| It didn’t matter
how hard Vernacio Hernandez worked to own his
own farm, or that his son is fighting in a
foreign war on terrorism. Vernacio’s life and
productivity was and is not important to
America. The Klamath Basin 2001 irrigation
water shut-off to 1400 family farms ‘was
unjustified’! These were the words of the
ultimate peer-review, the NAS (National Academy
of Science), in February 2002, months after
family farms and ranches were devastated.
Wells went dry. There were auctions.
Suicides. Fatal heart attacks. Over 150 domestic
wells went dry or were contaminated. Wildlife
refuges went dry. Over 430 species of wildlife
were harmed for ‘unjustified’ agenda-driven
‘science’ that killed the land. The community
cried out.
On July 17, 2004 the Congressional Committee
on Resources held a field hearing in Klamath
Falls, Oregon. At this hearing it was
accentuated by every witness and every member of
Congress on the panel that the Endangered
Species Act, which was used to shut down the
Klamath Basin irrigation water and timber
harvest, is broken. There was no peer review of
the ‘science’ that was later proven false.
Dreams and lives crumbled.
Mexican immigrant Vernacio Hernandez from
Tulelake, California was one of the witnesses at
this hearing, sharing how the Endangered Species
Act and false, un-peer-reviewed science, ruined
his livelihood:
"I arrived here in 1973 and I worked here for
five years or so. Then I went back to Mexico,
got married…. When I got married I decide to
come here to the Klamath Basin. We have five
kids. One of them is a nurse, two more are in
college, one of them will graduate from high
school this coming year. The other one decide to
serve in the army….last two months he says, ‘
I’m enlisted and I’m going to Iraq." (he cries)
 |
"And
how 2001 effect me? Well, my farm went, as
we say, bye-bye. If it was wrong decision or
right decision, I’m done now. I lost my
farm, my equipment that I slowly got, it was
sold out." He told how the
Mexican farm workers had to pack up and
leave with no job or money, and no place to
go. |
Since the NAS said the elevated flows and
irrigation shutoff were unjustified, river flows
are much greater now than before the Klamath
Project was built to store irrigation water, and
the river occasionally went dry before the
Project was built, California Congressman John
Doolittle encouraged panelist Steve Williams,
Fish and Wildlife Regional director, to speed up
the reconsultation process regarding this
biological opinion. This opinion is what forces
Klamath to send 100,000 Acre Feet of water to
the ocean and has not been updated since the NAS
peer review. You need to speed up this process,
"given that will impose an enormous hardship to
get to 100,000 AF because you’re waiting until
2006, so that we can avoid imposing that
additional hardship? I mean, after all, you kind
of owe them (the farmers) that after what you
did in 2001." He added that the USFWS and Bureau
of Reclamation should "err on the side of the
people."
Why is it that, when the NAS determined that
our government’s damage inflicted on these farm
communities was wrong, they did not make amends
and help Vernacio restore his farm? They didn’t
help him or the other devastated farmers and
ranchers. They won’t help the logging
communities that now realize more owls died in
wildfires than timber harvest. They are
disregarding the peer-review. They are
disregarding the Congressmen representing our
communities. We have no voice to govern these
government agencies.
So, now what? We can watch our freedom to
farm and own property, like Vernacio’s, vanish.
Or we fight for America’s little people who just
want to live on the land and provide food and
lumber and employment. We can watch the entire
West join in the demise of Oregon which has the
highest unemployment in the United States;
Oregon has obliterated its timber industry, and
much of the fishing and agriculture.
Or we will find a way to regain an America
"of the People, by the People, and for the
People". We have a lot of work to do before it
is too late.
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