Free Republic

Like thieves in the night, a handful of U.S. senators have set into motion a new law that can steal the property rights from private owners in the name of protecting wildlife. Late in the evening of Dec. 20, while the media focused on Daschle's refusal to allow a vote on the economic stimulus package, while senators were racing to wind up business to get home for the holidays, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., called for "unanimous consent" to pass S. 990 – The American Wildlife Enhancement Act of 2001. The bill passed. Who voted for and against this bill? ...

Three arrested in shooting spree tied to Klamath water war Friday, December 21, 2001 By Associated Press KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. — Three white men were arrested and accused of taunting Native Americans and firing shotguns at signs and buildings during an hour-long spree stemming from a conflict over scarce water supplies. Witnesses said the men drove through the town of Chiloquin in a pickup on Dec. 1, yelling, "Sucker lovers!" — a reference to fish considered sacred by the Klamath Tribes. Chiloquin, a town of about 800, is home to the offices of the Klamath Tribes. "To be doing this, ...

Second Degree Felony Assault? - OR - Civil Liberties Assaulted by Local Law Enforcement? (A True Story of Douglas Herb Easter: How Police in a Small Rural Community Can Wreak Havoc in Your Life) December 17, 2001 Twenty-Five Mile Creek, Chelan, Washington What you are about to read is a true and ongoing account. It is an account of what unfortunately is becoming more and more common place in America. It is an account of an innocent law-abiding citizen whose quiet life is being transformed, not by an accident and not by any natural tragedy. Rather, it is being changed ...

[MA] Landowners Take On State Boston Globe 12.06.01 GRAFTON - Tom Casale hasn't actually seen a ringed boghaunter dragonfly lately. But if he did, he'd probably swat it dead. "My mother always used to say they'd sew your lips closed if you let them get too close," Casale said, standing on the porch of his A-frame house in the woods off Old Upton Road. The dragonfly is one of five rare species whose preservation led the state to designate 8,700 acres in Grafton, Upton, and Hopkinton, including Casale's land, as the state's 26th Area of Critical Environmental Concern, part ...

This week's guest on The Agitator Hour, heard Wednesdays at 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific will be Mr. Chuck Cushman. Dec 19 - Mr. Chuck Cushman Mr. Cushman is the Executive Director of the American Land Rights Association.  From: http://www.landrights.org/ The American Land Rights Association (ALRA) is a grassroots, non-profit organization advocating private property rights and multiple use of federal lands including recreational and commercial access.  ALRA is engaged in issues such as compensation for government takings of property, defending cabin permittees and inholders of private property within federal lands such as national parks and national forests, opposition to land acquisition trust funds ...

Wilderness Institute Calls Federal Action Against Scientific Fraud By ESA Officials Sierra Times 12.19.01 That Washington Times Story is getting legs. More groups are letting their voices be known. The National Wilderness Institute Tuesday called on Congress and the Bush Administration to investigate possible improper conduct by federal endangered species officials who reportedly falsified evidence in an effort to show that lynx were present in the Gifford Pinchot and Wenatchee National Forests in Washington state. The planted evidence was exposed when laboratory tests revealed that the fur samples officials claimed were found in the forest actually came from captive ...

Columbia River Gorge Commission hears presentation on Condit Dam by Becky Blanton 12.17.01 The Columbia River Gorge Commission heard a short presentation by the Husum/BZ Corners Community Council and nearly two hours of comments and suggestions by other members of the audience Tuesday, Dec. 11, on the issue of removing the Condit Dam. Gorge Commission Executive Director Martha Bennett told staff, commissioners and the audience that the commission needed to remain neutral on the topic of the dam because at some point the commission would probably be called upon to rule on decisions made about the removal of the ...

<p>Federal and state wildlife biologists planted false evidence of a rare cat species in two national forests, officials told The Washington Times. Had the deception not been discovered, the government likely would have banned many forms of recreation and use of natural resources in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and Wenatchee National Forest in Washington state.</p>

OR: Salmon delisting order thrown out Associated Press 12.16.01 SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court late Friday nullified a federal judge's ruling that took Oregon coastal coho salmon off the threatened species list. The two-sentence decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stops any logging along the salmon's habitat that was authorized under U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan's ruling in September. The circuit's decision will remain in place until it makes a final ruling, which could be months or years. "The logging will now stop," said Patti Goldman, an attorney with the environmental group Earthjustice in ...

NV: BLM Pitting Rancher Against Rancher Sierra Times 12.15.01 The Bureau of Land Management is allowing Gary Snow of Fallon, Nevada and Bud Johns and his son of Silver Peak, Nevada to run cattle with BLM temporary non-renewable so-called "permits" on Wayne Hage's and Ben Colvin's ranches. Hage and Colvin are well-respected Nevada ranchers who have resisted federal "takings" of their private property through bureaucratic enforcement of regulatory schemes. Ben Colvin, in a telephone interview from Goldfield, Nevada said, "In the mid-1990's I let Bud Johns run his cattle on my ranch as a favor to help him out ...

