Rally Stops in Tracy for Support

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A nationwide movement to protect the property rights of farmers made a stop in Tracy Sunday on its way to Florida. That will be the site of the Sawgrass Rebellion, a showdown that will have farmers facing off against a federal government that wants to buy 8 1/2 square miles of land adjacent to Everglades National Park as an extension of the park. Bill Ransom, chairman of the Klamath Bucket Brigade, says the scenario in Florida is all too familiar. Last year, farmers in southern Oregon were shut down after the federal government shut off their water supply. The result was a local rebellion, with farmers temporarily taking over the gates at irrigation canals. The Klamath Bucket Brigade, including a huge shovel and bucket, started making its cross-country trip this weekend, including stops in Santa Cruz and Tracy on Sunday and a stop in Sacramento today. "Almost every state is having an endangered-species issue or a property-rights issue," Ransom said, adding that in Dade County, Fla., farmers are faced with actions that are supposed to help endangered birds but are destroying the livelihood of farmers. "It's so close to the problem we had in Klamath Falls," he said. Klamath Bucket Brigade supporters say that efforts to protect endangered species end up in reduced water supplies or other restrictions on land use, effectively curtailing agricultural production. The result is farmers going out of business, and the willing sellers the government is looking for are folks who have no choice but to sell at a fraction of their original land value. "Our land went from $300 to $400 an assessed acre to $28 an acre," Ransom said, pointing out pictures of farms where fields that usually grow crops held nothing but sand and dust. "This is a disaster that never had to happen," Ransom said, noting that the region had seen more severe droughts in 1992 and 1994. Ransom said farmers in Oregon felt the squeeze not just after they planted their crops and found there would be no water, but also when farmers started auctioning off their equipment and filing for bankruptcy. He added that some experienced one of the year's great ironies: farmers going to food banks to feed their families. When a local property-rights group, Homestead Land and Water Alliance, heard that the bucket brigade was heading toward Florida by way of Sacramento, group leaders Sharon and Guy Votaw urged the convoy to stop in Tracy. They said farmers all over the U.S. face restrictions because of environmental laws. Sharon Votaw said the issues are the same: "Too much government interference. A lot of pressure to remove private property from private control. "When we saw this coming up, it struck us that it's happening on both sides of the nation. It's been a very concerted effort to break agriculture." In Florida, the place now known at the 8 1/2 Square Mile Area is in dispute because the Army Corps of Engineers has continued sending water through farmlands, flooding fields and destroying crops. Klamath Basin's problem last year was lack of water, with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shutting off deliveries to 1,400 farmers after they had planted their crops. "It supports a warped philosophy that puts plants and animals over humans," said Leo Bergeron, CEO of the California State Grange, which works for agriculture and property rights. "The position of the Grange is verified science reviewed by a board. Not junk science," Bergeron said. "Nobody wants to poison fish or poison the air, but there's no reason why 1,400 families should have to bear the cost." Groups like the Klamath Bucket Brigade and Sawgrass Rebellion have their supporters in federal government. On hand to talk to the crowd of about four dozen at the park-and-ride lot at Naglee and Grant Line roads was Congressman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, who is sponsoring legislation to reform the Endangered Species Act. Pombo also emphasized the property-rights message at Sunday's rally, which invokes the Fifth Amendment takings clause of the U.S. Constitution. "If someone decided that my land or your land is needed to protect an endangered species, then the Constitution requires that we be compensated for that," he told the crowd. "The incentive you have to produce and save and invest money is to buy something that is yours and that you can pass on to your kids. If you lose the ability to control your own property, you lose the incentive to work to invest in the future." Pombo said his legislation, HR 4840, the Sound Science for Endangered Species Act Planning Act of 2002, will require that decisions made to enforce the endangered species act will be based on peer-reviewed research. Pombo said that following the Bureau of Reclamation's decision to cut water off from Klamath Basin, the National Academy of Science researched the matter and found that the research didn't support the decision. "A lot of these guys see themselves going bankrupt and losing their farms and find out afterward that the science was faulty," Pombo said.

