Jul 3, 2012
On facebook a friend commented that she’d seen the famous wolf, OR-7 on her ranch and there were 2 black wolves with it, but the black ones had no collars. She said there are more also.
Just wondering if any of you had heard about this. She lives east of Dorris.
Jacqui Krizo
Klamath Basin Crisis.org
PNP comment: You can bet that DFG officials will claim there are no wolves with OR-7 and that they (he) are NOT near Dorris, CA. — Editor Liz Bowen
Jul 3, 2012
Capital Press
July 3, 2012
SACRAMENTO – Agricultural and tea party groups in California are fretting over a package of bills that would strengthen the state Department of Fish and Game that have so far sailed through the Legislature.
Among the bills is one by Assemblyman Michael Allen, D-Santa Rosa, that would allow the DFG to assess civil fines of as much as $10,000 for any code infraction and allow the agency to handle appeals. Current law requires the agency to work with local district attorneys to prosecute wildlife crimes.
“We believe it takes out some level of due process,” said Margo Parks, the California Cattlemen’s Association’s associate director of government relations.
“I think the intent is to have a deterrent for major violators of the Fish and Game Code, such as poachers or illegal diverters,” she said. “I think that’s the intent. But the way the bill is currently written, it could be for any violation, big or small, which really does pose an obvious problem.”
The legislation – Assembly Bill 2179 – would give the DFG a revenue incentive to impose fines, said Noelle Cremers, director of natural resources and commodities for the California Farm Bureau Federation.
“They just decide that you violated, issue you a civil penalty and you have to pay,” Cremers said. “We are very concerned about an agency having that sort of power without having the courts make sure they’re acting properly.”
Animal-rights groups, including the San Francisco Wildlife Center and Born Free USA, argue the existing civil administrative hearing process for DFG is overly complicated and expensive and is therefore seldom used.
Provisions of the bill that would increase the DFG’s enforcement authority would “have a deterrent effect, thereby increasing compliance with wildlife laws and reducing wildlife law enforcement burden,” Born Free USA argues on its website.
Allen’s bill is one of several that have farm groups nervous. Among the others:
* Assembly Bill 2402 by Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, would shift the authority to list species as endangered from the Fish and Game Commission to the DFG, whose name would change to the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation.
* Senate Bill 1148 by Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Angora Hills, would allow the state or undetermined “trustees for fish and wildlife” to recover damages when wildlife are unlawfully or negligently taken or destroyed, the CCA asserted in a newsletter.
All the bills have moved through the Democrat-dominated Legislature on mostly party-line votes, making it out of their own chamber and into the other.
The activity comes as state-appointed committees have been examining ways of beefing up the DFG, including adding wardens with updated equipment, giving them more authority to gather evidence and setting up a special prosecutor’s office to “assist” local district attorneys.
Farmers have been at odds with the agency over water diversions. In Siskiyou County, a judge is preparing to hand down a verdict in a local Farm Bureau’s suit against the DFG over restrictions on irrigation.
The Allen bill has made it to the Senate Appropriations Committee despite the efforts of tea party groups statewide, which have been urging lawmakers to oppose it. Erin Ryan, a tea party coordinator in Redding, Calif., who has helped organize several rural property rights rallies, said rural residents found the number of Fish and Game-related bills in this session “a little scary.”
“When you go out into rural areas, the biggest complaint on any state agency you hear is Fish and Game,” Ryan said. “Rural areas are not well represented, so their ability to fight back is zero.”
Online
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
This information and much more that you need to know about the ESA,
the Klamath River Basin, and private property rights can be found at The
Klamath Bucket Brigade’s web site – http://klamathbucketbrigade.org/index.html –
please visit today.
Jul 3, 2012
Herald and News
Letter to the Editor
July 3, 2012
If you are wondering why we would blow up four green, clean, paid-for dams in order to build a wood-burning power plant on the doorsteps of Klamath Falls with a cost of millions of dollars to blow up the dams, clean up the mess, build the new plant, buy the trucks and trees and work to cut them up, it’s because you are thinking about “facts on the ground” and not about “money.”
Because doing the logical thing — building fish ladders and fining farmers for runoff — is chicken feed and makes no money. Blowing up dams, etc., will make millions of dollars for those connected and in the right place (politicians, contractors, lawyers). It’s like blowing up high schools.
We should do what Canada does: build the fish ladders when we build the dams. Pass fines so draconian that a farmer caught with his runoff in a reservoir probably cannot survive the cost of fines, so there is no runoff.
The cost in blowing up these dams — in loss of water, in building the wood-burning plant and running all the trucks to haul the wood — to say nothing of air quality, will be a disaster for Klamath Falls.
I would much rather see a debate about blowing up casinos. I don’t mind gambling in Nevada, because if a person has the money to drive to Reno or Las Vegas, and take the time, etc., then he or she is in a position to afford gambling.
The problem with Indian casinos is that they are only a few miles away; they are right where we live. People gamble there who can’t afford to and shouldn’t. I think taxes on casinos should be tripled to pay for fish ladders, and some casinos be closed.
Henry F. Edwards
Klamath Falls
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
This information and much more that you need to know about the ESA,
the Klamath River Basin, and private property rights can be found at The
Klamath Bucket Brigade’s web site – http://klamathbucketbrigade.org/index.html –
please visit today.
Jul 3, 2012
Published July 03, 2012
FoxNews.com
An Oregon town has reportedly canceled its annual fireworks show out of concern the Fourth of July pyrotechnics will scare sea birds roosting nearby.
Town officials in Depoe Bay have announced the cancellation of the annual pre-Independence Day fireworks show on July 3 following pressure from federal wildlife managers who said the noise disrupts sea birds in the area, the Oregonian reports.
The move has irked local business owners who count on the popular show to bring foot traffic.
“It’s a great loss to our community,” Peggy Leoni, co-owner of Trollers Lodge, a small motel in Depoe Bay, told the newspaper.
Rebecca Chuck, deputy project leader with the Oregon Coast National Wildlife Refuge Complex, said the move was necessary to protect species such as the Brandt’s cormorant that nest at Pirates Cove.
The cove is less than a mile south of Boiler Bay, where the fireworks show is held, and seabird colonies on the north coast face intensifying pressure from bald eagles and other predators. The event at Boiler Bay has been a tradition since 1993.
Contact
Subscribe
No Comments 