http://www.heraldandnews.com/viewpoints/letters/article_077e2426-3de9-11df-9e92-001cc4c03286.html

 

 

Opinion, not facts, controls Endangered Species Act

 

Herald and News Letter to the Editor by Warren Haught, Klamath Falls 4/2/10

       The Endangered Species Act is one of the worst scams ever perpetrated on the American people and should be repealed. Once listed, a species is seldom delisted and other species are continually added.

         It is controlled by biological opinion (not fact), that usually favors the agency paying for the opinion. While the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement may offer help several years down the road, it will be too little too late for many local farmers.

        Last year’s iffy water start and disastrous commodity prices left local farmers in a tenuous position. Now with another poor water season looming, and produce prices still low, it will break many of them.

        Farm equipment dealers are loaded with unsold new, used and repossessed implements. Fertilizer and other farm-related businesses will also take big losses if much of our land goes without water.

         Basin farm production normally exceeds $300 million annually. Virtually everyone locally is affected when any or all of that money is not forthcoming.

        Bureau of Reclamation officials tell us that they are modifying the biological opinion to allow 30 to 40 percent of the water we need to farm. If they had done that last October, the lake would be full and irrigation guaranteed.

        It is well recognized that the two biggest problems facing the world today are overpopulation and starvation. It insults our intelligence to put trash fish and algae-bloated salmon ahead of good healthy farm produce. Neither the fish nor any other federal programs supporting the Endangered Species Act will offset millions lost when local farming is not at full production.

       America is fast becoming a third-world country and the idiocies we see here, in California and in other irrigation projects throughout the northwest, only speeds up the process