The Osprey: Managing Columbia River Steelhead for Extinction, Part II
To many people, the desert might seem an unlikely place for fish. But fish of all kinds thrive in the desert environment, including coldwater species. The Blitzen River flows out of Steens Mountain in Oregon through lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is a prime desert redband trout fishery. From there, the river flows northward through the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, site of the most recent salvo by the so-called “states rights” movement against public lands when, on January 2, 2016, a group of armed, self-styled patriots took control of the refuge until the last of the occupiers were arrested by federal agents 41 days later.
The goal of these property rights groups is to “return” our national wildlife refuges, national parks, national forests and other public lands to their “rightful owners”, usually meaning turning them over to private development interests.
Their pitch is that the government owns these lands and that any rules or management designed to protect public lands from abuse is a “government land grab.” But, in fact, public lands don’t belong to the government but to all Americans. It is the “states rights”, “property rights” and “patriot” groups that are attempting the real land grab.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
• B-RUN STEELHEAD
• S. CALIFORNIA STEELHEAD
• KLAMATH DAMS UPDATE
• NMFS STATUS QUO
• PUBLIC LANDS VALUES
• MINING & HOT WATER
• YUBA RIVER FISH PASSAGE
The latest manifestation of this antipublic lands movement is being officially advanced as government policy by the Trump Administration as it plots an unprecedented attempt to revoke some national monument designations. One of those in its sights is the Siskiyou National Monument in Oregon, which protects the headwaters of some of the West Coast’s best steelhead, salmon and trout streams. The logging industry would like to get into the monument’s forested areas that are now off-limits.
It’s especially vital to understand that in addition to these lands being owned by all Americans, the animals there also belong to us through the Public Trust Doctrine, whereby managing government agencies have a fiduciary responsibility to protect those public assets, which includes wild salmon, steelhead, trout and other species.
When we fight to save public lands, wild fish and other natural resource public assets , we are the ones who are fighting the real “land grabbers” along with state and federal agencies that too often shirk their duty to protect our wild fish as a Public Trust.