Skagit CAPR Chapter Statement of Goals
Whereas government actions in Skagit County often appear to conflict with private property rights and because property rights are the basis for the freedoms we enjoy under natural law, as well as under the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Washington, the membership of the Skagit CAPR Chapter is resolved to:
1. Maintain awareness of state, county and municipal activities that impact on a citizen’s right to use and dispose of his or her property.
2. Raise awareness of and strongly oppose threats to private property use, especially from ill-conceived, top down planning schemes imposed by government bureaucrats.
3. Educate the public about the concerted attack on private property by agencies at all levels of government, as well as Environmental NGO’s.
4. Demand that any restrictions imposed on use of property be unequivocally supported by solid scientific evidence.
5. Coordinate with other CAPR chapters to further the cause of property rights throughout the state and region.
6. Encourage the election of candidates who are committed to defending property rights and maintaining the freedoms our federal and state constitutions guarantee us.
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Signs of CAPR
Earlier in the year, thanks to Gary and Paula Clancey, CAPR yard signs were made and distributed to members and friends to display. What a surprise then when returning from a fishing trip, your editor discovered one of the signs in a grassy lot on the other side of Marblemount.
Note the trailer. Suspect that property owner would rather build a permanent home, but probably can't because of Ecology's In-stream Flow Rule.
As we traveled west on SR20, we passed Richard and Marnie Fox's property. There was a much larger sign.
Richard and Marnie continue their courageous legal battle at the appellate level. Skagit CAPR Chapter continues to support them.
* Photos courtesy of Deane Hislop
CAPR Water Forums - Concrete
The Skagit CAPR Chapter sponsored water forums in Concrete in June and July. Both were well attended by area residents, who have been most affected by the Department of Ecology’s ridiculous and punishing In-stream Flow Rule. Attendance at the June 11th event had Concrete’s American Legion Hall filled to capacity. Even more people showed up on July 21st .
Gary Clancey briefing an overflow crowd on the history of water woes in Skagit County – July 21, 2015
During the July 21st event, people sat patiently in the crowded hall and listened to Gary Clancey speak about individual freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and the history of the water controversy in Skagit County and its connection to larger agendas, Mike Newman describe Ecology’s erratic and schizophrenic application of water law throughout the state and that agency’s penchant for making up its own science, Richard Fox legal counsel Pete Ojala explain the Fox v. Skagit lawsuit, now in the appeals process and Cindy Alia, CAPR’s legislative representative, report on the recent session in Olympia and the fate of the numerous water bills introduced this year. At the Q&A session afterwards, the audience remained engaged as numerous pointed questions were directed towards the speakers and the two County Commissioners who attended.
One very positive outcome of the forums, especially the one on the 21st, is that people opened their wallets, donating enough to fully fund the Fox v. Skagit lawsuit through the current appeals process.
Shannon Kuest from the Skagit Valley Herald was also in the audience. She filed the following report, which, on the whole, appears to be a fair and balanced account.
In addition, two individuals from KSVR, a community radio station located at Skagit Valley College in Mt Vernon, recorded the entire program and much of the Q&A. Per a telephone conversation with the station’s program manager, expect recordings from the event to be used in a future episode of Skagit Talks. However, don’t expect favorable coverage as that station’s editorial positions are often not in line with property rights advocacy.
In 2015, the Skagit CAPR Chapter has already sponsored four water forums; one at the Samish Valley Grange, another at the Fredonia Grange, and two in Concrete where the effects of Ecology’s 2001 Skagit Basin In-stream Flow Rule has caused the most disruption and devaluing of property in the county.. The chapter is following through with its mission to raise awareness of what is happening to individual property owners, the fundamental injustice of Ecology’s policies and the very real threat to others who own property by an unaccountable and out-of-control state agency.
Skagit CAPR's Water Rights TV Spots
In 2014, our chapter sponsored five TV spots on the Comcast system aimed at raising awareness of the real threat to property rights in Skagit County. This is a trend that is seen across the entire country. Unfortunately, the situation in Washington is as bad or worse than any other state and Skagit seems to be ground zero. In this day and age, too many people, especially bureaucrats and elected officials, do not appreciate the fact that property rights are absolutely necessary to preserve our freedoms and ensure prosperity.
In 2015, we are again sponsoring TV messages, but this year the concentration is on Skagit County’s most serious problem -- thousands of property owners deprived or having limited access to the water on their own land due to the In-stream Flow Rule. Flawed beyond belief and based on spurious science, the Skagit IFR is a political weapon used by the Department of Ecology with the support of Environmental NGO’s and tribal interests to pursue an ideological agenda.
Click on the thumbnails to view the two TV spots on YouTube.
Water Rights
In-stream Flow
Just Water Alliance provides a history of the Skagit IFR. A brief timeline can be found here. Its controversial creation with Ecology’s machinations revealed are here.
Skagit CAPR Chapter Water Rights Forum #2
The Skagit CAPR Chapter sponsored a second water rights forum on Wednesday evening, September 17th at the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Mt Vernon. This one was billed as a 'Legislative Town Hall" and legislators from the 10th, 39th and 40th Districts were invited. Local elected officials were also invited as were candidates for legislative and local offices. Glen Morgan from the Freedom Foundation was the moderator.
