Extremists who denied water to Klamath farmers now want to protect
salmon-killing fish,
February
18, 2003
Issue: Environmental extremists who fear House Resources
Committee Chairman Richard Pombo might take steps to reform the
Endangered Species Act have now demonstrated why such reform is
badly needed. For two years the extremists sought to deny water to
Klamath Basin farmers ‹ and were largely successful ‹ allegedly to
protect the Pacific Salmon. Now that recent court rulings have made
the strategy of withholding water to protect salmon highly
questionable, many of these same activists, led by the Center for
Biological Diversity, have petitioned the Fish and Wildlife Service
to withhold water from Klamath farmers to protect the eel-like fish
known as the lamprey.
The problem for the extremists: LAMPREY KILL SALMON.
The lamprey is an invasive species which is, essentially, a giant
bloodsucker which attaches itself to adult fish and feeds off their
blood, killing them. In the 1950s lamprey invaded the Great Lakes,
wiping out the entire population of sport fish. Only after years of
research did scientists learn to kill the lamprey larvae so an
ambitious program of restocking lake trout, salmon and other fish
could begin.
Comment 1: Congressman Pombo would be well justified to seek
major revisions in the Endangered Species Act. Obviously,
extremists and their allies in the federal government abuse it.
Comment 2: If the extremists who wanted water withheld to
allegedly protect salmon now want it withheld to protect a fish
which kills salmon, you have to assume that their real motive is to
simply deny farmersą water and drive them off the land.
Comment 3: Sound science, not the petitions of extremists or
the generally uninformed rulings of courts, should determine whether
a species is threatened or endangered and what should be done to
protect it.
Comment 4: Environmental extremists demonstrate distorted
concern for many species, but seem to care little about American
families that they drive from their homes and into poverty.
Tom Randall
Winningreen LLC
3712 N. Broadway PMB 279
Chicago, IL 60613
e-mail: trandall@mishoreline.com
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