In an appeal filed by attorneys with Pacific Legal Foundation, the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is being asked to strike down federal Delta smelt regulations that have led to devastating cutbacks on water pumping from the Delta to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.

The pumping reductions amount to a “regulatory drought” that exacerbates the water shortages that already are plaguing much of the state, according to PLF.

“We are asking the Ninth Circuit to put the brakes on out-of-control federal bureaucracies that are depriving farms and communities of the most vital resource—water,” said PLF Attorney Damien Schiff. “The court should reassert basic constitutional restraints on federal power. The Delta smelt has no role in interstate commerce, so federal regulators have no authority to issue any edicts about the Delta smelt, let alone draconian water-pumping reductions that threaten our economy and our food security.”

Watch coverage of PLF’s press conference from KXTV, Channel 10, Sacramento’s ABC affiliate: .

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This is what I hear all the time. Even our education factories teach our kids this inaccurate history. Few have ever heard of what it was really like. I know I have had many discussions with people about the Lewis and Clark Expedition. I admit I was one of those who dreamed about how wonderful it must have been. What could be more exciting to a man who loved the outdoors than to be a member of the Lewis and Clark troop? This would provide a participant the opportunity to see the forests, the plains, the rivers, the valleys, the birds, deer, moose, elk, bison, mountain goats, wild sheep, tons of beaver, muskrat, mink, lynx, bobcat, mountain lions, coyotes, wolves, oh, my. What am I forgetting. I might have been in for a rude awakening had I been there.

Lewis and Clark mounted their expedition from around 1804-1806 and their journey was quite well documented. We know that they took along “professional” hunters and trappers to provide food for the members. Logs show Lewis and Clark spent much of their time trading with Indians for dogs to eat because there was no game.

During the years of 1825-1860, Jedediah Smith, Peter Skeen Ogden, Milton Sublette, Joe Meek, John Fremont, Charles Preuss, Captain J. H. Simpson, and Howard Egan, explored all over the West, both on foot and horseback. They kept diaries and logs of their adventures and these accounts describe a much different picture of what it was really like before man moved into this region and settled.

Jedediah Smith is believed to be one of the first explorers of this region. In 1827, Smith and what was described as two of his best men, set out up the American River, through Central Nevada and ending up at Lake Lake, Utah. Smith’s log describes this trip accordingly.

After traveling 22 days from the east side of Mount Joseph, (Sierra Nevada’s) I struck the Southwest corner of the Great Salt Lake, traveling over a country completely barren and destitute of game. We frequently traveled without water, sometime for two days, over sandy deserts where there was no sign of vegetation and when we found water in some of the rocky hills we most generally found Indians who appeared the most miserable of the human race. When we arrived at the Salt Lake, we had but one horse and one mule remaining, which were so feeble and poor that they could scarcely carry the little camp equipage which I had along. The balance of my horses I was compelled to eat.

This expedition originally began with 14 men and 28 horses.

In 1828 Peter Skeen Ogden led an expedition into North Central Nevada. In an area that is now near Winnemucca, Nevada on the Humboldt River (Marys River), what was seen is described this way.

From clumps of sage on the hillsides, scrawny, brown-bodied men peered out upon their passage. Down in the Valley, now and again, the Indians scurried into the brush ahead of them. They were clothed, if at all, in twisted rabbit skins; They had no horses. They lived on seeds, and what wild fowl they could bring down. Ogden had never encountered a race of animals less entitled to the name of man.

The following year Ogden returned to the same area to do some trapping on the river. He describes the river as being very “unwholesome” and says the antelope, which during this time would be near the rivers are scarce. He declares, “woe to them who depend to them for support”.

In 1832 Milton Sublette led a group of trappers into the Marys River (Humboldt). There was no game and the trappers had to eat the beavers they had been trapping. His reports stated that there was not much for what wild animals there were to eat and that they were forced to eat wild parsnips, which poisoned them. The group had to leave this area and head north where they hoped to find something to eat.

