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S.E. Wood Watch where you step! You have all heard of the human suffering
that follows when someone happens to harm an "endangered
species." The California farmer who was put off his farm
and had his tractor and cultivator confiscated because he ran
over an endangered rat while plowing his rutabagas. And the thousands
of lumbermen in the Northwest put out of work, and the prices
of building products soar, in order to protect some hoot owl
habitat. Eventually, however, they discovered that the owl was
just as happy nesting in the plastic letters on the front of
a Kmart store! Now the victim is the Lost River suckerfish
(Deltistes luxatus), and the villains are the 1,400 farmers who
for generations have depended upon the Klamath River to irrigate
their farmlands. Under the terms of the Endangered Species Act
of 1973, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has shut off irrigation
water to the Klamath River Basin farmers in order to give the
little suckerfish more room to ... well, suck, I guess! Don't laugh! At the present time, there are
507 animals and 736 plants currently on the endangered species
list, with another 250 pending. Our state of Tennessee ranks
fifth in the nation, identifying a total of 107 such endangered
species. (North Dakota has nine.) Our list includes such notables as the orangefoot
pimpleback (Plethobasus cooperianus), the turgid blossom (Epioblasma
turgidula), the shiny pigtoe (Fusconaia cor) - not to be confused
with the rough pigtoe (Pleurobema plenum) - and the Cumberlandian
combshell (Epioblasma brevidens). And who among us can ever forget
the hero of Tellico Dam - the infamous snail darter (Percina
tanasi)? And these are just the animals! Included among
the plants are the Cumberland sandwort (Arenaria cumberlandensis),
the Spring Creek bladderpod (Lesquerella perforata) and Price's
potato-bean (Apios priceana). Now all this would have sounded pretty silly
to the 1,400 farmers in the Klamath River Basin, too, until their
livelihood, in which they had toiled for generations, was suddenly
snuffed out by some nameless bureaucrat 2,000 miles away. But never fear! Rather than reopen the gates
and let the water flow as it has for decades, the Associated
Press reports that the United States Senate is now "poised
to approve a $20 million aid package for the drought-stricken
Klamath Basin farmers as part of an emergency appropriations
bill." That's Washington's answer to everything. Give 'em
welfare! Those guys were probably getting tired of farming anyway.
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