when the federal government abruptly cut off irrigation water. The plight of ranchers such as Mike Byrne of Tulelake, Calif., hasn't received as much publicity as those of potato and onion farmers. Byrne said ranching operations are scattered mostly around the edges of the basin. Along with farmers, the ranchers have rights to irrigation water from Upper Klamath Lake under a century-old irrigation project.
"My granddad came on Jan. 1, 1900 as one of the project¹s organizers," Byrne said. "The water was promised to them in perpetuity, but it was shut off last spring to preserve lake levels for a threatened sucker fish."
Today, Byrne is part of a three-family operation raising more than 700 cows. The shut-off meant buying expensive hay or selling off calves or both. "We lost a whole bunch of pasture," Byrne said. They have some wells, and the water release ordered by Interior Secretary Gale Norton helped save many of the alfalfa crops, but "guys that were getting six tons or better were only getting one half to two," according to Byrne.
"We sold our calves early, weaned early." Normally some cash would come in from the hay crop as well, but this year there was none to sell. "Some people have sold everything," he said. Others had to rent pastures outside of the area.
So far this winter the snowfall has been promising. The lake level rose enough that releases were ordered and water is currently flowing through canals but it is too early to tell how much snowmelt runoff will be available in the spring.
"Another summer is going to be tough. Bad years come and go, but this one has been a double whammy," Byrne said.
Last summer was marked by a series of tense standoffs with federal agents over control of the canal headgates. Some consider the shut-off an illegal act, so they tried to turn the water back on. "It's been a balance between exercising your constitutional rights and violating the law. They are right there on the line." Byrne said. Like others in the basin, Byrne blames the Endangered Species Act and its narrowly focused rulings supposedly based on "scientific" evidence. And like others, he is waiting for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to release a biological assessment that was due out last November. Also pending is a thorough review ordered by Norton on the "science" behind the sucker fish. "That could take two years," he said. "The Endangered Species Act trumped a hundred years of Western water law in one day."
The Klamath crisis, last summer's firefighter deaths involving confusion over the Endangered Species Act, and recent revelations that bogus lynx fur was used in a government study "all point to the fact that the law needs to be adjusted a little bit," he added. A recent rally at the Klamath County Fairgrounds was attended by more than 2,500 people. Byrne served as master of ceremonies, and guests included U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and a representative of Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif.
The rally was titled, "Got Water? 2002 and Beyond." It was followed by a "taste the irony" barbecue in which "threatened" coho salmon snacks were fed to "endangered" farmers and ranchers. (The hatchery coho came courtesy of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.) Byrne said the giant bucket built in Elko was right there at the fairground entrance to welcome participants.
So, what does the future hold? "As of right now we don't have an answer," he said, but farmers and ranchers are trying to keep the pressure on decision-makers to make sure they are not forgotten. According to Walden, President George W. Bush recently indicated he wanted to help those affected by the shut-off, and farmers are optimistic he'll come through.
Meanwhile, the Bucket Brigade is planning another gathering Feb. 9 at the headgates. No attempt is planned to open the headgates if the water isn't flowing, however. For now, that decision lies with people who aren't making their living from the fruit of the land.
Jeff Mullins is the Associate Editor Elko Daily Free Press Article distribution made possible by a Paragon Foundation Grant, Alamogordo NM, 1-877-847-3443
Permission to reprint/republish granted, as long as you include the name of our site, the author, and our URL. www.SierraTimes.com All Sierra Times news reports, and all editorials are © 2002 SierraTimes.com (unless otherwise noted)
One of the few write-ups I've seen detailing the repercussions to the ranchers for the illegal water shutoff in the Klamath Basin.
Wasn't the lake almost full all last year?
BTTT
And well you should. Thank you
Let's take our land and water back !!
Freedom Is Worth Fighting For !!
The Right Of The People To Keep And Bear Arms Shall Not Be Infringed !!
An Armed Citizen, Is A Safe Citizen !!
No Guns, No Rights !!
Molon Labe !!
Regards.
THE ENVIROS: Some Notes for the Record
http://www.broadbandpublisher.com/insight/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=154111
Man Made Global Warming Debunking News and ViewsTHE LAST WORD
Posted Nov. 30, 2001
By Ralph de ToledanoThe Enviros: Some Notes for the Record
Paul Ehrlich, one of the leading enviros and junk scientists, has warned decade after decade that within the next 10 years there will be mass starvation because this trembling Earth will be unable to provide food, shelter or energy for an "exploding" population. Ehrlich does not say, "Oops, sorry," when his predictions bump up against reality, but instead makes those same predictions all over again. And the media eat it up.
Yet the details of what will bring about the predicted catastrophe shift with the reigning environmental fashions. In 1970, for example, this Chicken-Little-in-chief warned that the Earth was moving into a new ice age. Should the South Pole get colder (as Ehrlich said it would) the Antarctic ice cap would fall into the Antarctic Ocean and produce "a global tidal wave that could wipe out a substantial portion of mankind, and the sea level could rise 60 to 100 feet."