Because of this it became necessary to at once abandon the river, and strike across the country towards the North, where after being four days with almost no food, and several weeks in the state of famine they reached the Snake River above the fishing Falls, they were forced, as they passed through the country, to subsist upon ants, crickets, parched moccasins, and the pudding made from the blood, taking a pint at a time from their almost famished animals.

Joe Meek recalls holding his bare hands in an anthill until they were covered with angry ants and then licking the ants off and eating them like a hungry animal.

Joe Walker later traveled through this same Marys River area and continued on into California near the Truckee River down the West Slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Having left Salt Lake and traveling 14 days into California, the expedition had not seen any game to eat and instead lived off horses they were compelled to kill to ward off starvation.

One man killed a deer, which he carried to camp on his back. The animal was dressed, cooked and eaten, … in less time than a hungry wolf would devour a lamb. This was the first game larger than a rabbit that they had killed since leaving the Salt Lake two months ago. For fourteen days they had lived on nothing but horseflesh …twenty four horses had died in crossing the mountain, and seventeen of these had been eaten.

1825 and 1826 found Ogden covering much of what we all know as Oregon today and not only did his group not find any game but the horses were starving because they couldn’t find even any decent grasses for the horse to feed on. It wasn’t just the explorers finding these wastelands. Ogden relates a story told of an Indian woman in Oregon.

The winter before had been so severe, she said, that her people had to resort to the bodies of relations and children. She had killed no one herself, but had fed on two of her children who died.

Things are pretty harsh when anyone has to resort to cannibalism but to first have to kill somebody to eat them, is unfathomable.

John Fremont and Charles Preuss covered areas of Southern Wyoming west toward the Bear River and then South toward Salt Lake. Things were tough. Game was missing and grazing grasses for the horses were non existent as well. Explorers tried trading with the Indian for food but soon discovered the Indians were starving to death themselves. It was only upon finding the Shoshone camped out along the Snake River, were they able to find a tribe living well from ample supplies of smoked Salmon.

Fremont’s party traveled the Columbia River north into Vancouver finding much the same. They even had to buy firewood from some of the resident Indians. Heading south toward Nevada, local tribes warned Fremont there was nothing for his horses to feed on. They were right.

… They had found nothing but dry, shallow basins, their way “broken by gullies and impeded by sage, and sandy on the hills, where there is not a blade of grass.”

Later Fremont would find Pyramid Lake and gorge on trout.

In all of the travels that are documented by many of these explorers, in what is now the state of Nevada, only one time is there mention of someone sighting an elk, but it is believed the person saw a mule deer and mistook it for an elk.

The Indians in this region mostly lived terrible lives, with little clothing, food or sufficient shelter. They ate mostly rats and insects and what few other birds or small game they might be fortunate to find and kill. We have visions of Indians having access to ample game animals and utilizing the hides for clothing and shelter. Such was not the case in most of the Great Basin.

Howard Egan, Sr. was the first Mormon explorer into the region of the Great Salt Lake. As a matter of fact he traveled there with Brigham Young. Egan covered much of the area between the Salt Lake and west into California as he was in the business of driving cattle there.

Egan recounts for us how the Indians crafted these remarkable corrals they would use to trap antelope. The entire episode of putting on a drive required all the men, women and children of the tribe. One had to question whether the effort put into the building and driving was worth the 24 antelope they trapped in twelve years. But when you’re hungry, some antelope is better than none.

The Indians did a similar thing conducting a cricket drive. No, I’m not kidding. Trenches were dug of about 1 foot wide by 1 foot deep and covered over with a thin layer of stiff grass. All the tribes people would begin pounding the ground with tufts of straw in a concerted effort, to drive the black crickets toward the trenches. Once the trenches contained all the crickets they could drive, they set the grass they had placed over the trenches on fire, killing the crickets. They then used the crickets for food, mostly grinding it up and mixing it with other things to make a concocted kind of flour.