We welcome your comments, press releases and news tips. Write us at tpnews@tracypress.com

Formatted from article above:

Rally stops in Tracy for support
Bob Brownne

The Tracy Press
A nationwide movement to protect the property rights of farmers made a stop in Tracy Sunday on its way to Florida.
That will be the site of the Sawgrass Rebellion, a showdown that will have farmers facing off against a federal government that wants to buy 8 1/2 square miles of land adjacent to Everglades National Park as an extension of the park.
Bill Ransom, chairman of the Klamath Bucket Brigade, says the scenario in Florida is all too familiar. Last year, farmers in southern Oregon were shut down after the federal government shut off their water supply. The result was a local rebellion, with farmers temporarily taking over the gates at irrigation canals.
The Klamath Bucket Brigade, including a huge shovel and bucket, started making its cross-country trip this weekend, including stops in Santa Cruz and Tracy on Sunday and a stop in Sacramento today.
"Almost every state is having an endangered-species issue or a property-rights issue," Ransom said, adding that in Dade County, Fla., farmers are faced with actions that are supposed to help endangered birds but are destroying the livelihood of farmers.
"It's so close to the problem we had in Klamath Falls," he said.
Klamath Bucket Brigade supporters say that efforts to protect endangered species end up in reduced water supplies or other restrictions on land use, effectively curtailing agricultural production.
The result is farmers going out of business, and the willing sellers the government is looking for are folks who have no choice but to sell at a fraction of their original land value.
"Our land went from $300 to $400 an assessed acre to $28 an acre," Ransom said, pointing out pictures of farms where fields that usually grow crops held nothing but sand and dust.
"This is a disaster that never had to happen," Ransom said, noting that the region had seen more severe droughts in 1992 and 1994.
Ransom said farmers in Oregon felt the squeeze not just after they planted their crops and found there would be no water, but also when farmers started auctioning off their equipment and filing for bankruptcy. He added that some experienced one of the year's great ironies: farmers going to food banks to feed their families.
When a local property-rights group, Homestead Land and Water Alliance, heard that the bucket brigade was heading toward Florida by way of Sacramento, group leaders Sharon and Guy Votaw urged the convoy to stop in Tracy. They said farmers all over the U.S. face restrictions because of environmental laws.
Sharon Votaw said the issues are the same: "Too much government interference. A lot of pressure to remove private property from private control.
"When we saw this coming up, it struck us that it's happening on both sides of the nation. It's been a very concerted effort to break agriculture."
In Florida, the place now known at the 8 1/2 Square Mile Area is in dispute because the Army Corps of Engineers has continued sending water through farmlands, flooding fields and destroying crops.
Klamath Basin's problem last year was lack of water, with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shutting off deliveries to 1,400 farmers after they had planted their crops.
"It supports a warped philosophy that puts plants and animals over humans," said Leo Bergeron, CEO of the California State Grange, which works for agriculture and property rights.
"The position of the Grange is verified science reviewed by a board. Not junk science," Bergeron said. "Nobody wants to poison fish or poison the air, but there's no reason why 1,400 families should have to bear the cost."
Groups like the Klamath Bucket Brigade and Sawgrass Rebellion have their supporters in federal government. On hand to talk to the crowd of about four dozen at the park-and-ride lot at Naglee and Grant Line roads was Congressman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, who is sponsoring legislation to reform the Endangered Species Act.
Pombo also emphasized the property-rights message at Sunday's rally, which invokes the Fifth Amendment takings clause of the U.S. Constitution.
"If someone decided that my land or your land is needed to protect an endangered species, then the Constitution requires that we be compensated for that," he told the crowd.
"The incentive you have to produce and save and invest money is to buy something that is yours and that you can pass on to your kids. If you lose the ability to control your own property, you lose the incentive to work to invest in the future."
Pombo said his legislation, HR 4840, the Sound Science for Endangered Species Act Planning Act of 2002, will require that decisions made to enforce the endangered species act will be based on peer-reviewed research.
Pombo said that following the Bureau of Reclamation's decision to cut water off from Klamath Basin, the National Academy of Science researched the matter and found that the research didn't support the decision.
"A lot of these guys see themselves going bankrupt and losing their farms and find out afterward that the science was faulty," Pombo said.
To reach reporter Bob Brownne, call 830-4227 or e-mail brownne@tracypress.com.

The result is farmers going out of business, and the willing sellers the government is looking for are folks who have no choice but to sell at a fraction of their original land value.
"Our land went from $300 to $400 an assessed acre to $28 an acre," Ransom said, pointing out pictures of farms where fields that usually grow crops held nothing but sand and dust. "This is a disaster that never had to happen," Ransom said, ...

Land is only worth whatever you can grow on it; cattle, crops, developments, or wildlands. There is necessity for each, but taking productive farmland out of the hands of the true conservationists and placing it in the hands of the watermelon enviralists is slowly strangling our society and will lead to the ruination of our civilization.

Support Sawgrass Ping

Property and the inherent rights that go with
it are the foundation of Freedom; without them
and all they encompass you have not freedom
but slavery on bended knee to whatever the
controlling powers decide.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.