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Posted on 07/17/2002 10:02:47 AM PDT by Issaquahking
Jarbidge Shovel Brigade members are planning a cross-country convoy to southern Florida this fall to support agricultural producers who say they are being swamped out by the federal government.
The local brigade will team up with Klamath Bucket Brigade and volunteers from Ohio to lead a fund-raising auction similar to one that helped raise money for farmers in Oregon's Klamath Basin last year.
Brigade members say the problem in Dade County is similar to those in Elko and Klamath because it involves placing the needs of endangered species above man's property rights. But Shovel Brigade attorney Grant Gerber said farmers in Florida are facing a situation opposite Klamath's - instead of having their water shut off by the federal government, they are being flooded out.
More flooding is planned this year, according to David Friedrichs, executive director of the Dade County Farm Bureau. Damage to crops has exceeded $100 million, he said.
The Shovel Brigade was successful last year in affirming Elko County's right of way on South Canyon Road at Jarbidge, where listing of bull trout under the Endangered Species Act has held up repair of the road. Klamath farmers contacted Gerber for help when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation shut off their irrigation water to preserve lake levels for short-nosed sucker fish and coho salmon, also listed under the Endangered Species Act.
The critter being blamed for southern Florida's problem is a type of sparrow.
"The environmentalists claim that flooding is necessary to protect the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow," Friedrichs wrote in a letter to the shovel and bucket brigades. "Imminently qualified scientists have disputed their claims, but the federal government is persisting in bringing destruction to our families by destroying our private land."
Agriculture is the second-largest industry in Dade County, home of the metropolis of Miami. Farmers grow citrus fruit, avacados, mangoes, winter tomatoes, and a number of other crops, as well as ornamental plants.
Instead of a "Sagebrush Rebellion," farmers in the area are planning a "Sawgrass Rebellion." Sawgrass is the preferred nesting ground of the endangered sparrow.
The Army Corps of Engineers has been manipulating water levels in the region for several years, Friedrichs said Thursday, "with flagrant disregard for their own prescribed procedures."
He said the agency has allowed water levels to rise and, coupled with heavy rains that have been falling the past week, the water table is so high it is harming the roots of plants. The trees could begin dropping their fruit, he said, or even die because of the flooded roots.
"So our situation has moved from one of antagonism and irritation to outright critical," he said.
In 1989, Congress passed a law calling for the Army Corps of Engineers to construct flood protection around the area, Friedrichs said. It took several years of scientific study to come up with the plan, he said.
"Everybody agreed that this project would deliver the required water to the Everglades National Park," Friedrichs said, as well as the appropriate supplies for agriculture, industrial users such as rock mines, and for public consumption. All agencies, including the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, agreed to the plan.
That was 13 years ago, but still nothing has been built.
In the mid-1990s, the agencies begin working to modify the water delivery plan because of the endangered sparrow, Friedrichs said.
Scientists reportedly have made recordings in which they can hear the bird, he said, but "I'm not real sure they've ever actually seen one."
The science used to determine the listing has never been peer-reviewed, he said. Congressmen on the House Resources Committee last week approved a bill that would amend the Endangered Species Act to allow such review.
Meanwhile, the south Florida economy is suffering.
"The bottom lines is they'd just as soon farming go away down here in South Dade and they could do something else with the land, and it's just another classic illustration of the government's desire to take property any way they can," Friedrichs said.
Farmers on Florida's west coast also are being affected and will participate in the "Sawgrass Rebellion," according to Don Lester of Naples. He said about 4,000 people from his area will join the convoy in October.
Friedrichs and Lester said they were impressed with the success of the shovel and bucket brigades in getting water restored to Klamath farmers. Farmers in the basin have been getting their full water supply, according to Bucket Brigade President Bill Ransom, but water release expectations are being lowered because of a return to drought conditions.
The official classification of another "dry" year will no doubt result in more lawsuits over Klamath's water, he said.
Ransom said he couldn't put a dollar amount on the losses, but businessmen have reported drops of 50 percent or more in sales.
Dale Rapp of Darby, Ohio, said farmers and other property owners there will join the convoy. They still have hundreds of shovels that the Jarbidge Shovel Brigade sent to help in their successful battle against the federal government. Plans to buy out farmers for a wildlife refuge have been dropped, he said.
The Darby case was similar to Klamath's in that soldiers were given land "in perpetuity" for their service to the country, then the government tried to take it away. Rapp said the government doesn't like the current situation in which private farmers own the water rights in the valley.
Gerber said it may be time to start collecting shovels again. Elko's giant shovel, which once stood on the courthouse lawn, will be taken on the Florida convoy as well as a giant bucket built for Klamath's demonstrations.
Gerber said cross-country convoys were in the planning stages last year when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred. They were postponed again this spring after the government agreed to restore water to Klamath farmers.
Despite the delays, the property rights movement is gaining steam as more interests are being affected, according to Jay Walley of Paragon Foundation in New Mexico. Walley is helping publicize the convoy and Florida's water battle.
He said the protest is garnering broad-based support that includes the Cuban community, Indians and blacks, as well as white farmers and non-farmers.
Smaller property owners are becoming more affected by the environmental movement, he said.
"So it takes on an entirely different complexion now," Walley said.
Instead of just going after farmers and ranchers and loggers and miners, now the environmental movement is taking its toll on small residential property owners in semi-rural settings.
He said the tools being used to separate property owners from their property go by various names, but all amount to "condemnation by conservation."
Recreationists are another group that has joined the battle.
Mike Martsolf, president of Nevada United Four-Wheelers, said his group is ready to get involved.
Brigade members plan to start the convoy around the first of October. One branch would begin at Klamath Falls, Ore., and another at Darby. The Klamath convoy would travel through Elko.
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The Klamath Relief Fund is located at:
201 Main Street, Suite B; Klamath Falls, Oregon
Our address is:
The Klamath Relief Fund
P. O. Box 5252
Klamath Falls, OR 97601
Tel: 541-850-9495 or 541-851-9496
Fax: 541-850-9492
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