These and more accounts certainly paint a far different picture of how things actually were than what we are often taught about how balanced and bountiful our forests and wilderness were before man arrived. Man certainly made his share of mistakes in being good stewards of the land but in time we figured out what we had to do to sustain game populations and to control the predators that destroyed those.

With the presence of man and bringing with him agriculture and the knowledge to plant and grow crops and tend the land, this began to create a better habitat that would support a heartier and healthier crop of game animals. We controlled the predators so people could harvest the game to feed their families and over time devised a pretty decent wildlife management plan that many around the world now envy.

Sorry, but Mother Nature didn’t really give us a “balanced” ecosystem, at least one that is the most productive. These accounts above I believe more accurately depict Mother Nature’s idea of a balanced ecosystem. There’s nothing wrong with that but I don’t think it is in the best interest of humans to have it that way, nor is it what I think people really want or are thinking about when they speak of “natural” wildlife management.

Tom Remington

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Among the panelists will be Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Damien Schiff, who is lead attorney in PLF’s legal challenge to federal Endangered Species Act regulations that have led to dramatic cutbacks in the pumping of water for farms, businesses, and communities in the San Joaquin Valley.

PLF has been informed that the 90-minute special report, titled “Central Valley Water Crisis,” will include panels featuring a variety of perspectives and leaders from the fields of agriculture, law, business, and environmental advocacy, along with some local, state, and federal officeholders.

What: “Central Valley Water Crisis” special report, featuring PLF attorney Damien Schiff among the panelists.

Where: KMPH TV, Channel 26, Fresno. PLF has been informed that it will also be available as streaming video, and archived, on KMPH’s Web site.

When: Monday evening, December 7, 2009, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m.

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~~~~~~

Scientific surveys taken this summer show that the Delta smelt remains close to extinction, according to the Sacramento Bee “There are very few Delta smelt out there,” Randall Baxter, a senior fisheries biologist at the state Department of Fish and Game, told The Bee.

In other words, the federal policy of imposing drought on farms, businesses and communities, by turning off pumping into the state’s main water system, isn’t having its promised effect: The pumping cutoffs aren’t resuscitating the Delta smelt population.

As a matter of principle, the feds shouldn’t be putting fish before people in environmental policy. But when they insist on doing so, and the only effect is pain for people—without gain for fish—their schemes are worse than wrongheaded, they’re illegally absurd.

We use the word, “illegally,” advisedly. PLF’s lawsuit against the Delta smelt water cutoffs argues, in part, that federal regulators failed in their statutory duty to show that their water cutbacks would actually help the fish.

They didn’t make the case, because it can’t be made in a scientifically credible way. There is no scientific consensus that stopping the pumps will keep the smelt from going down the drain.

As PLF’s Dave Stirling wrote in a June 14 op-ed in The Sacramento Bee: “[T]he frail Delta smelt species has been in decline for more than 35 years and will likely become extinct from several causes no matter how much effort or funds are expended to preserve it. One factor alone, 260 invasive, or nonnative, species – some that prey directly on the Delta smelt and others that voraciously consume its food source – have proliferated in the Delta for several decades, and cannot be eliminated without killing other protected species and causing other environmental harms.”

The one thing about the water restrictions that’s beyond debate: They have killed tens of thousands of jobs, fallowed hundreds of thousands of farm acres, and raised water costs for tens of millions of residents in Central and Southern California.

PLF attorneys will fight all the way up the judicial system to stop the feds from starving our people and our economy of water.

Sincerely,
Rob’s Signature Image
Robin L. Rivett, President
Pacific Legal Foundation

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The good news is that Judge Oliver Wanger showed that he understands the devastating impact of the feds’ policies. As The Fresno Bee reported , the judge appears to already have concluded that the smelt plan has hurt the environment. He said it has caused dust to rise from dry fields, possibly reducing air quality. And increased ground-water pumping has caused land to sink, he said.

“‘How could this not affect the human environment?’ Wanger asked … of the … biological opinion. ‘It has had catastrophic effects.’”

