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Why is the Army regulating farms?
Pacific Legal Foundation ^ | March 10, 2021 | Brittany Hunter

Posted on 03/13/2021 6:45:00 AM PST by Twotone

Jack LaPant didn’t come from a farming family and had no personal knowledge of agriculture. But once he switched careers in his early 20s and bought a ranch in a remote area of Northern California, farming became his life and his livelihood.

He never expected this decision would lead to his being targeted by the U.S. Army over an environmental law they had no authority to enforce.

Yet, after 47 years in the industry, Jack found himself in an eight-year legal battle in which he suffered losses of upward of $1.2 million.

As a young man, Jack worked for Pacific Gas and Electric, living in various cities across Northern California.

But in 1975, he left that job for greener pastures, relocating his wife and children to a large ranch he purchased, where he set out to become a farmer.

Mostly self-taught in the art and science of agriculture, Jack learned to grow various crops over the years, including wheat, alfalfa, grains, sunflowers, corn, almonds, walnuts, and olives. He had no grandiose dreams of becoming rich; Jack just wanted a bit of earth to plant crops, earn an honest living, and build a legacy to pass on to his children.

Nearly five decades later, Jack is still a farmer operating a one-man-band operation.

Earning a living as a farmer comes with its own unique set of difficulties, and Jack’s decision to purchase new land in 2012 was financially driven. By that time, the repercussions of the 2008 housing crisis had finally trickled down to the remote corners of Northern California, and Jack needed to sustain his modest living.

(Excerpt) Read more at pacificlegal.org ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; dredging; lawsuit; plowing; property; usarmy; usda
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1 posted on 03/13/2021 6:45:00 AM PST by Twotone
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To: Twotone

Because the FBI does not want to get their nice shoes muddy?


2 posted on 03/13/2021 6:51:59 AM PST by Jolla
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To: Twotone

Sadly I am not surprised


3 posted on 03/13/2021 6:53:49 AM PST by panzerkamphwageneinz (0 )
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To: Twotone

How many of these stories of government fraud do we need to see before the offending paper pusher gets prosecuted?


4 posted on 03/13/2021 6:54:56 AM PST by G Larry (Authority is vested in those to whom it applies.)
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To: panzerkamphwageneinz
I get it. They are normal Americans, an enemy of the State.


5 posted on 03/13/2021 6:56:35 AM PST by Governor Dinwiddie
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To: Twotone

They’re trying to locate the source of the metal shavings served up to the National Guard in DC?


6 posted on 03/13/2021 7:00:26 AM PST by RideForever (We are born to be tested ...)
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To: Twotone

What kinds of easements and for what.purpose did Jack give the army?
What percentage of the land did these easements involve? Hope he’s back to normality.


7 posted on 03/13/2021 7:00:59 AM PST by sanjuanbob
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To: Twotone

Just another unnoticed chapter in the War On Natural Resource Harvesters, killing farmers, commercial fishermen, loggers, and miners since 1973. All Hail Noxious Nixon!


8 posted on 03/13/2021 7:01:00 AM PST by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now its your turn)
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To: Twotone

USDA sent us a Map of our property and surrounding plots and said they would contact us in the near future. What’s up with that? I’m not home much this time of year.


9 posted on 03/13/2021 7:02:26 AM PST by griswold3
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To: Twotone

That would be the ACOE (Army Corps of Engineers), who claim and water and mineral right in the lower 48. I’ve had go-arounds with the semi-nazis, when I was doing pond remediation work, with my Nursery/Garden Center/Landscape Contracting Company, and lost every time. I quit doing that specific work. They’re worse than bullies and scumbags.


10 posted on 03/13/2021 7:05:47 AM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: Twotone; 100American; 3D-JOY; abner; Abundy; AGreatPer; Albion Wilde; AliVeritas; alisasny; ...

So this was the Wickard regiment of the Filburn division of the Army that set this case up against him?

PING!


11 posted on 03/13/2021 7:05:55 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (GOP-free since 10/9/20)
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To: Twotone

In 2012, an Army representative, who claimed to have just randomly been driving past Jack’s farm, noticed his wheat crop.
Upon closer inspection, he tipped off government bureaucrats, who sued Jack for not obtaining a Clean Water Act (CWA) “dredge and fill” permit from the Army before plowing his own land, even though the statute doesn’t require permits for “normal farming practices” like Jack’s.“

And does this bureaucrat have a name?


12 posted on 03/13/2021 7:06:24 AM PST by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. .... )
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To: Twotone
Numerous Army staff testified under oath that they have no clear rule that tells you when they think you need a permit or not, and they won’t even talk to you until you do an expensive and time-consuming hydrologic study of the property and disclose everything that has been done on the property going back years.

But they will prosecute you for not following whatever rules they have magically decided upon.

It's arbitrary, capricious, arrogant, and Kafka-esque. In this we see the results of the push to get leftists in the military. Now we are at the stage of purging anyone in the military who is not woke enough. They are on a path to remake the military into one that will defend them from us.

13 posted on 03/13/2021 7:07:30 AM PST by ecomcon
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To: Twotone

The US Army has become politicized. A trend greatly exacerbated by Obama. As in ancient Rome and every banana republic, as well as Communist China, the Army will eventually become the de facto rulers.

EXACTLY why the Founders so strongly distrusted standing armies, and why we have our Second Amendment.

The example of Cromwell was fresher to them than our own Civil War is to us.


14 posted on 03/13/2021 7:13:44 AM PST by Chad C. Mulligan (Deplorably Neanderthal)
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To: Twotone

If he could become a citizen of Mexico they’d leave him alone.


15 posted on 03/13/2021 7:15:52 AM PST by SaxxonWoods (The Republican Party is dead. Long live the MAGA Party.)
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To: Governor Dinwiddie
“...They are normal Americans...”

Who bust their a^#es and pay exorbitant taxes year in and year out!

16 posted on 03/13/2021 7:16:06 AM PST by SMARTY ( "Force always attracts men of low morality. " Albert Einstein)
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To: DesertRhino
Three words:
Patriotic American sniper ...
17 posted on 03/13/2021 7:21:26 AM PST by IWontSubmit
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To: ecomcon
It'll get worse:

18 posted on 03/13/2021 7:37:42 AM PST by IWontSubmit
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To: DesertRhino

ACOE (Army Corps of Engineers)


19 posted on 03/13/2021 7:38:49 AM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: carriage_hill

No, I was wondering who the bureaucrat was. Just curious what kind of person out driving on their own saw that and attacked that family. Is ties some 26 year old environmental major? Some diversity hire? Etc.


20 posted on 03/13/2021 7:43:24 AM PST by DesertRhino (Dog is man's best friend, and moslems hate dogs. Add that up. .... )
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