The following editorial
was written and submitted by Family Farm
By Norm Semanko
Executive Director,
Verl Jones
has got to be smiling to himself about now. It's just sad he can only be
here in spirit to celebrate a true moment of jurisprudence sanity returning to
our state.
Verl, a
lifelong Challis resident, and his family own a small ranch. Since 1961 they had
used a legal
In
December 2000 the activist Idaho Watersheds Project crew, headed by Jon Marvel,
sued the Jones family claiming - without a single shred of evidence - they were
violating the ESA because diverting water was killing bull trout. Let me
restate that again for emphasis: claiming - without a single shred of
evidence - that bull trout were being killed.
The Jones
family, plus a longtime ranch hand, testified that there had never been a bull
trout killed or even injured in the 40 years they had been diverting water.
They rightfully concluded that the real motive behind the case was to
financially drive them off their land.
Incredibly, a Federal judge ignored their first hand rebuttal testimony and
issued an injunction ordering the ranching family to stop diverting water.
For the past three years the Jones family has been forced to buy about 100 tons
of hay every year to make up for the loss while they appealed the obviously
logic-challenged judicial ruling.
On April
25 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the District Court's decision
ruling environmental activists cannot use the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as a
weapon unless they can first actually prove something is harming a species.
The Ninth Circuit judges rightfully decided that courts cannot simply accept at
face value claims by environmental extremists that harm to a species is being
done. The Court sent the case back for trial so that evidence, or lack of
evidence, can be evaluated.
The ruling
finally sets a critically important bar to be cleared when enviros try to use
the ESA as an unrestricted hammer against Idahoans: they must prove harm is
being done before an injunction can be issued. The ruling also notes that
if there is no evidence a species has been harmed in the past then it probably
means it won't be harmed by the same situation in the future.
Verl Jones died in November 2003 so he never got the chance to see his common sense vindicated. But the victory over out of control environmental extremists is a true legacy of which his family and Idahoans everywhere can be proud.