In a tentative ruling, Judge Wanger stated that the feds failed to comply with federal law requiring environmental impact analysis when major federal actions affect the environment.

There was no indication that Judge Wanger will rule against the Endangered Species Act and how it has been administered but time will tell. It appears his preliminary ruling shows the feds failed to study and/or recognize the total environmental impact of their actions. Whether such an analysis would have prevented the listing of the delta smelt as an endangered species, we’ll never know.

The Pacific Legal Foundation awaits the formal ruling of the court and in the meantime will contemplate whether to proceed to an appellate court on issues involving the Endangered Species Act and the Commerce Clause.

Tom Remington

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Here’s the deal though. Since forever it seems, the Federal Government has been stealing our rights and in particular our state’s rights and we have sat by and let them do it. Never before in all of history has this effort become more accelerated than since President Barack Hussein Obama took office. Now, some of us are ready to fight and take back our rights and our Constitution.

Tea Parties have formed. These are grass roots efforts to assemble American citizens who have had enough of government intrusion into their lives. They think Government is out of control.

We also know that at least 10 states either have passed or introduced bills similar to the Firearms Freedom Act in Montana and another 18 states are intending to introduce similar bills. The Montana Firearms Freedom Act challenges the authority of the United States Government to force its will on the citizens of that great state.

We now are beginning to hear of American citizens who have taken up the challenge to run for public office and are brave enough to run on the principles that made this country the greatest on earth. Among those principles is the desire to take back the sovereignty of the states, return the power to “we the people”.

Dr. Rex Rammell, a controversial figure in the state of Idaho, is running for governor. In 2008 he ran for the United States Senate and lost but he used that time to realize people want so much for a real leader. Rammell believes that he can win this race if he is himself and tells people what he thinks and what he wants to do for the people.

In a brief memo he sent out to his supporters yesterday, it looks as though Dr. Rammell is ready to take the Tenth Amendment Challenge.

I have pledged to sign an executive order to stand down all Idaho enforcement officers on protecting the wolves should I become the governor as my first act to reclaim state sovereignty.

This is a big piece of pie to chew and swallow and the odds are should he do such a thing, all hell would break loose. We might, however, have some court precedence before Rammell could have a chance to carry out his promise.

The Montana Firearms Freedom Act is schedule to take effect on October 1, 2009. That bill was essentially the brainchild of Gary Marbut, et. al. of the Montana Shooting Sports Association. They don’t intend to sit back and wait to see what happens. They have requested a court hearing in order to get a ruling. This will begin the process, one I am sure that will be long and arduous.

Is Gary Marbut nuts? Is Rammell crazy? Some would think so but having spoke to Dr. Rammell in the past, I can assure you he is sincere in his wishes to shrink the Federal Government and return the power and control back to his fellow citizens in Idaho.

Are there others out there who feel the same way and are ready to take up the Tenth Amendment Challenge? Let’s hope so. What would happen if Governor Schwarzenegger defied the Federal Government and turned the water back on so that California residents could get back to work and save the farms and businesses that are suffering because the water has to be saved to protect a small fish? That would be a worthy action that would qualify as a Tenth Amendment Challenge.

It took many decades to steal away your rights and render the Tenth Amendment a powerless decree for the states and we won’t get it back in one day. Incrementalism stole it away and incrementalism will win it back. But first we need brave people, people with a passion and a strong belief that our Constitution is a document to guide us through life, not a list of suggestions to ignore in a progressive lifestyle.

I was scanning through channels the other night on the television and I caught a glimpse of Lou Holtz, former college football coach and a great motivator and currently an ESPN college football anchor. Holtz was on the Sean Hannity Show as part of Hannity’s Great American Panel. The discussion was about who would step up and be a leader for the Republican Party.

When it became Lou’s turn to speak, this is what he said (my words not his). The people are crying for a real leader. They are tired of hollow and empty promises. They want someone who believes in what they say and will do what they say. They need someone with passion who isn’t afraid or ashamed to speak the truth. If someone will do that, then you will have a new leader.

