For 129 years the Grange in California has been a leader in advocating both public works and governmental regulatory reform. We led the fight for railroad reform, we pushed the construction of Shasta and Folsom Dams and the Central Valley Water Project. Today we actively promote respect for property rights, including reforms in the regulatory process created to deal with environmental and species protection.
Today’s battle on environmental protections is not so much about what to do but how. Environmental groups push preservation, advocating forced set-asides of private land for species habitat. We need only look at the forest fires the West has suffered over the past few years for proof that this does not work. Constitutionalists and Property Rights advocates are seeking conservation with stringent rules on how regulations are created and enforced, but this position has its pitfalls, too. Passage of these regulatory reforms might be simply changing one form of governmental control for another, thus casting the ESA in stone, further jamming our courts, and in reality doing little to solve the problem?
I believe that it is time the Grange should once again come to the forefront in seeking an honest solution to the problem of balancing competing uses of private property. There is such a solution:
In his book Natural Process, Mark Vande Pol makes the following observation:
“It is paradoxical that the very scientists, who advocate biology education, based exclusively upon the theory of natural selection, should also advocate the exclusive use of bureaucratic political hierarchy to manage competitive ecosystems.
“It’s high time to break up the civic monopoly in environmental management with the introduction of a viable competitor: the free market itself.”
Mark’s proposed civil verification system provides certified environmental management based upon validated data backed with an insured guarantee. The implementation strategy uses existing environmental laws to take the management contract (and budget) away from corrupt and incompetent government agencies. Property owners would make the decisions about how to restore or maintain species habitat in the most productive and efficient manner, while balancing the demands of other economic operations.
If we continue to push for ESA reform, we will be validating government science as the ultimate source of technical truth and cast the ESA in stone as “fixed.” That will leave us no way to fight environmentally destructive and unconstitutional takings because government will control ALL the data.
The Grange should take the lead by advocating the free market solution. Successful results would render the ESA and farm subsidies obsolete. The system preserves property rights and improves environmental management. We could have our cake and eat it too.
You may learn more about this system, contact Mr. Vande Pol or purchase his book at www.naturalprocess.net.
Carry_Okie, I'm going to forward this thread to some people who need to read the info you have here.