Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins warned California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday that the Trump administration intends to save several dams that the state intends to tear down.

Last year, Newsom backed a fast-track plan to remove two dams, the Scott and the Cape Horn, on the Eel River in Mendocino County in Northern California, partly to restore salmon runs. “I got three more years [in office]. And I want to put it all out there,” Newsom said. Breitbart has the story.

His plan is backed by environmental interests and Native American tribes.

But the dams also provide water for local farms and communities and include hydroelectric power plants. The utilities say that the aging hydroelectric plants no longer produce electricity, but local communities say that they will struggle to survive without the water that the dams provide.

There is an effort to find alternative sources, but these will likely prove expensive, including deep wells that many farmers cannot afford.

Rollins issued her warning on X on Sunday:

“The work to protect our farmers against a weaponized and often radical government continues,” Rollins wrote, referring to Newsom’s government as well as to the previous Biden administration. After speaking with “farmers, ranchers, and community leaders” in the community of Potter Valley, she said, she had mobilized other government departments to find “real solutions to secure Potter Valley’s water supply.”

Read the full story here.