Posted on 02/18/2016 1:41:33 PM PST by MichCapCon
My pal told me they only have three feet of snow in the woods this year, as opposed to the usual 4-5 feet...
Yes, its a very mild winter. It was -10 last weekend. But it got over 20 degrees this week. The snow is the lightest I have seen it. No snow on the ground on Christmas and the temps were over 32. Crazy weather for Marquette.
Trees, drive along 41 and look west. There are houses and roads. And lots and lots of logging.
I just visit occasionally, but I've hiked in that area where they want to put the road. There are NO farms north of US Highway 41 anywhere in that area, and the only park north of that US Highway 41 is MUCH farther west.
If you live around there you KNOW that.
It's a lot like Ontario north and west of Sault Sainte Marie, inland from Lake Superior. Muskeg and pine trees.
If you’re from Marquette, you know that the farms are in south Marquette County, nowhere near this proposed road - probably 20-30 miles away.
Here is the issue. This is a clear case of eminent domain used for a private company. Plain and simple. All the things we fought Justice Suiter for are here. People have land. And a private company wants to have the government force a sale of that land to build a road that only one company wants. Why is this a conservative issue. The local residents are fighting for it and against it. Some businesses like it because they can get some contracts. Others don’t because Marquette businesses and ports may be cut out. But this is not an EPA vs. land owner thing. This is eminent domain for private use vs. local residents.
The land around here is already being mined. And the mines have existed for over a hundred years. The land is also being logged. Trucks run down 41 every hour.
I am not trying to say I am on one side or the other. I am saying that we conservatives should not just jump on an issue because the EPA showed up. People who don’t want a road going straight through their land when another exists, just so the mining company can save a few thousand dollars a year is the real issue here. Let the local people decide. The company can buy them out. Or they can keep sending their trucks around.
By the way. If you hear the Edmund Fitzgerald song floating in your ear its because this is basically the same. Instead of some mill in Wisconsin. Its some mill in the UP a few hundred miles east. The Edmund Fitzgerald would have reached Whitefish Bay had it left from here that day.
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