Wild & Scenic in Calaveras County

Alone among the various government bodies in Amador and Calaveras Counties, the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors voted in support of the Wild & Scenic designation for parts of the Mokelumne River. Their endorsement provided the excuse for an out of the area state senator to sponsor the legislation. But the propriety of the Calaveras supervisors’ process and other issues have forced them to reexamine their position. Along with several others I spoke at their 5/27/14 meeting. What follows is a significantly revised and expanded version of my comments.

The website of the Foothill Conservancy states under their core values: “Work transparently. We are transparent in our actions and motives.” But they seem to have lost that transparency. If this wasn’t true we probably wouldn’t be here today reexamining this issue.

The Foothill Conservancy has an executive director, a watershed conservation associate, an administrative assistant and an office big enough to accommodate, on at least one occasion, the El Dorado National Forest Stakeholders Group. Most of this is paid for by grants from foundations with very specific political agendas.

My very quick and incomplete internet search of public records revealed the probable tip of the iceberg of their funding. The Rose Foundation gave the Foothill Conservancy over $110,000 between 2004 and 2013 while it gave the Friends of the River over $195,000 between 1999 and 2013. The George Soros’ Tides Foundation in 2010 gave the Friends of the River Foundation almost $4,000 and, that same year, also gave the Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment almost $22,000. These foundations transfer money amongst themselves in an uninhibited manner. In the business world, this activity would result in criminal prosecution for money laundering. They are immense operations; the CEO of the Tides Network receives $317,000 total compensation.

Almost all of the above cited grant money was for obtaining the Wild & Scenic designation. Personally, I believe that the Foothill Conservancy would prefer to keep their core value of transparency. But their tax exempt ride may be threatened because their foundation paymasters expect results.

I hope we all agree that preserving transparent process and democratic values are a far greater legacy to leave future Americans that any river.

Rewilding Leviticus

After wandering through the wilderness for forty years, the Israelites approached the Promised Land in Leviticus, Chapter 26 and God’s promises include amble rainfall, abundant crops and evil or savage beasts leaving the land. But God also warns that if you are sinful and break my commandments the beasts will return. It seems that they were created for a distinct purpose.

The Rewilding Institute website advocates continental-scale conservation in North America of gray wolves, mountain lions, jaguar, lynx, grizzly bear, polar bear, wolverine, and fisher. But the Action BioScience website takes it a step further and advocates the “…idea of rewilding from a deep time perspective … going back to a time before the first humans began to migrate to the Americas…” which would include lions and camels. A 2005 editorial in Nature, the scientific journal, urges the reintroduction of elephants and cheetahs into protected areas of the Great Plains.

The fundamental differences between these points of view, between Leviticus and what passes for science, reveals a chasm in American society far greater than the upheaval of Obamacare or the scandal of the day. Many say that the new world order overthrows the existing faiths for a new earth religion. And that Common Core, which includes our local schools, and Agenda 21, idealized in our proposed General Plan, help bring this into reality.

I claim no special knowledge of God’s plan nor do I condemn many environmental efforts. But as I ponder the implications and possibilities discussed above I feel an unnerving fear contemplating what’s unfolding around me.

Copyright 2014, Mark L. Bennett

Wild & Scenic With The Law

The Calaveras –Amador Mokelumne River Authority, a Joint Powers Agreement signed by Calaveras County states: “To preserve the use of Mokelumne River Water for consumers in Amador and Calaveras Counties” and “To preserve and protect water reserved to Amador and Calaveras Counties…” Did the Calaveras County Board of Supervisors violate the spirit of the law or the law itself in their endorsement of the Wild & Scenic designation for the Mokelumne River? Or is the law just a means to persecute those who disagree with you in the manner of Lois Lerner at the IRS and others in power today?

Judging from my experience at the State Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee hearing this past Tuesday the law is merely a script for the charade that passes as democracy. Distortions, half truths and outright lies, such as the priority of water rights on the Mokelumne River, were presented as fact by the pro Wild & Scenic advocates. Our elected and appointed officials were humiliated. As a citizen and activist I was totally disgusted, but not surprised.

There are rumors of unethical dealings by the Foothill Conservancy with land holders along the Mokelumne River. There will probably be more about this in the local media as the tragic story unfolds. Based upon my personal experience with the Foothill Conservancy since the early 1990’s I find this quite believable.

The environmentalists are the robber barons of today. It is not unexpected that Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson (remember him from the infamous bail outs?) also chairs the board of The Nature Conservancy. Goldman Sachs also has agreements with the Rainforest Action Network, Rainforest Alliance, World Resources Institute and Friends of the Earth. They also believe in the total fraud of human caused greenhouse gas global warming. Whose interests do groups like the Foothill Conservancy really serve?

In present day Pitkin County, Colorado (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joQzpWC-gCo) local residents, including the fire chief, confronted the Forest Service about road closures. These closures prevented them from stopping fires that would engulf their town. That confrontation bears an eerie familiarity to a scene in film considered to have a very different political label, John Sayles “Matewan”. In this story about a 1920 West Virginia coal miner’s strike, the mayor and sheriff attempt to exercise their legitimate authority over the coal company thugs and are shot.

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvVWWFRW0mw&list=PLXsBFHybmh0wK1qCqK4BRiOfiAkRRXTnC)

What has changed in these almost hundred years? Labels persist with only historic meanings while the power relationships remain unchanged. Back then the “left wing” opposed back room rule and its enforcement. Today the left is in power and the “right wing” opposes back room rule and its enforcement.

I prefer to keep it simple: I believe in transparent government, freedom and our founding documents.

Copyright 2014, Mark L. Bennett