Taking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) at its word to employ a “robust public engagement process”, a coalition of over a dozen national and state farm and water organizations have engaged the agency on its proposal to list the northwestern and southwestern pond turtles under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The litigious Center for Biological Diversity has been pushing for stronger protection for the pond turtles for over a decade. The proposed listing of the turtle could potentially impact producers and water managers in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. … For example, millions of acre-feet of stored water in the past decade have been directed away from farmland and flushed out to the sea to “protect” delta smelt in California and coho salmon on the Klamath River.
-Written by Dan Keppen is executive director of the Family Farm Alliance.