Articles

Author: Brandon Middleton The story here in California is sad but easy to understand: the Endangered Species Act is being used to fundamentally alter California's water delivery systems. State and federal projects that were designed to transfer water to the San Joaquin Valley are subject to myriad environmental restrictions. More water for fish ...

Author: Brandon Middleton Via Aquafornia, we learn of a recent statement by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar concerning new California water legislation and the forthcoming National Academy of Sciences reviews of the delta smelt and salmon biological opinions. Secretary Salazar's statement begins as follows: Today, Governor Schwarzenegger is sign ...

Author: Brandon Middleton Today, Pacific Legal Foundation attorneys will file an appeal to the Ninth Circuit, asking the court to invalidate the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's delta smelt water cutbacks as unconstitutional. The appeal will be filed not only on behalf of PLF's farming clients (Stewart & Jasper Orchards, Arroyo Farms, a ...

Author: Brandon Middleton Big Government's John Loudon has a great article on why it's important for the entire country to wake up and realize that the Obama administration is putting fish before people. Loudon explains that the ramifications of cutting off water to the San Joaquin Valley go far beyond California: As for the rest … ...

Author: Brandon Middleton The Natural Resource Defense Council's Barry Nelson doesn't like what Pacific Legal Foundation is doing when it comes to California's water. (See his NRDC Switchboard blog post, "Facts are stubborn things"). According to Nelson, PLF and others have been "particularly careful to ignore facts that ...

Author: Brandon Middleton It looks that way due to a federal court ruling yesterday. But as the decision concerns only the federal government's salmonid biological opinion, it's not yet clear what the precise result will be–the government's delta smelt biological opinion, which has been overshadowed by the salmon biop in recent mo ...

Author: Brandon Middleton In 1980, the valley elderberry longhorn beetle was listed as a threatened species by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.  But in 2006, the Service concluded in a study that the beetle had recovered and was a healthly species that no longer required federal protection.  Since then, however, the Service has ̷ ...

Author: Brandon Middleton Today the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a finding that the delisting of the valley elderberry longhorn beetle from the list of protected species under the Endangered Species Act may be warranted.  The Service's finding is a welcome (albeit overdue) response to Pacific Legal Foundation's Sept. 2010 pet ...

Author: Brandon Middleton Yesterday, NRDC made three significant filings relating to Judge Wanger's decision last week to enjoin the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from fully implementing its fall X2 action.  First, NRDC appealed the decision and injunction.  Second, it requested that Judge Wanger issue a "stay of the Court ...