hey guys welcome back to as a man thinketh on Yas TV first of all you probably notice that today I am wearing a t-shirt that is because it is the summertime it’s getting hot I prefer more breathable clothing um but this is also one of our t-shirts to help support our film uh Native the pries of an icon the shirts has a bison on it it says if you want to save a species you have to start eating it there’s a lot of Truth to that statement I know it offends some of you but um you know the more you learn about agriculture and conservation and how it all works together um the more you’re going to understand that statement we also on our unasa Trading Co website we have several different t-shirts that have um either the the film logo on it or other film features on it all of these t-shirts go to supporting the completion of that documentary film which we are in post- production of right now we’ll have a several more travel Vlogs coming out to you guys shortly so that’s something to look forward to on the channel today I wanted to talk about a place that we spent a lot of time filming at that’s Texas um Texas is not immune to a lot of the things that we see going on in the world today especially with government agencies overusing eminent domain to take private property specifically Farm and Ranch Land from people in witto Falls for example uh Ringold Reservoir Lake was just approved by the Texas water compy conservation environmental board this is a lake that has brought up a lot of controversy over the years it’s actually been in the plans since the 1950s they’ve talked about the the possibility of building this Reservoir in the 1950s um the problem is it’s not needed okay so they went through an entire court proceeding and the judge at the end of that proceeding made the recommendation to the Texas Board that they not move forward with the Lake Reservoir because the the city of which T Falls was unable to prove that they needed 65,000 acre feet of water and the other problem that you have to realize is that in this particular area of Texas or this particular area of the United States lakes and reservoirs lose three to four times the amount of water to evaporation than they do to the actual usage of the residents I thought this was an interesting subject to talk about because this isn’t something you’re going to see you know party lines divided on this is something you just see people divided on they don’t care what happens to this community or the us as individual land owners they don’t care at a city council meeting that we wouldn’t be able to go from our house to our barn and how how did she expect for us to handle that and she just very glibly said well I suppose you’ll have to build a bridge not just land owners but we have representatives from Texas and Southwestern cattle raisers Association from Texas Wildlife association we even had Senator Drew Springer’s Aid there who read a letter opposing the recommendation of the permit other land owners have five generations five generations on the land and that’s what they have at stake here besides their livelihoods and productivity and profitability there are legacies the bigger question I have is should they ever be given the ability to use eminent domain to take private property if they cannot justify the need for it my answer is clearly going to be no in this case there are a lot of people who feel that it should happen back in 2015 um witcha Falls actually had a a a rather severe drought and during that drought there was um they they practically ran out of water in that drought time so it’s it’s still fresh in people’s mind to the 150,000 residents of wiah Falls which has only grown by you know 3 or 4% in the last decade they they think that this Reservoir is necessary because they’re afraid of entering a drought or a period again where they’re going to run out of water but Witchita Falls actually made some substantial changes since 2015 things that I think are make a huge difference in their water security they’re pretty water secure right now so I’m going to read something from James Frank because I think he explains it pretty well he says first let me say that I believe the city of wiah Falls has done a fantastic job with past projects to make sure we have adequate water availability the decisions to spend money on an RO plant to enable us to use Lake Kemp water the vision to enact a direct poble reuse project during the height of the last drought and now the complete indirect reuse project are just some of great decisions that have been made in the past that have put our area on strong footing when it comes to water security so here you have your state representative for which to Falls also saying look we’ve already done all of these things we we we are water secure we we’re on the right track and it would take a large amount of population growth to change any of that District Judge Mike Campbell says a better use of their money would be to fix all the leaking water mains that are decades old it would be interesting to know how much water is pumped into the pipes compared to how much water goes through the meters another option might be to pump the ReUse water directly into the system instead of pumping it back to Lake Arrowhead to evaporate um and you just heard of two different lakes uh like Kemp and Lake Arrowhead that witch to Falls is already drying on okay so this would create a third Lake within that region they don’t have to have a third Lake and nothing is going to change the fact that if they hit a drought they hit it a a hot period of time they’re going to lose three to four times of water that they use in evaporation in the bigger picture as thousands of people move to Texas thousands of prime agricultural producing acres are consumed by subdivisions and paving at what point do you say this land won’t support it anymore there’s a bigger story here that I think people realize because no they don’t have to have the water now will they have to have it in the future well they would have to grow substantially before they ever run out of the water supplies that they currently have would they need it for boating activities well they may want it for boating activities but they don’t need it for boating activities so guys what we’re talking about here is using eminent domain to take land away from private individuals private ranches we’re taking it away from environmentally important Prairie Land I mean to they would be flooding lands that are extremely important to the Prairies and to the wildlife of those prairies to create this Lake okay um this lake that is not even necessary that’s going to have three to four times the evaporation of um of of