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Our Klamath Basin Water Crisis
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Hillman Bust

Fishy Implications - the green cloak of corruption

by John Martinez, Pioneer Press April 22, 2009

The vice-chair of the Karuk Tribe was recently arrested and charged with methamphetamine possession. The implications of Hillman's arrest, if he's convicted as charged, strike at the heart of environmental agencies' credibility as Hillman is a leading advocate of those agencies' stated and unstated policies and goals.

Hillman is the darling of those governmental agencies that exist only to destroy our private property rights. Hillman's public celebrity within the environmental movement serves paradoxically as a front for corporate water interests that rule Sacramento from smokey backrooms. Fish and Game's agenda is much larger than the Karuk Tribe and thus Hillman is easily replaced if organized crime is unable to forestall Hillman's conviction in Medford.

We must not forget Fish and Game and other water grabbing shills still use our resource-based industries as a scapegoat in the 2002 fish kill. The 2002 fish kill along the Klamath is used as a central rationale for closing down miners, ranchers, farmers and recreationists. The fact is that methamphetamine lab operators dumped chemicals from their operations into the river causing water quality to weaken those fish. No real effort was made to look into this unfortunate fish kill as it was directly caused by the same people that blame farms for the kill.

Local residents came forward in 2002 and explained that an eerie chemical smell prevailed throughout the area just as the fish started floating to the top of the river. Those that spoke up regarding a possible chemical spill were laughed at and ridiculed and their voices fell silent due to retribution. Fish and Game knew dead floating fish was a winner in their cause to bankrupt our region's farm economy.

Hillman's guilt or innocence will not change the fact that agencies in Sacramento want to destroy our economy and make the entire county dependent on grant funds. The game is so simple. The game is to destroy the economy and steal our water.

Until our local elected officials act more like leaders and less like chicken-hearted ostriches, water interests down south will continue to erode our way of life and our ability to pursue happiness.

(Permission to share this article from the publisher.)