Isn’t that what we really need? When was the last time a politician spoke the truth and you knew they really believed in what they were saying?

So who wants to be the next brave individual or maybe a group who wants to step forward and take the Tenth Amendment Challenge? Maybe it’s you. Think about it.

Tom Remington

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Many of you know, thousands of people and their businesses in California are being greatly affected because the federal government, under the misconstrued direction of the Endangered Species Act, is withholding water used to irrigate farmlands in order to save the delta smelt. Unemployment rates are as high as 40%, crops are dying and many long time businesses are on the verge of collapse, yet environmentalists, the President and now Congress refuse to do anything about it. Our priorities are really messed up.

Last night, Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina, tried to pass an amendment to a bill through the Senate that would provide for the water to be released. It failed 61-36. Here’s how your senators voted.

YEAs —61
Akaka (D-HI)
Alexander (R-TN)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Begich (D-AK)
Bennet (D-CO)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Burris (D-IL)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kaufman (D-DE)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (D-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-CO)
Udall (D-NM)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (D-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs —36
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Kyl (R-AZ)
LeMieux (R-FL)
Lugar (R-IN)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)

Not Voting – 2
Byrd (D-WV)
Lincoln (D-AR)

Is there something odd about this picture?

And speaking of odd, in the following YouTube video, Sen. Diane Feinstein of California attempts to explain why she voted against the amendment. She likens the entire water debate to Pearl Harbor, whatever the heck that means, and explained that she didn’t want to give the people water because it might cause another lawsuit……………….No, really!

This is your tax dollars at work.

Tom Remington

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Tom Remington

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I have covered this story some in the past. Here, Here, Here and Here.

Tom Remington

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The 2009 RMEF grants will affect Colusa, Humboldt, Inyo, Modoc, San Luis Obispo, Shasta, Siskiyou and Trinity counties.

Another project has statewide interest.

?California is the only state with three subspecies of elk, ?Rocky Mountain, Roosevelt?s and tule? but that?s only part of what makes this state special. Our volunteers all across The Golden State absolutely devoted themselves to the 2008 fundraisers that made these grants possible. This is where Elk Foundation banquets, auctions and other events transform into on-the-ground conservation work, and it?s part of the payday for supporters who are passionate about giving something back to the outdoors,? said David Allen, Elk Foundation president and CEO.

Elk Foundation grants will help fund the following California projects, listed by county:

Colusa County?Restore riparian zone native vegetation to improve habitat for elk and other wildlife on BLM land in Payne Ranch area. RMEF helped purchase the Payne Ranch several years ago and remains heavily involved in habitat protection and enhancement projects in the area.

Humboldt County?Improve forage for elk and other wildlife by removing encroaching conifers from oak woodlands and native prairies on BLM Lack?s Creek Management Area.

Inyo County?Using a helicopter, capture 18 elk and fit them with radio collars to research movement patterns, population status and herd composition in Owens Valley.

Modoc County?Continue prescribe burn program to improve forage for elk on Devil?s Garden area, and install four guzzlers to improve water sources for wildlife, in Modoc National Forest.

San Luis Obispo County?Install larger water tank to improve water source for wildlife and livestock on Gifford Ranch state lands; construct tanks and troughs for a year-round water supply in South Chimineas Ranch area of Los Padres National Forest.

Shasta County?Using a helicopter, capture elk and fit them with radio collars to research movement patterns, population status and habitat use across northern California (also affects Siskiyou and Trinity counties).

Siskiyou County?Use specialized tools to remove taproot and treat perennial, noxious weeds to improve forage for elk and other wildlife on 42 acres near South Fork Salmon River in Klamath National Forest.

Statewide?Assist California Department of Fish and Game with construction of panel traps to capture elk for management research and translocation.

Partners for 2009 projects in California include California Department of Fish and Game, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, other agencies, landowners and organizations.

Since 1984, the Elk Foundation and its partners have completed more than 350 conservation projects in California with a value of more than $20.5 million.

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