It didn't happen. But, without missing a beat, Ehrlich switched from ice age to global warming and issued yet another warning: "The population of the U.S. will shrink from 250 million to about 22.5 million before 1999 because of famine and global warming." (And then the melting ice cap would flood our coasts.) Well, 1999 has come and gone, bringing another set of warnings from Ehrlich but neither famine in the United States nor a decline in population.
Ehrlich is not the only enviro to play games with media gullibility. Every time the price of gasoline or heating oil rises the enviros spring up to claim that heedless and greedy humans are exhausting the world's energy supplies and will face darkened and heatless homes in winter and must suffer without air conditioning in summer — if not this year then next. And if you don't believe this, just turn to the New York Times or the Washington Post, both great purveyors of junk science.
Too bad neither those newspapers nor the major TV networks subscribe to Access to Energy, a newsletter edited by Dr. Arthur D. Robinson, president and research professor of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine. Robinson is bitterly hated by the enviros, among other reasons because he has presented Vice President Dick Cheney with a list of 17,000 scientists who strongly oppose the idiotic Kyoto "global warning" treaty, signed by Al Gore without benefit of the advice or consent of the Senate. Access to Energy (Box 1250, Cave Junction, OR 97523) is the most authoritative publication of its kind available on scientific matters. Robinson lays it on the line in a recent issue:
"In 1947, proven oil reserves were 68 billion barrels. Between 1947 and 1968, 783 billion barrels were used —and proven reserves in 1998 stood at 1,000 billion (1 trillion) barrels.
"In 1966, world reserves of natural gas were 1 quadrillion cubic feet. Between 1966 and 1998, we used 2 quadrillion cubic feet — and reserves in 1998 stood at 5 quadrillion cubic feet.
"In 1949, world coal reserves were 256 billion short tons. Between 1949 and 1998, we used 168 billion short tons — and coal reserves stood at 1,000 billion (1 trillion) short tons."
Currently, "global warning" is the biggest ploy of junk scientists. Robinson states categorically that the enviros have presented not one verifiable scientific fact to bolster their claims of "global warming." Here's how he puts it: "The bottom line is that virtually all life on Earth derives its carbon (essential to life) from atmospheric carbon dioxide — either directly or by eating other living things that do so. … Moreover, most of the carbon on the Earth is not stored in the atmosphere. Omitting rocks, 75 percent is stored in the oceans; 20 percent in the coal, oil and gas deposits; and about 1.4 percent in the atmosphere. The atmosphere itself is only about 0.04 percent carbon dioxide.
"Human activity converts about 0.05 percent of the coal, oil and gas, or about 0.01 percent of the total, into carbon dioxide. … The principal result of human conversion of hydrocarbons into atmospheric carbon dioxide is a marvelous increase in the populations of plants and animals."
As everyone who has made a study of the enviros knows, their technique is to suppress facts or (less politely) simply to lie. This is their way of impressing the media and bullying Congress. Just one of the hundreds of examples I have in my files of their perfidy is the destruction of some 1,500 farms (200,000 acres of land) in the Klamath Basin of Oregon. The government cut off their irrigated water because enviros claimed "endangered" salmon and the sucker fish (a bottom-feeding scavenger) needed it.
This, of course, is an outright lie. The salmon run this year was the largest in six decades. But the Environmental Protection Agency already had made up its mind and was not interested in facts. Neither are the enviros. Their literature makes it abundantly clear that many of them would rather see the human race disappear than discomfort one animal. Although not always. The Des Moines Register quotes Ingrid Newkirk, cofounder and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, who holds that an outbreak of the devastating hoof-and-mouth disease in the United States would reduce meat eating and therefore be "good for animals, good for human health and good for the environment. I only hope it comes here."
Lunatic? No doubt. Yet these are the people who are leading America and Congress by the nose.
Ralph de Toledano is the dean of Washington columnists and a frequent writer for Insight magazine.
Ya know, we really aren't the "silent majority," as much as we are the "silenced majority," drowned out by the liberal/media/enviral complex. It seems we'll never break through their "We are the righteous agents of radical change" mutual mental masturbation society. (sorry if that's too crude, but I'm gettin old and so tired of these self-annointed creeps)
Now Angelique, just cause I admitted to getting a little long in the tooth, doesn't give you license to label me a "Whithered Wasp!!!" I know you din't, but I'm just lettin ya know that I might sting ya, if'n you do it.(grin)
CFBF.com: Issues & Action: CFBF Testimony on Klamath Basin Issues
CFBF TESTIMONY ON KLAMATH BASIN ISSUES SEARCH Help
Given at the Committee on Resources Field Oversight Hearing regarding water management and endangered species issues in the Klamath Basin. Given by California Farm Bureau Federation President Bill Pauli. June 16, 2001
The California Farm Bureau Federation ("Farm Bureau") represents approximately 40,000 farming and ranching families throughout the Klamath Basin and California. My name is Bill Pauli and I am President of the Farm Bureau, in addition to being a farmer in Northern California. The Farm Bureau is very pleased that the Committee on Resources came to Klamath Falls to listen to the concerns of the farmers, ranchers, and farm workers who have either lost everything, or are on the verge of total loss. We would also like to thank the Committee for this opportunity to supplement the record with additional post hearing thoughts.