what people are actually using in it all of this is known facts judge siano who actually ruled against this he reviewed all the facts and said no they haven’t proven their case here I recommend to the board that they don’t w’t approve this Lake didn’t approve it for the simple fact that you can’t simply just say hey we want to take private property away from these ranches away from these people who live in this area and flood it just because we feel like we might want to have it someday even the town manager had sent a letter to the the city council saying hey look when we get past this Pro the state process and we move on to the federal process to get the 404 we’re going to have to find another water partner somebody else who needs to have the water because we can’t justify 65,000 water Acres but here’s the deal that’s precisely what’s going to happen there’s a much bigger plan in place here and whether or not that plan requires any of this does not matter they will take that ranch land they will take the private lands they will take it all if they want it and they’ve done it they’ve been doing it across the United States and around the world they’re doing it to create these Mega regions these areas where you’re going to have people Consolidated into smaller areas of living where you have your 5 minute 10 minute 15 minute cities and then you have these extended transports that can take you you know public transports throughout larger areas of those cities America 2050 is a regional development plan where they create these Mega regions and the the areas outside of those Mega regions they don’t want people living in and I’m I’m not necessarily saying saying that I’m opposed to Mega regions and having good Land Development programs especially you know even on the national level but what I am opposed to is taking private property without having a necessity of the public we are in a dangerous place in America where we feel that the people can just walk in and take whatever they want to take from the private citizen that’s not what this country is about if we’re hitting in a very dangerous path if we allow this type of stuff to continue to happen so where does witcha Falls fall into all this well witch Falls just happens to be the connector in the Texas triangle Mega region between Oklahoma City Dallas and Austin so wit to Falls is that last little piece to Clump into that Mega region for for growth and development so no which tough Falls does not need the water right now but for them to reach their goals in creating this Mega region which a tough Falls does fall into there the other thing you have to real izes that a lot of this water that’s being accumulated into these reservoirs for water use I mean they’re not flooding it so that they can just you know have a lake out there for everybody to look at the water would be used for something eventually someday if somebody could justify it they don’t want to justify it all they’re trying to do is create the infrastructure for this Mega region but if you look at Nevada for example Nevada started buying back water rights from Farmers and then offering conservation easements over their properties basically buying them out getting them to stop farming what happens to all that water Nevada a lot of people don’t think of as being in one of these Mega regions but as it turns out Reno is p part of the um northern California me mega region and Las Vegas is part of the Southern California Mega region so all of that water that the state is then buying back and redirecting taking usage rights back over will be directed into those Mega regions speaking of the Norther California Mega region salano County California actually has a measure on a bill so 62% of Salona County California right now is agricultural lands farmlands Ranch lands it’s it’s pristine it’s beautiful but what they want to do and they put this measure up on a bill is completely change all that reallocate all of that land to provide opportunities for another 400 half or 500,000 residents to move into that area all of that Farmland will be repurposed into these Mega regions these mega cities because where does Salona County California located this we’re seeing the same thing you know almost in Reverse in areas in Northern California and in Oregon Western Oregon where they’ve um reopened the clath river that you’re starting to see a lot of rewilding projects a lot of the people who are behind these big reservoirs a lot of the the the people who who are directing these Mega regions are also the ones who are out there rewilding and directing these rewilding projects they’re reshaping North America the problem with it is that in the process they are willing to use things like eminent domain to take land from people whether or not it’s Justified just because they have plans in the future and you better bet it there are people who are making some massive amount of money off of these Redevelopment plans off of moving people around consolidating where people live it’s more about the money than it is the environment I can guarantee you that because what ranchers are doing for the environment what they’re doing for conservation the way that they’re managing the lands for the most part is phenomenal anyway guys there’s nowhere that you can go that’s safe from these activities if you are inside one of these Mega regions you can bet at some point in time they’re going to want your land if you’re outside of those regions at some point in time they’re going to want you back into the mega Regions they’re going to want to kick you off your land to Rew it to repurpose it meanwhile we are losing farmland and food Security in the United States by thousands of Acres every single year talk about moving towards a time of instability with food prices going up through the roof you know just a simple fact that we’re seeing you know these these processes where they’re where they’re buying out Farmers from their lands I’m going to talk about something uh later this week where the federal government actually put it in the farm bill to buy Farmers out of their land I think people need to wake up and I think that what we need to do is go back to the principles of protecting private property making it worthwhile for people to invest and develop and and grow their properties and maintain their properties or I think we’re going to be heading for a world of hurt I don’t know if many of you have really seen how well the government manages anything but it’s not very good until next time guys uh stay safe and defend the right to farm
Video Tags: Ranch,land,Texas,Wichita Falls,Ringgold Lake,Ringgold Reservoir,Texas Drought
Video Duration: 00:14:39
