“Bladder Pods” – Here We Go Again!!
By Leon Howard
This absolutely amazes me! If the government cannot
shut down the farmers with logic, they come after them through a different
agency (read “Thug”) with another trumped-up charge! Now it’s the “White Bluffs
Bladder Pod”! They are using the Fish & Wildlife knit-wits on this one and
botanist Dr. Greenwald of Portland; telling us the
White Bluffs Bladder pod is a “endangered” sub-species bladder pod, attempting
to place a 1,000 ft. ‘buffer-zone’ from the river’s edge. This would put all
the farms and orchards on the bluff out of business!
This is so wrong from so
many aspects, it is ridiculous we have to address it as an ‘issue’ because it
should be a non-issue! My wife, Diana, and I attended a meeting on Thursday,
June 6th, sponsored by the Washington State Farm Bureau, to inform
the farmers and interested public on this proposed action by the FWB. I would
encourage everybody to get involved in this effort.
Why? Even if you aren’t a
farmer, you eat! If the FWB imposes this stupid “rule”, the EPA will use it to
follow suit and it would take 78% of Washington state’s agricultural lands out
of production! These bureaucrats would be stealing 78% of privately owned
agricultural property, using junk science to do it!
Do you know what science a
botanist used to determine the White Bluff Bladder Pod was a “sub-species”?
Hold onto your temper …. The botanist determined it a ‘sub-species’ because it
“looks different” than other bladder pods! You heard me right; it looks
different. Now that is top- rate “science” there – Junk science! There are over
200 “sub-species” of bladder pod in the United States because they “look
different”! I have pulled this weed from my garden year after year and I don't live near White Bluffs!
My wife made a good point on
this: She looked around the room and she saw people taller than her (that’s not
hard, she’s 4’11”), she saw people with larger noses and smaller noses, some
were overweight, some were slim … They all “looked different” than her and
using the botanist’s “logic” and “science”, they must all be “sub-species” and
because they are all “different”, they must be ‘endangered’! Ridiculous?
Certainly; but no more ridiculous than a highly educated person labeling a weed
“endangered” using the same “test” my wife applied!
None of the over 200
“sub-species” of bladder pod has ever been DNA tested to prove there are any
“sub-species” and, surprisingly, none of the other listings had anybody
challenge the classifications. This can be done for $10,000.00, and your would
think that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service could afford that pittance from
their $2,343,000,000.00 ($2.34 Billion) budget but, no; they’d rather just
condemn the land without any expenditure! This time, they are not going to get
away with it! There is some kind of Gel test that can be done and the U. of
Idaho is doing it for the Washington State Farm Bureau but it is the farmers of
Franklin County that “ponied-up” the $10,000.00, out of their individual farm
budgets to prove once and for all whether we have “sub-species” of this weed.
The next question that went through my mind is, “Why
would a highly educated, highly paid professional want to name a new
sub-species without real proof?” I got my answer from an agronomist: The
botanist gets to name the sub-species and any time the sub-species is talked
about, it is referenced with the “discoverer’s” name! Ergo: EGO!! Plus, it assures that botanist a job.
They go to college for several years and when they get
their diploma, they have two choices for a job in their chosen field: The
“greenies” like the Sierra Club, or they can go to work for the government,
looking for “sub-species”! Can you say government overreach? I knew you could.
Needless to say, the farmers and the Farm Bureau are
fighting this but they need help. You can write letters and donate money:
Put bladderpod on the memo line of your check
and mail to:
Franklin County Farm
Bureau
30 Aries Dr.
Pasco, Washington 99301
Addresses to write the
letters to:
Proposed Listing Address:
Public Comments Processing
Attn: FWS-R1-ES-2013-0017
Division of Policy and
Directives Management
U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., MS
2042-PDM
Arlington, Virginia 2203
Critical Habitat Rule Address:
Public Comments Processing
Attn: FWS-R1-ES-2013-0012
Division of Policy and
Directives Management
U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., MS
2042-PDM
Arlington, Virginia 22203
Two public
hearings on the endangered species listing for the White Bluffs bladderpod are
scheduled for July 11 in Pasco.
The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service is holding the meetings as part of the 60-day comment
period it recently reopened after public outcry and legal threats over the lack
of notice during a comment period last year.
The sessions
are from 3 to 5 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m. at TRAC, 6600 Burden Blvd.
Read more here:
http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2013/06/09/2427916/public-bladderpod-hearings-scheduled.html#storylink=cp