The goal of the event was to educate the law makers with the water situation in Skagit County in light of last fall's Swinomish v. Dept of Ecology decision, and then suggest possible solutions for the problem that threatens 500 land owners with loss of use of their wells and prevents access to water on more than 5500 undeveloped properties. Zach Barborinas from Just Water Alliance and Skagit CAPR Chapter member Mike Newman briefed the history, science and politics behind last year's Washington State Supreme Court decision.
Daniel DeMay provides an accurate account of the event in the September 18th Skagit Valley Herald.
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Skagit CAPR Hosts Dr. Tim Ball
On Friday, May 30th at 7:00 PM, Professor (Emeritus) Tim Ball, University of Winnipeg, provided a riveting presentation on the climate and efforts to politicize it, titled: The Climate: Science Based on Evidence. Professor Ball’s presentation was the third in a series of presentations sponsored by the Skagit CAPR Chapter in 2014.
Professor Ball has studied the climate for over 40 years and says that he has watched his chosen discipline hijacked for a political agenda and funding reasons. When he began his academic career, global cooling was the concern. Now, global warming is hyped as mankind’s most serious threat despite the fact that there’s been no statistical warming in the last decade and a half even though the level of atmospheric CO2 continues to rise.
Professor Ball's latest book, The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science, is a withering critique on the current state of climate science, which is no longer science at all but the purveyor of false information and analysis in the service of a political agenda and the expectation of more grant money. A subtitle to Dr. Ball's presentation should have been, "Global Warming: The Biggest Deception in History."
The following presentations are both informative and entertaining and well worth the time it takes to view them. Click on the thumbnails to view.
1. Introduction
2. Paradigm Shift - Environmentalism
3. Constant Climate Change
4. The Failure of Computer Models
5. What's the Motive?
6. Data Manipulation & Omissions
7. Questions
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Skagit CAPR Chapter Sponsors Water Rights Forum
In October 2013, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Swinomish tribe and Anacortes in Swinomish vs. Dept. of Ecology,. as a result, around 6000 rural land owners in Skagit County lost the right to use their own underground water. On Friday, May 9, 2014, the Skagit CAPR Chapter sponsored a public forum about the loss of those water rights in a program titled, "Skagit Water Rights: People, the Law, the Rulings." The program consisted of presentations on the history, science and legal machinations surrounding this issue from a panel comprised of local experts; Zach Barborinas, Mike Newman and John Roozen. It was followed by a lengthy Q&A.
The controversy about water rights in Skagit County is all about land use control under the pretext of adequate salmon populations returning to their spawning grounds in the Skagit and its tributaries. The Swinomish tribe maintains that rural resident well use can remove enough water from the river and streams to degrade the ability of the fish to reproduce. Although the area experiences an annual dry spell in late summer thru early fall, that prospect is highly doubtful. The Skagit River system is the third largest in flow quantity on the U.S. west coast in one of the wettest regions in North America and that there is connectivity between well water (often drilled to 200 feet) and river volume is tennuous at best.
That salmon return has dramatically declined may have more to do with the number of fish harvested by commercial and tribal entities than loss of habitat. The following graphic, taken from John Roozen's presentation, depicts the reduction in number of fish returning to the Skagit, starting in the early 1970's.
The following are the first four YouTube video segments of the program and are an excelllent primer on the current unfortunate water situation in rural Skagit County and how it came to pass. As the other three become available, they will be added.
Introduction - Chapter President Gary Hagland
Zach Barborinas - Bad Math & in-Stream Flow
Mike Newman - Ecology's Peculiar Policies
John Roozen - People & Fish
Skagit CAPR Hosts Dr. Don Easterbrook
Photo courtesy of Dave Onkels
On April 4th, in the first of a series in its Education Outreach program, the Skagit CAPR Chapter hosted Professor (Emeritus) Don Easterbrook, Western Washington University and world renown geologist and climate expert. Titled "Impacts of Global Warming, Sea Level Rise, and Envision Skagit 2060 in Skagit County," Professor Easterbrook presented an in-depth briefing on the Earth's climate, debunking the claims of global warming alarmists and their allies in government and the media. He also addressed the erroneous climate science that forms one of the key assumptions that support Envision Skagit 2060, detailing how the UN IPCC's climate models have wildly diverged from the actual temperature record. The event was held at the Skagit PUD facility in Mt Vernon.
A spirited Q&A session followed with Jack Arrington asking the most salient question of the night, "if all we are seeing is natural climate variation, what is the reason that persons in government, academia and the media continue to cling to this false theory?" The answer was "money and control." No surprise there.
The entire presentation plus Q&A, broken into seven segments, can be accessed by clicking the icons below.
1. Introduction and Scientific Method
2. Climate Facts
3. Computer Models
4. CO2 and Global Warming
5. Sea levels, Climate
6. Evidence vs Models
7. Questions
Skagit CAPR Chapter's TV Spots
The Skagit CAPR Chapter has been running a series of TV Spots during primetime Fox News programming on Comcast since February in Skagit County. You can view them on our supporting webpage at http://proprights.org/INFO Click the thumbnails to watch each 30 second video.
Any other CAPR Chapters that may be interested in running the spots in their areas, please contact Gary Hagland at (360) 899-5656 or via email at haglandg@toriitraining.com