The Farm Bureau strongly urges the administration to continue to seek immediate relief for the communities of the Klamath Basin, but also to consider the future and a long-term solution.
We truly appreciate the administration's response, making $20 million dollars available for immediate relief for the farmers and ranchers in the Klamath Basin. Clearly, the impact of the drought and the agencies' decision to cut people off from water will have impacts that cannot be satisfied by this allocation, but at least some support will be provided to this community.
We believe it is imperative, however, that this money be used to aid the people who have been impacted so they will not lose their homes, farms and ranches. Contrary to what some environmental activists have proposed, the California Farm Bureau does not believe this money should be given to environmental organizations so they can convert farmland or be used by the government to increase its vast land holdings. In the case of the proposed relief package, we are only talking about how government disaster relief funds should be allocated, and not whether individual landowners have the right to sell their land. The $20 million dollars in relief funds is intended to assist the community and try to keep it together, not to tear it apart by further weakening an already suffering agricultural economy.
The retirement of farmland is not likely to actually decrease water demand in the region. Many refuge uses, particularly wetlands, use more water than the agricultural uses they replaced. At the same time, the irrigated farmlands support vast populations of waterfowl that rely on the Klamath Basin as an important resting and feeding destination within the Pacific Flyway. For this reason, the retirement of these very important farmlands is not only bad economic policy but bad environmental policy.
It goes without saying that the California Farm Bureau is vehemently opposed to any effort to repeal of the Kuchel Act of 1964, which is the original deal struck between the agricultural and environmental interests that permitted both agricultural and wildlife uses within the lake basin refuges. Some environmental activists are trying to condition financial relief for the farmers and ranchers upon the repeal of this act, which is a condition that we find wholly inappropriate and particularly offensive since the region's agricultural community is already under siege. The agricultural lease lands that the Kuchel Act created are very important to the area's agricultural economy. For young people, these lease lands provide their best opportunity to break into farming as purchasing land is nearly impossible for them. In a nation with an aging farming population, these sorts of opportunities are especially precious.
The Farm Bureau strongly urges the administration to start formulating a long-term solution to the crisis in the Klamath basin as soon as possible. The first order of business is to address the science used to develop the opinion that the water had to be turned off. Several of the witnesses, like John Crawford, Commissioner Steve West, and David Vogel, went into great detail about the embarrassing lack of professionalism in work done by the agency researchers and their failure to use widely respected scientific methods while doing their research. The Farm Bureau is likewise troubled by the scientific shortcomings so thoroughly discussed by the aforementioned witnesses. For this reason, we strongly support the peer review of these biological opinions, including a thorough investigation of the Hardy Study.
The Farm Bureau understands that Assemblyman Dickerson has also asked the University of California to review the sucker fishes' biological opinion. The University has agreed to do this and the results of this peer review are expected within 60 days. We look forward to the conclusions of this study. We also appreciate the Department of the Interior's testimony given by the Deputy Chief of Staff when she recognized the importance of having the science peer reviewed in an open process. Through these peer review processes we hope existing peer reviewed studies, like that completed by researchers at Oregon State University, will be thoroughly considered by people in the scientific community and the scientific community's opinions will be weighted equally with that of the agencies' staff opinions.
The sucker fishes' biological opinion is not the only decision that should be reviewed. Given the agencies' statements in their existing biological opinions and research that compare when fish kills have occurred and the associated water levels, there is limited, if any, apparent relationship between the low lake levels and fish kills. Since there are many factors that affect fish survival, the peer review process should evaluate whether lake levels are the predominant factor in fish survival.
Much more than the biological opinions need to be reviewed. The status of the sucker fishes and the salmon runs below Iron Gate Dam need to be evaluated because there are questions about whether these species are in "jeopardy" or in "recovery."
By revisiting these scientific questions in an open forum with agencies and the scientific community sharing opinions on equal footing, the agencies will be taking the first step in repairing their reputations and restoring their credibility.
Finally, the environmental review for the long-term operation of the Klamath project must be completed. The review currently underway should be redrafted because it will inevitably reflect the flawed biological opinions. A new effort worthy of the seriousness of the known and potential impacts to this suffering community must be undertaken.
The issues facing the Klamath Basin are complex and difficult to address. At the same time, the people of the region need and deserve quick and decisive action. The Farm Bureau cannot stress enough the importance of rigorous scientific review and positive action to resolve any mistakes uncovered by this review.
Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for coming here to and listening to the people of the Klamath Basin, and thank you for permitting us to participate in this process. California Farm Bureau Federation, 2300 River Plaza Drive, Sacramento, CA 95833
Phone: (916) 561-5500, Fax: (916) 561-5695, General Information: cfbf@cfbf.com
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