Mr. Jacobson joined the Klamath Bucket
Brigade Convoy to Florida in Denver, Colorado and traveled on to
Homestead, Florida with it. He spoke of the Everglades "Restoration"
project at every rally from Denver on. ~ Barb
"Bureaucrats are negatively phototropic. Like roaches, they hunt for cover
when bright light, such as TV lights, appear."
"Bureaucrats are negatively phototropic. Like roaches, they hunt for cover
when bright light, such as TV lights, appear."
Being Director of the Everglades Institute, and living in the interior of
the Everglades at an inholding in the Big Cypress National Preserve (BCNP)
has given me a ringside view of the battles raging in the Everglades.
Science and hard data contradict agency policies, and the leaders of
environmental, farm, and recreational organizations agree on nothing.
The word "bureaucracy" include governmental agencies, universities, and
the larger environmental organizations. I should also mention my having
been a member of the Sierra Club's Florida Executive Committee (FLEXCOM).
Allowing bureaucracy into science and land ownership/management is a
historically proven way to degrade either. The first Chief Scientist of
the National Park Service said "Science in the National park Service is to
be in service to the general management plan and the Superintendents. It
is not science for science' sake."
Managers and Superintendents control science??? No college, university, or
even secondary school allows the campus cop to sit on the faculty, let
alone give orders to the faculty. Yet in NPS, and the Florida Wildlife
Commission as well, bureaucrats tell scientists what results are
acceptable and which are not.
This is the very path to ruin down which Lysenko led Russia. The resulting
decisions based of such "science" were very damaging to the Everglades and
"a prodigious waste" to use the prophetic words of the late Dr. Earl R.
Rich.
On the other hand, one of the most unusual and certainly the most
encouraging events of my life was being invited to participate in the
Klamath Convoy.
They were driving from Klamath Falls, Oregon to Homestead, Florida in
response to a call for help from fellow citizens. This was pure,
unadulterated, grassroots citizen action. Imagine driving a 7,000 mile
round trip to help people you have never met!
Frank and Peggy Wallace were typical members of the Convoy. They became
active when an out of control agency tried to shut off the irrigation
water system that sustained the entire valley and some 80,000 people. They
were retired, but Bill Ransom was the Convoy leader and he left a farm and
business for a month, as had others.
Bureau-scientists declared the water shutoff at Klamath was essential to
save the suckerfish. Thirty years ago, the agency had a major program to
kill off the same fish. When the National Academy of Science finally was
asked to investigate, the agency rationalization for the water shut-off
was described as "unfounded". In scientific circles, it's a polite was of
saying "junk science".
When people like the Wallaces, and thousands of their neighbors refused to
accept junk science and agency agendas, the peaceful confrontation
eventually resulted in a most unusual event. Secretary of Interior Gale
Norton and Secretary of Agriculture Ann Venaman both traveled to Oregon to
officiate at the reopening of the irrigation system.
For once, science triumphed over agenda, and hard data defeated hardball
politics. At last, the Departments of Interior and Agriculture were
cooperating.
As an ex Sierra Club officer, I knew the power of the agencies and the
political strength of the environmental organizations attempting to
destroy the Klamath community. To my amazement, the community won the
fight.
You can imagine my surprise when I was told that these same people were
coming to Florida to help the people of South Florida deal with the flip
side of the same coin. Flooding, not water cut-off, was South Florida's
problem.
The 8.5 Square Mile Area is home to many farmers, grove owners, and small
nursery owners. Many had fled Cuba after Castro took all they had. For
decades they built their homes, raised their families, and started farms
and nurseries.
Then came the era of Everglades "Restoration". When Congress authorized
the project, they were asked to protect this community. Congress responded
by specifically ordered Army Corps of Engineers to build dikes to protect
the 8.5 Square Mile Area.
The National Park Service, and the environmental movements, pressured Army
Corps to not build the dikes. Government land acquisition, not land
protection, became policy. The consequences of this deliberate defiance of
Congress were not pretty.
From 1992 through 2001, the agencies had managed to cause annual floods of
homes, farms, groves, nurseries, and even an education/research facility
were flooded. Some of the flooded land is defined on the Federal Flood
Zone maps as Flood Zone X.
Flood Zone X lands are supposed flood once in five hundred years.
But every year for the last nine years, flooding occurred. Residents drove
through miles of water two feet deep. Alligators swam where once there
were yards, farms, groves, and nurseries. According to the best science
available, either all the floods of the next 4,500 years miraculously
occurred all at once, nine years in a row - or agencies have deliberately
flooded these citizens.
When the homeowners like Madeline Fortin and Lorraisa Valladeras finally
sued, the Federal Judge found that Congress had ordered dikes, not land
acquisition.
And the Convoys announced they were coming. Suddenly, nine years of
flooding stopped. Water managers decided they didn't want national press
seeing their handiwork of the last nine years. I am sure that if the
Convoys had not come, flooding would have occurred as it had the last nine
years.
Bureaucrats are negatively phototropic. Like roaches, they hunt for cover
when bright light, such as TV lights, appear. The Convoys kept the waters
down for that year, at least.
The publicity and the help to, and encouraging of, local grass roots
political organizations, has proven to have had a lasting benefit.
Then Florida's Senators Bob Graham and Bill Nelson tried to sneak through
Congress a legislative rider to undo the judges decision. So far, the
House has not gone along with this. But the future is uncertain, and those
who lost everything fleeing Castro's brand of Communism are once again at
risk of having their land taken.
Even worse, Gov. Bush and President Bush are calling Congress to ask that
the 8.5 Square Mile Area be forcibly acquired by condemnation. Why would
the President and the Governor want to spend an unnecessary extra
$80,000,000?
A Dept. Of Environmental Protection (DEP) letter has surfaced. It offered
a team of negotiators to help acquire the 8.5 Square Mile Area for
'mitigation' purposes to benefit a French corporation, the LaFarge
Corporation. "Acquire" private land for corporate benefit????
Using the State power of condemnation for the benefit of a private
corporation is outrageous and illegal. Condemnation is restricted to
government needs.
I suggest that since South Florida needs reservoirs to meet dry season
contingencies, the mine is sufficient "mitigation". DEP is too large
already - it doesn't need another "mitigation" project with more employees
feeding in the public make-work trough at taxpayer expense.
Let LaFarge mine the lime rock and the end result will be a reservoir at
no cost to the public. A rational decision would be to stop condemnation
and allow the mine sans mitigation.
Benefits would include:
1. Save an entire community.
2. Save some $80 million.
3. Acquire a reservoir an no cost to the tax payer.
4. Prevent agency metastasis.
Water needs, panther needs, whatever the need of the moment- insist on
sound science, please. The flooding of the Squares has been justified on
water, panthers, ad nauseum.
If the Everglades "Restoration" had helped the Everglades, one might be
tempted to overlook these abuses. But the evidence is clear and
unambiguous that so far, Everglades "Restoration" has caused severe damage
to the Everglades.
The sorry truth is that government ownership and/or management of land has
been tried in many places. It has always failed. From the late Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics, to Eastern Europe, Cuba, and unfortunately
here in America - all attempts to perfect government ownership of land
have failed.
Government ownership and/or management of land is the definition of
socialism. Already, about half of all land under the American flag is
government owned. To those who would increase government lands, one must
ask "What of the Russian disaster do you not understand?"
This is a perfect example of what is wrong with agency and
environmentalist alike. These are the mechanisms used by a consortium of
agencies and environmentalists to thwart the expressed will of Congress.