Death Of A Community: Abuse Of The ESA
By Bill Dart, Blue Ribbon Magazine
March/April/May 2001

Early in April the US Government destroyed another community, the community I grew up in, acting as the agents for unbalanced environmentalists. No, they didn't bomb the town or roundup the citizens for massacre, but they destroyed it just the same. I am talking about the communities of the Klamath Basin, straddling the Oregon/California border. The towns of Tulelake, Malin, and Merril and all of their residents were targeted over a decade ago for rural cleansing by the Oregon Natural Resources Defense Council (ONRDC), the Klamath Alliance, and other zealots using environmental issues as their weapons of choice and the Endangered Species Act as their Silver Bullet. Finally, their efforts bore bitter fruit this year. They took away the farmers lifeblood Š water.

The Klamath Basin is a farming area in one of the remnant valleys of the Great Basin. The area has rich soils, and until this year, ample water for irrigation. In the early 1900s, the Bureau of Reclamation initiated the Klamath Project to turn the region into irrigated farmland, and by the1930s, a system of canals and drainage ditches was built to supply water to the entire basin. The land was given to veterans of World War I and World War II as homesteads in the '30s and '40s. These veterans worked hard and turned the region into highly productive farms. Now, instead of enjoying their golden years and watching younger generations take over the family farms, everything they worked for all their lives is being taken away from them, and the communities they worked so hard to build, are being destroyed. On April 6th of this year, the Bureau of Reclamation declared, for the first time ever, that there would be no irrigation water this year for the Klamath Basin. Without water, farmers are out of business.

Maybe there will be enough water next year, but maybe not. The zealots bent on cleansing the Klamath Basin of its residents didn't think it would take as long as it has. When the Basin was first targeted for cleansing by the ONRDC, they looked for the means to accomplish their objectives. How could they eliminate the farmers? Farmers need three things to farm: land, appropriate weather, and water. Well, they couldn't take away the land, at least right away. And they couldn't control the weather. But they found the water was vulnerable. The government controlled the water. So they went looking for the endangered species du jour. Their poster child turned out to be the "Short Nose Sucker;" no, I am not joking.

The Short Nose Sucker is a bottom feeder that lives in Klamath Lake and other regional waterways. ONRDC petitioned the Fish & Wildlife Service to list the Short Nose Sucker, and about 7 years ago this was done. The Short Nose Sucker, a fish the Oregon Fish & Game department actively tried to exterminate in the '50s up until the early 1970s, suddenly controlled the destiny of the resident of the Klamath basin. F&WS biologists concluded, contrary to the opinions of many independent biologists and the historical record, that Klamath Lake must be kept at a level equal to historic high water years to ensure successful spawning of the Short Nose Suckers in the mouths of streams feeding Klamath Lake. This means that there is no longer enough water to irrigate the farms of the Klamath Basin. This is in spite of the fact that the most successful years for spawning on record were very low water years.

As fortune would have it, the farmers unfortunate fate was deferred. They went through 6 years of above normal precipitation, and there was enough water for the farmers. But, they have just had their first below normal water years since the listing, and the long looming guillotine over the farmers heads has finally been tripped.

When Andy Kerr boldly walked into a meeting with the farmers of Tulelake several years ago and told them he was going to put them out of business, everyone thought this is too crazy. It could never happen to us...could it? Could our own government, the government we went to war for, the government that made farming possible and encouraged these veterans to put their life work into making these lands productive and building homes and communities, this government would never take everything awayŠwould they?

Well, the government did. Several thousand farmers lost their jobs. And not just the farmers will be destroyed. What about all of the hispanic farm workers who have come to call Tulelake home in the last several decades? Their jobs are now gone too. What about the local merchants? What about the farm equipment dealer and his employees? What about the schools that won't have any students anymore? Oh, but there is one sector of the population that won't be eliminated. All of those federal employees at Fish & Wildlife and the Bureau of Reclamation, their jobs are secure.

I am absolutely disgusted that our own government would destroy the town I grew up in for any reason. I am disgusted beyond belief that the town is being destroyed for the sake of a sucker fish. And I am outraged that this is being done with absolutely no clear evidence that depriving farmers and their communities of their livelihood will have ANY benefit for the suckers. (Records indicate they will do worse under the new management scheme).

The Sacramento Bee ran about 8 column inches on page B-4 about the death of my home town. A community can be destroyed and nobody cares. What is wrong with our society? Can't everybody see that the Endangered Species Act is not a tool to save species, but is a weapon to destroy communities and achieve rural cleansing? The ESA was a good idea that has been turned into something horrible for people and of little benefit to species. We must get back to "balanced environmentalism," something we can all support. We must reject unbalanced, extremist environmentalism bent on destroying communities and groups who don't conform to their beliefs.

If, in the end, our society deems that saving suckers is a higher public good than allowing rural America to produce food and fiber and maintain a rural way of life, then our society must compensate the victims of its laws. If the farmers of Tulelake are no longer allowed to farm their lands, then society needs to pay for this taking. Society needs to pay for the land and the homes and the investment in equipment and infrastructure and provide the means to start all over again somewhere else. These farmers, their employees, and every business in the region, stand to lose everything they have worked for. If our government does this without compensating their victims, it will be little better than those of the Balkan republics. For our government is engaging in the same practices-cleansing an entire region of its population. Is this what these veterans risked their lives for? I think not!

Bill Dart serves on the Board of Directors for the BlueRibbon Coalition. For questions or comments on this article or related issues, he may be contacted through the BRC main office: P.O. Box 5449, Pocatello, ID, 83202. Phone: 208-237-1008, Fax: 208-237-9424.

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