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By Investigative Journalist, Barry R. Clausen
March 2, 2012
NewsWithViews.com

The Destruction of Rural America

Environmentalists and government officials introduced wolves into Montana’s Yellowstone Park in January of 1995 and the “wolves” numbers have grown out of control. As a result elk and deer populations are being destroyed. During a speech on January 13, 2001 at Mammoth Hotel in West Yellowstone exactly six years and one day after helping release the first wolves into Yellowstone Park with Bozeman, Montana members of the terrorist organization, Earth First.

At this speech Interior Secretary, Bruce Babbitt (under the President Clinton Administration) bid farewell to a packed crowd. However, his visit was more than a farewell gesture. It was also a plea for ranchers to stop their campaign against wolves and other animals other than cattle that graze outside of the park.

Babbitt stated to the crowd, "If ranchers know what's good for them, they won't try to force wolves and bison from public land where cattle also graze; because that's a battle they can't win. The American public won't stand for it and if the beef industry forces a confrontation, it will lose." He also said the farmers and ranchers should respect the importance of maintaining a natural ecosystem where wild animals are allowed to roam free.

Currently, according to an article on February 28, 2012 in Redding California’s Record Searchlight the Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the California Fish & Game Commission to protect gray wolves under the California Endangered Species Act. Though gray wolves are protected by the federal act, listing the wolves in California would mean wildlife officials must consider a recovery plan. "There's really no guide for the management of the gray wolf in California," said Noah Greenwald, endangered species program director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

Environmentalists in conjunction with U.S Forest Service officials are in the process of stopping public lands grazing for America’s ranchers. The ranching communities that have been part of our American heritage are now being systematically destroyed. Farmers are being devastated as a result of environmentalists and federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Commerce, National Marine Fisheries (NOAA), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), California Department of Fish & Game (CDFG) and the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) who are working together essentially to destroy American farmers over fish. This final and ultimate goal is a direct result of their desire to control water.

America’s timber industry has already been destroyed as a result of environmentalists working with the U.S. Forest Service and certain multinational timber industry groups to shut down small and middle size timber companies in the United States. Trains that travel from Canada each year, carry thousands of railcars loaded with Canadian timber, to all parts of our county.

As first reported in my story “Is Government Creating Violence?” government agents from numerous agencies and those who represent them are creating hate and anger against them due to their continual harassment and attempted intimidation of farmers, ranchers and small private timber companies in Siskiyou County California. Documents and interviews now show that the harassment is spreading to several other parts of our country.

As though the threats and intimidation from our own government is not enough, the Karuk Tribe in Siskiyou County, California has stopped all small personal gold dredging projects throughout the entire State of California. The Karuk filed a lawsuit to stop those attempting to find gold in the Klamath River of Northern California and that spread to the entire state. The area especially hit is in the same county where the government harassment and intimidation is transpiring. The agency working with the Karuk’s with the dredging issue is once again the California Department of Fish & Game (DF&G). A court hearing on the case is scheduled for May 10, 2012 in Judge Alvarez’s chambers in the San Bernardino Superior Court.

In addition to the dredging issue there is a group of environmentalists from Medford, Oregon known as The Wildlands Project that is working in conjunction with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to create The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.

According to the BLM’s website, “The Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument is part of the Bureau of Land Management's National Landscape Conservation System. The BLM’s National Landscape Conservation System [NLCS] contains some of the West’s most spectacular landscapes. It includes nearly 27 million acres of National Monuments, National Conservation Areas, Wild and Scenic Rivers, and National Scenic and Historic Trails.

“The NLCS works to conserve the essential fabric of the West, while offering exceptional opportunities for recreation, solitude, wildlife viewing, exploring history, and scientific research.”

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This Monument is yet another campaign in the progress of further destroying the rural communities and families in Northern California and Southern Oregon. According to their website they claim they are working with one of President Obama’s Cabinet members, Ken Salazar the Secretary of the Interior to accomplish their goals of establishing monuments as well as to facilitate the removal of dams on the Shasta River in Northern California.

The idea is to create yet another national “Monument.” A monument that will encompass about a million acres and that will not allow hunting, fishing, logging, mining, ranching and gold panning. In most cases the monument will not even allow the small residential communities that have existed for generations, to continue to survive.

According to the “The Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Project” (kswild) website, "The proposal would turn about a million acres of the Siskiyou Crest into a national monument. The Siskiyou Crest runs east to west and connects the Cascades to the Coast Range. It is an important corridor for habitat migration…. KS Wild Campaign Director Joseph Vaile has long been our point person for engaging in collaborative efforts with federal agencies and the timber industry. These efforts seek to find common ground and reduce the long-term conflict surrounding forest issues in our region.

Joseph is currently bringing our conservation voice to the table as the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, convenes a broad coalition of stakeholders to design a series of pilot projects that may help point the way towards a new style of forest management for millions of acres of Western Oregon.

Joseph recently traveled to Washington D.C. to speak to a panel of congress members, administration officials, agency personnel and timber industry representatives."

As you travel highway 96 from Yreka, California to the small Karuk community of Happy Camp (also in California) the residents and small businesses are sometimes 25 miles apart. Nearly all of the residents are clearly expressing their views as dozens of signs passionately proclaim, “No Monument.”

Presently, there are already businesses closing with more soon to follow. The usually full camp grounds have little or no campers and the historically high numbers of reservations have dwindled to zero as a result of the gold dredging ban and the potential monument designation. One campground owner in Seiad Valley, Bruce Johnson said, “They are trying to kill us; all of this is incredibly destructive.” Seiad Valley businesses comprise of one small grocery store with a combined café along with Johnson’s campground. There is also a self-serve gas station and mini storage

On Friday February 24, 2012 Paul R. Hauser sent a letter via Email to the Siskiyou County Supervisors that questioned the Scientific Integrity of the Klamath Dam Removal. Hauser’s credentials are impeccable as he was the Science Advisor, with the Bureau of Reclamation, in Washington D.C.. He was also the Scientific Integrity Officer with the Bureau of Reclamation also in Washington D.C. and he is a Professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Dear Supervisors Cook, Valenzuela, Kobseff, Bennett, and Armstrong,

I know you are concerned about the Klamath Secretarial determination process, so I wanted to bring to your attention to an allegation of scientific and scholarly misconduct and reprisal for a whistleblower disclosure I made concerning the biased summarization of key scientific conclusions for the Klamath River dam removal Secretarial determination process.

An example of this intentional biased (falsification) reporting of scientific results by the Department of the Interior is contained in the September 21, 2011 “Summary of Key Conclusions: Draft EIS/EIR and Related Scientific/Technical Reports.” There are many other examples of integrity issues outlined in the attached allegation.

I made this disclosure when I held the position of Science Advisor for the Bureau of Reclamation. Unfortunately, as a result of the disclosure, I have faced systematic reprisal and termination of my employment. I have opened a case with the Department of the Interior, Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and I plan to file the attached scientific integrity allegation. I also plan to appeal the termination of my position to the Office of Special Council (OSC) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB).

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I hope that this situation is of interest to you, and if so, I am hoping that you would be willing to advocate on my behalf and/or on behalf of good science-informed decision making in the Klamath Basin. I have been treated wrongly by the Department of the Interior, but my decisions about the Klamath dam removal process are being compromised by scientific integrity issues.

Best Regards, Paul

The rest of the nation should become aware because we recognize that what begins in liberal California spreads rapidly to other states and agencies.

� 2012 Barry R. Clausen - All Rights Reserved