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Over 350 pages of documents filed in federal court show evidence of political meddling by the Trump administration in the development of a rewritten plan for how California allocates its scarce water supplies among agricultural and municipal users as well as endangered species and ecosystems.
California officials filed the lawsuit in December, alleging that their concerns about impacts to species and ecosystems were being ignored by the decision makers in the Trump administration in favor of allocating more water supplies to agricultural interests. At the time, these agricultural groups had a powerful ally in the Interior Department in former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt who had previously served as a lobbyist for California's Westlands Water District.
The political leadership put in place by the Trump administration called for a re-write of a scientific report just two days after it was released, even though the findings in the report indicated significant harm to endangered fish species and killer whales if the proposed rewrite of California's water rules went into effect.
California Congressman Jared Huffman called the revelations from the lawsuit "blatantly illegal," and went on to say, "Frankly, we all knew they were going to find a way to do this. The surprising part is that they were so overt and ham-handed about it."
Podcast: Inside the Conservation in the West poll
In the latest episode of "The Landscape," a conversation with pollsters Lori Weigel of New Bridge Strategy and Dave Metz of FM3 Research about the results of of the 11th annual Conservation in the West Poll from the Colorado College State of the Rockies Project.
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As extinction threatens ecosystems across the globe, “arks” such as Grand Staircase-Escalante may become the refuges from which species can spread to recolonize surrounding areas whose flora and fauna falter. By interlocking with other designated federal lands, from Bryce Canyon National Park to Bears Ears, a fully protected Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument will mitigate global warming, provide a carbon sink, protect watersheds, springs and seeps, and prevent wholesale extinctions."
