From the February 2000 Idaho Observer:

Clinton, Gore, Babbitt implicated in salmon conspiracy

Feds help Oregon officials perpetuate ongoing endangered species crisis

Most people realize by now that the Endangered Species Act has been used by the federal government to control public and private land within the several states. When a species becomes listed as endangered the species' habitat -- regardless of ownership -- is placed under the authority of federal agencies. The feds seldom (if ever) produce the raw field data which proves that a species is actually endangered.

In the case of Northwest salmon, federal bureaucrats, through the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, have gone well beyond not producing data. They have adopted a policy that is tantamount to committing genocide against a species to manufacture and perpetuate its endangered status.

by The Idaho Observer

SALEM, Ore. -- The Clinton administration recently announced that its new budget will include an additional $20 million for Oregon salmon run restoration efforts (over and above the $32 million it received in 1999). The announcement came less than a month after the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) released videotape depicting Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) employees slaughtering thousands of the allegedly endangered fish at the Alsea Fish Hatchery.

Originally called the “Wild Fish Preference Policy,” then changed to the more positive “Native Fish Conservation Policy,” ODFW genocidal activities at Alsea are reportedly being duplicated in 17 Oregon salmon spawning streams.

The PLF has filed two lawsuits against the ODFW over allegations that the state agency is conspiring with the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) to indiscriminately slaughter both "wild" and hatchery bred fish to perpetuate the myth that Northwest U.S. salmon are endangered species. Oregon Cattleman's Association President John Hayes believes that ODFW/NMFS salmon recovery policies are nothing more than excuses for state and federal governments to increase regulatory control of public and private property.

A chain of events indicates that the concerns of the PLF and hundreds of Oregonians are justified.

The ODFW has been under both private and legislative scrutiny since its agents were videotaped netting thousands of salmon headed upstream to the hatchery to spawn in 1998. Agency employees were seen landing the endangered animals, clubbong them to death and then slitting their bellies, harvesting their valuable eggs and dumping their corpses into a dumpster.

Legislative investigations led by Senator Gary George (R-Newburg) culminated in the announcement of Joint Senate and House Water, Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee hearings here.

January 9: The Washington Times released an article which announced Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt's intentions to kill Maine's 26 million-pound salmon recovery project by giving Atlantic Ocean salmon federal protection under the Endangered Species Act. State recovery efforts have, by many accounts, been successful without federal intervention. “Industry officials say there is no scientific basis for the decision and that Vice President Al Gore's dwindling popularity among environmentalists is the administration's motivation for the sudden listing,” the Times article said.

January 13: Representative Ben Westlund (R-Redmond) asked ODFW nemesis Clark Couch and other central Oregon citizens to testify at the hearings scheduled for January 19.

January 14: Washington Governor Gary Locke backed his state away from participation in the salmon- recovery agreement between Idaho, Oregon, Montana and Washington (The 1999 agreement proposed by Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber was reportedly made among the four states to reduce federal involvement in state salmon recovery and hydroelectric dam issues).

January 15: Rep. Westlund informed central Oregon citizens that Senate President Brady Adams had responded to ODFW embarrassment over the issue by limiting testimony to a few guests invited by the agency iin question (Senator George responded by helping to arrange a capitol building conference room, a video camera and a television so that those not invited could witness the hearing and submit their taped comments to the joint committee).

January 19: ODFW hearings commenced, 70 uninvited citizens listen until lunch then tape testimony until late in the day. The same day, a front page article from The Portland Oregonian quotes Democrat Gov. Kitzhaber as being pro presidential candidate Bill Bradley (D-NY).

Clark Couch managed to ask Oregon State Police, Game Division Captain Lindsay Ball who owns the salmon. Ball stated that they belong to the ODFW. When Couch responded, "I thought they belong to the people of Oregon," Ball reportedly had no further comment.

January 20: The Portland Oregonian front pages an article wherein Gov. Kitzhaber blames Vice President Al Gore for Oregon salmon recovery problems.

Gov. Kitzhaber may be right. There is evidence to suggest that the NMFS, a division of Babbitt's Department of the Interior, is the federal intelligence behind both east and west coast salmon recovery policies.

February 5: The Portland Oregonian reports that President Clinton will give Oregon at least $20 million to further boost salmon recovery projects and additional $millions for forest restoration.

February 7: It has been reliably reported that ODFW officials have been running up and down the coast telling anybody who will listen that “none of this ever happened.”

The ODFW might actually believe that none of this ever happened. In the videotape the ODFW is chopping the heads off admittedly "already dead"selected electrocuted salmon that will be made into cat food. The same ODFW employees are also seen releasing the electrocuted wild salmon back into the Alsea River with their heads intact. Why? The dead wild salmon, according to an ODFW spokesman candidly caught on videotape, are expected to continue upstream to spawn.