NM: Water Rights A Possible Target of Federal Government Report by J.J. Johnson - Sierra Times 12.15.01 Legislation moving through Congress would allow the federal government to buy river water rights from New Mexico farmers, and put them out of business if the greens have their way - but only if the governor signs on. "This proposed federal action targets New Mexico at present but could be used against other states as well', said Jay Walley, spokesman for the Paragon Foundation, a New Mexico grassroots property rights organization. Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., initially opposed the water conservation program because ...

&nbsp; Giving cattle the boot: Ruling in hand, environmental group seeks grazing leases to rest the land Arizona Daily Star 12.04.01 With a landmark court victory in hand, a Southwest environmental group wants to raise $1 million so it can kick cattle off tens of thousands of acres of Arizona and New Mexico. Aaron J. Latham / Staff John King, whose family has ranched in Altar Valley since 1895, says the grazing-lease ruling adds "just adds one more uncertainty." Forest Guardians says it already has $50,000 to spend on a list of "biological hot spots" - including some near ...

Property Rights is not just a Western problem Over the past few weeks, we have been inundated with heartrending stories concerning the theft of Property Rights by various government agencies manned by unelected bureaucrats foisting their policy regulations with no valid constitutional basis. I believe it fair to say most of us are not only concerned, but getting damned angry in finding just how pervasive the usurpative practices are becoming in even the smallest of communities. Back in the early Eighties, I bought a small agricultural holding with an old eight room house, a tri-level 20,000 sq.ft. post-and-beam barn, ...

Restoration Plan For The Klamath Takes Significant Steps Forward (Inclusive Planning Process Produces Consensus, Commitment And A Shared Vision Of The Future) Sierra Times 12.10.01 &nbsp; Klamath Falls, OR - Tangible actions to develop a comprehensive, long-range plan to improve resource conditions in the Upper Klamath Basin have been established by an effective and diverse coalition of interest groups including Native American tribes, ranchers and farmers, business interests, environmentalists, and federal, state and local government agencies. The Upper Klamath Basin Working Group has successfully outlined a detailed planning framework specifying goals and objectives of a long-range restoration plan, strategies ...

&nbsp; CA: Latest BLM Victim Speaks Out Exclusive Interview With Rancher Dave Fisher ( It's Time To Hang Together!) Report By Susan Callaway 12.10.01 Sierra Times was privileged to talk with Dave Fisher, a rancher in the California Mojave Desert, who is faced with the total loss of his livelihood and generations old ranching business. Last week, a federal land official reinstated a grazing ban on nearly 500,000 acres, including Fisher's grazing allotments due to the so-called threatened desert tortoise. Robert S. More, director of the U.S. Interior Department's Office of Hearings and Appeals, issued the order. It lifted ...

<p>Environmentalists trying to stop a logging project inadvertently killed many of the woodland critters they were trying to save, including one endangered species of flying squirrel.</p> <p>The West Virginia Highlands Conservancy trapped animals on land owned by Allegheny Wood Products in Blackwater Canyon to establish that timber harvesting would adversely affect or kill endangered species.</p>

The war on the American West is pretty much the same as it was more than a hundred years ago. Only the names and dates have changed. Primarily eastern financial and foreign political and economic interests, along with American foundations, proponents of the United Nation's Agenda 21, environmental idealists, and U.S. government bureaucrats are waging the current war on the West. All these various individuals and groups believe in their heart of hearts that the ends justifies the means. Of course, their ends are incompatible with the concepts of private property and individual liberty. In May of 2000, Executive Vice ...

I was born in northern Minnesota, not far from where the Mississippi begins its journey to the Gulf of Mexico. Most of my relatives and many friends live up in this land on the other side of the Laurentian Plateau, a place where the rivers run north. When the national weathermen talk about the coldest spot in the lower 48, they are talking about places like International Falls, Embarrass, Ely, Tower, Hibbing, Virginia, or Chisholm. For the last few weeks I have been visiting in this beautiful region where the human population is sparse but there are lots of wolves, ...

CARA: Living in the Soviet Union of America, Diane Alden, June 25, 2001 Recently, the Moscow Times had a story about the new Russian Land Code. The bill spells out the way the sale of commercial and private land to Russian and foreign nationals is going to be handled. According to the Russian Duma, no limits are set for the amount of land that can be owned by individuals and companies. The new code allows foreigners to buy land, but the thing the communists don't like is that 98 percent of the country could be sold off for private ownership. ...

Rural America and its way of life are under attack. Disparate interest groups-from the federal land bureaucracy to the environmental movement and dozens of other organizations want control of an invention they' call &quot;public land&quot; and the &quot;ecosystem.&quot; A process has been under way for decades which changes names and redefines concepts. A case in point: the great outdoors, which once needed to be conserved, became an ecosystem which needs eco-management. The name change may not seem important, but changing names is a tool used to reshape the psychology of the public in order to prepare them to acquiesce ...