LAT: Salmon and Steelhead May Lose (up to 90% of) Protections

[DeepModem Mom]

Salmon and Steelhead May Lose Protections
The administration proposes to roll back 'critical habitat' for the ever-declining fish by up to 90%. Developers applaud the plan.

By Kenneth R. Weiss, Times Staff Writer


The Bush administration on Tuesday proposed dramatically rolling back protections for salmon and steelhead trout streams from Southern California to the Canadian border, saying the rare and endangered fish are sufficiently protected in other ways.

The revised plan, which was prompted by a lawsuit from the National Assn. of Homebuilders, could exclude 80% to 90% of the "critical habitat" that the National Marine Fisheries Service designated four years ago as necessary to keep West Coast salmon and steelhead populations from going extinct and to allow their depleted populations to recover....

***

....streams that run through millions of acres of national forests stretching from northwestern California through western Oregon and Washington would be excluded as critical habitat for the fish. Federal officials said they did not want to impose another layer of restrictions on areas already subject to protections for the northern spotted owl.

The new plan also drops protections on private land where developers have struck conservation deals with government officials....


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-salmon1dec01,0,860036.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[eleonora]

1. He wants us to eat his poisoned/ farm-raised salmons instead

the bastard.

[Sabriel]

19. Exactly. Good news for the fish farmers

Gitcher color-added and fungicide-laced fish here! Yum. Remind me to scratch yet another food off my no-eat list.

[eleonora]

26. -cries- and I LOVE salmon

One of my favorite fish. x( x( x(

[theHandpuppet]

2. This is exactly the kind of devastation that cannot be undone...

... by just hoping we can take back the WH in '08. What the Bushreich can and will do over the next four years will result in irreversible damage to our environment and to that of the planet.

"Natl Association of Homebuilders" huh? Money talks.

[wiggs]

24. Yep. this is why it is important....

...to become active environmentally. There's not much we can do about other irreparable damage that will be done over the next 4 years (Supreme Court, lost lives due to unnecessary war(s)), but we can do something about the obscene policies of this administration with respect to the environment. Aside from our own personal conservation efforts (fewer car trips, recycling, etc), we can help those groups trying to ride shotgun against this administration.

Read Kennedy's new book, Crimes Against Nature. What an eye opener.

[pinniped]

3. This line says it all...

-- Developers applaud the plan.--

This asshole's sole purpose on this planet is to make his masters money.

He can burn in hell.

[dbt]

4. "Let them eat cod."

:scared:
dbt

[illflem]

5. I know it sounds bad but

I know at least WA & OR have state laws that limit development close to wetlands that will probably over ride the feds.

[HuckleB]

17. With Measure 37, it won't matter in Oregon.

[achtung_circus]

6. What cod? nt

[hatrack]

14. My question exactly . . .

Oh, never mind . . .

[jmcgowanjm]

7. The only question-How many fish will be left when the dams come down?

Treaty Rights-understanding the conflict.


The 550 federally recognized tribes (largely ignored for the
past 100 years) have become a powerful legal force in the
past decade. These are independent governing entities
with jurisdictional clout equal to (and in many cases, superior
to) the states. Their authority is vested in the "supremacy
clause" in Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, a clause
that protects treaty provisions as the "supreme law of the
land."

When representatives of the four Columbia River tribes met
in March to discuss the salmon crisis with White House
officials of the Department of Environmental Quality,
everyone sitting around that table understood who was
holding the aces. Treaties have the power to trump all other
law. The tribes, backed by data of fisheries science
and scientists of federal agencies, have vowed to take any
action necessary to save native salmon from
extinction

http://www.lightparty.com/Economic/BreachOrNot.html

[jmcgowanjm]

8. The term is usufructuary-the Supreme Law of the Land

Treaties are recognized in the U.S. Constitution as being the "supreme law of the land"

As part of a government-to-government agreement, the
treaty rights carry constitutional force of law and cannot
be infringed upon by act or actions of jurisdictions below
the federal level.

The Supreme Court, in 1906, explained that a treaty is not a
grant of rights to Indigenous Americans, but a taking of
rights from them. Therefore, if a treaty is silent on the subject
of hunting and fishing rights, then these rights are not
limited and still exist in full force (Pevar 1992).

http://www.fw.umn.edu/Indigenous/rights.htm

[jmcgowanjm]

9. This is deep water

Judges must make a separate peace with the notion that
the crossing is worth the storm. The crisis of federalism over
the dams will establish the ground rules for remediation
of looming 21st century conflicts that will test the
bedrock beneath this republic unlike anything since the
Civil War. As momentous as it is, the challenge presented by
the dams is a mere prelude to coming events.

Unprecedented battles loom over water, timber, land,
gold, copper, zinc, oil and gas, uranium, coal, hydro,
carbon dioxide and management of the Columbia, Colorado
and Missouri rivers. The Colorado River delta is a dead
zone. The California valleys that feed the nation during the
winter are receding by thousands of acres a year to
salt poisoning. Glen Canyon is gone. Nine out of 10 acres
of California wetlands have vanished. The Missouri
River bottomlands are gone, and thousands of dams are
silting up.

That's just for openers, yet we keep on keeping on, like
the first-class passenger on the Titanic who insists that
the captain has only stopped to take on a little ice.

http://www.lightparty.com/Economic/BreachOrNot.html

http://www.wildsalmon.org/info/searchdetail.cfm?docID=66

[leesa]

10. But...this is what the nutball Republicans are counting on using to feed

their families when their "leaders" destroy all the social safety nets. What will they do if their aren't any fish or game in their silly little retrograde world?

[enough]

11. A kick for the National Association of Homebuilders,

waging slow-motion war on the natural world of the entire continent.

[DS1]

12. How do you like dem apples fishermen and sportsmen?

:bounce:

[htuttle]

13. Bush voters don't like to hunt and fish anyway

Do they?

[AngryAmish]

15. Not good

There is nothing like a big salmon on the line.

[Lorien]

20. Not to mention that their extinction would doom entire

ecosystems. Everything from bears to conifers depends on salmon for it's survival; they're a keystone species.

[DS1]

21. My heart bleeds.

Bush is in, we're all fair game now.

[HuckleB]

16. Bush policy: Rape the blue states like we do the rest of the world.

This is truly unbelievable.

[hatrack]

18. Hope all those "Sportsmen For Bush" enjoy the next four years

We haven't even gotten to the official second term yet, and this is already looking like an environmental version of the Sack of Rome.

Oh well, at least gays can't marry, and that's really all that matters in the end.

[Cats Against Frist]

22. Now, when they fuck with the steelhead and salmon, it's war

Farm-raised, atlantic salmon is ultra bad for you, and most importantly, it has next to no Omega-3 in it, which is what makes the damn fish so good for you, in the first place. Salmon is my favorite fish, and they are damn near sacred in the Pac NW, which is where I'm originally from.

I wish Jebus would turn all Christo-Corpo-Fascists into steelhead and salmon. THAT would make me very, very happy.

[Gregorian]

23. It's the population stupid.

Of course legislation would limit what we/they can do. Of course unbridled greed shouldn't be allowed. But,

The demand is not related to legislation, but rather population. The world wants houses. Houses are made of wood. Wood is made from forests. Logging kills forests. So I suggest people stop looking to politicians to solve these problems. It's the population that is making the demands. And they aren't going to live without their houses, and things...

You talk about something bothersome. You think Bush getting two terms is maddening. Hardly anyone is even looking at the real problem. And it isn't going to be voted out. Don't listen to me, just wait until China turns on the hot water. Oh, they just did.

[Liberaltarian]

25. ACT UP!

it's time.