“Your farm dams are leaking and you must have them repaired immediately.” That order came from the state of Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Quality to a rural landowner claiming that after the last heavy rains his two dams had sent lots of trashy branches down stream and this situation must be immediately remedied. This letter sounded very much like a presidential order to cure this hazardous problem or else.
They informed him that such dams had been prohibited and were not permitted. They could not find where he had applied for a permit to build them. That all such structures had to be permitted and approved by their office before even starting construction. This form of dam building would never be permitted because they had proved to be very faulty when used to build such structures – so no permit could be placed on their construction.
But the landowner’s response was even better. I mean the environmental departments letter sounded like they were going open Alcatraz Island for this form of a violation against the world and he only had so long to fix it.
But he took a better tact informing them those dams were not his creation nor were they his. They belonged to a beaver family that lived behind them. He also said that they could not read or speak his language. He was unsure how to contact them but said they might come out and personally tell them about the disaster they had caused. He included two pictures of the swimming perpetrators so they’d recognize them when they came to inform them vocally how dangerous their infractions were to the health, safety and welfare of the entire state of Pennsylvania.
He said he thought everyone was entitled to legal representation even beavers. So the dam beavers would surely need a lawyer. Since they had no financial resources, perhaps they could plead for financial assistance on the mercy of the court. He went on to say the dam beavers were recognized as good dam builders by many authorities, but perhaps they needed to reeducate the dam beavers. The letter was very well phrased and I laughed but the matter is far more serious.
There was a petition circulating at the National Chuck Wagon Races at Clinton, Ark., over Labor Day weekend to halt the federal Environmental Protection Agency from taking control of all the water and water resources in the United States. That law is being proposed and looked hard at considering what it could bring to your land. You might want to get involved. Some of these rules should never be passed in Congress, but rather these agencies use the power in the laws to protect public welfare to write such rules. And they have been upheld by the courts, only by Congress passing a law to stop it but if they didn’t the agency would be in charge. If not taking action then the Environmental Safety Department could slap that on landowners across the United States. It would not be a state agency telling you what to do but Washington D.C. doing the job.
These days and times landowners and farmers alike need to be diligent about the threats held by people as dumb as these officials who blamed people for the action of dam beavers. Goes to show they know nothing at all about the actual situations arising out there on our farms or in nature.
May the Good Lord bless and keep you and all of the USA, Dusty Richards
