We had our second date in court today on Jim and Ron’s case of dredging without a permit. They have plead “not guilty” and the next court d…ate is January. We wanted Jim and Ron’s dredge back in their hands but DFG claimed they could not let our boys have their dredge back since they were in violation of a “poaching” regulation where ……any piece of equipment which MIGHT harm a fish could not be released…… We asserted that under that vague regulation, they should outlaw hiking boots, cars, boats, boat motors and swim suits. Never know when a swim suit could trap a poor, defenseless salmon fry in the tie string. The clincher on this was when we provided information to the DA that DFG uses the very same hose for transferring fish (stocking programs) from their tanker trucks to streams, lakes and rivers. The very same hose, purchased at the same manufacturer as the dredge manufacturers.
The DA agreed with us and Jim and Ron picked up their 4″ Proline dredge from DFG this afternoon.
Without boring you all with the minutia, we firmly believe it is in the best interest of the tax payers of Fresno County for the DA to just dismiss this case. We believe this will happen as the primary discussion was about Brandon Rinehart’s case and that appeals published case.
So………..this is good news. They have their dredge back and we believe the case will be dismissed on the grounds that they would “never” obtain a guilty verdict on this topic. The science is behind the dredgers, the facts are behind the dredgers and now the courts have affirmed the case by the dredgers.
We all have choices to make, and these two men decided to dredge to put food on their tables. Dredging does not harm fish, if it did, Sierra Fund (uber liberal radical environmental group dredging under the guise of removing mercury in CA) would not be dredging. See, if you are politically aligned with the liberals, you get rewarded, if you are not, you get punished and shut down and the law be damned. They have a word for that type of behavior.
This fight over suction dredging is long from over and AMRA intends to be right in the middle of it every inch along this road.
Join us, let us unite and lets fight to keep our rights.
Congrats Jim and Ron……..glad you got your little blue back!
This photo was taken during the confiscation in May of this year near Fresno.
Hopefully this ban is ended soon. They already finished the EIRs long ago and found Dredging is actually good for the fish and environment. The fact that this has been dragged out for so long is ridiculous.