Posted on 06/25/2003 11:42:06 AM PDT by AAABEST
You wouldn’t go bear hunting with a BB gun. Well, without "high caliber information," there will be no way to stop federal legislation introduced this year in Washington that will bring about land grabs and controls. When these regulating laws hit the local level, you’ll know those federal bullets are aimed at you.
For the ammunition you will need to hold off these controls and land grabs, you won't want to miss the annual Freedom 21 Conference to be held during July in Nashville, Tennessee. Conservative leaders for the preservation of property rights, education, and numerous other issues will gather to discuss what is happening in "their neck of the woods."
What is so interesting is every state is facing the same controls.
For more information on the conference, go to www.freedom21.org.
Henry and Irene Lamb of Eco-logic are teaming up with the Paragon Foundation. Keynote speakers are Eagle Forum’s Phyllis Schlafly, who needs no introduction; Wendell Cox of Demographia and an expert on Smart Growth; Tom DeWeese of the American Policy Center; Dr. Michael Coffman of Sovereignty International and author of Saviors of the Earth; and Dr. Allan Quist of the Maple River Education Coalition.
Also speaking will be Mike Hardiman, who writes Washington Watch and is a very effective property rights lobbyist; Kent Snyder, Executive Director of Ron Paul’s Liberty Watch; and David Rothbard of C-FACT are just a few of a great list of the finest to help you identify what is happening in your state and community.
Mike Hardiman recently sent out a partial watch list on federal legislation that makes one wonder what our legislators are thinking. Their lights may be on, but it appears no one is home. For an elected official to have any comprehension of the Constitution and still support legislation violating the property belonging to private owners is unthinkable.
Still being watched is S.476 (Grassley, R-IA). Sections 106 and 107 provide a 25% tax break if land is sold to an environmental group or government agency. Matt Blunt from Missouri has a new version of the bill, HR 7, which leaves out the tax break. This is an action item. Please call your Congressman and ask him or her to support Blunt’s HR 7. Tell your Senators "no" on the S476 version.
HR37 (Boehlert, R-NY) would elevate the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to cabinet status, which would give it way too much power.
HR119, (Hefley, R-CO), the Invasive Species Act, is a dangerous attack on property rights. Your dogs, cats, and bluegrass were not here prior to 1492 and are not a native species. Does this mean all domestic animals are invasive? Wolves and prairie grass are protected,as they were here pre-Christopher Columbus. Dangerous bill. Jim Beers, former U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist, has been giving testimony against this act and has written a number of great articles bringing out the serious implications of this bill.
HR266 (Ehlers, R-MI) is the National Invasive Species Council Act. It creates an entirely new layer in federal bureaucracy and establishes an Invasive Species Council. Private citizens are prohibited from being members of the council.
HR524 (Frelinghuysen, R-NJ) proposes the Crossroads of the Revolution National Heritage Area. According to Hardiman, it is a land grab extending across much of central and northern New Jersey.
HR652 (Andrews D-NJ) convenrts the Wildlands Project into official government policy. Called the National Forest Ecosystem Protection Program, it will ruin small towns, communities and rural areas through federal land use regulation.
HR1051 (Bereuter R-NE) would add land acquisition authority to nine more trails in the National Trails system. The government will be able to seize property while paying owners only a few cents per dollar of value.
HR1130 (Hold, D-NJ) bans snowmobiles in Yellowstone National Park.
HR2036 (Isakson, R-GA) provides $25 BILLION for the Open Space Preservation and Conservation Act, to be used for permanent conservation easements, giving The Nature Conservancy and other land trusts and government agencies co-ownership in MILLIONS of acres of land.
S.230 (Corzine D-NJ) is the same as HR524, the Heritage Area Land Grab.
S.324 (Levin D- MI) is the National Trail Land Acquisition Authority, the companion to HR1051.
S.525 is the National Aquatic Invasive Species Act of 2003. It provides for 10-25 year federal prison sentences, but violations to the bill won’t be written until AFTER the bill has been passed and signed into law. One part of the bill calls for a 500 foot buffer zone around farm ponds. It would appear you could have a prison sentence if you built a home near a pond. (Companion bill is HR1080.)
S.536 (DeWine, R-OH) creates a National Invasive Species Council, a companion to HR266.
S.546 (Akaka, D-HI) places severe penalties on recreational rockhounding. Allows for seizure of private vehicles and camping equipment for violations. Called Paleontological Resources Preservation Act.
S.635 (Hatch, R-UT)is the Pioneer National Historic Trails Studies Act, which requires a study of 64 trails in the central and western U.S. to determine if the federal government should acquire land and place viewshed restrictions on surrounding private property.
S.651 (Allard R-CO) is the National Trails Acquisition Act. It expands the federal government’s power to seize property along arbitrarily drawn "trails." Also, it has no restrictions against federal agencies claiming authority over adjacent private property as "buffer zones" and claiming "viewshed restrictions" over everything that can be seen from a trail.
HR1427 (Joel Hefley, R-CO) is the National Heritage Areas program. Extremely serious. Peyton Knight of the American Policy Center calls this an "expensive, insidious attempt by non-governmental organizations and federal agencies to impose land use controls and zoning mandates on unsuspecting local communities. Takes away LOCAL control.
The Grassland Reserve Program appeared in the Federal Register on June 13. The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to take more farm land out of production to preserve the ecological benefits. They hope to have two million acres enrolled by 2007. They’ll pay 90% of the cost, BUT you must give the government an easement to the land PERMANENTLY or for 30 years. A private land trust organization or state agency will hold or ENFORCE an easement. (Sierra Club, The Natures Conservancy, etc.). USDA reserves the right to enter upon the easement at any time to remedy violations.
Hardiman reports there are a few good bills coming through, for which we are thankful.
HR1517 (Graves R-MO) amends the Land and Water Conservation fund to limit the use of funds available for maintenance purposes and prohibits land acquisition. (Federal, state and local governments already own 40% of the land in the U.S.)
Other bills deal with giving Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) compensation to fully compensate counties for losses in tax revenue due to federal government ownership of land.
Wilderness Study Areas limits land studies to ten years. If nothing is done by then, the land reverts back to previous levels of multiple use.
S.369 (Thomas, R-WY) makes Endangered Species Act revisions. More evidence will be required before a species is listed as endangered.
All legislation is to be taken seriously. Learn as much as you can about these bills, because if they don’t pass this year, we’ll no doubt see them come back again.
Our freedoms can be preserved, but only if everyone does his/her part to learn and understand the controls being placed on land in America. It is no time for the attitude of "let someone else do it," if you want your kids and grandkids to live the American Dream.<p
This is why FreeRepublic is so important. The article reports these land thefts and violations of the Constitution are nationwide. We have the numbers if we organize, to stop the craziness in its tracks. Freepers will be the "special forces" leading the big guns in the crusade to stop this.
Grabbing Our Property
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