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It's time for new owners
Enter Stage Right ^ | July 1, 2002 | Henry Lamb

Posted on 07/03/2002 12:10:45 PM PDT by gordgekko

It's too late to ask why the west is burning, everyone already knows it is the result of absurd environmental policies that have prevented logging to thin the fuel; the "roadless" policy that prevents firefighters from having access to the forests; and the Endangered Species Act, that won't allow heavy equipment in critical habitat to cut firebreaks.

When volunteers brought their own equipment to help fight the Colorado fire, Kim Martin, the Incident Commander for the Forest Service, told the volunteers, "The equipment is too heavy. It will tear up the land." The volunteers could do nothing but watch the forests burn.

Every environmental organization that has sued, or lobbied to prevent logging, and to close forest roads, should be required to man the front lines against every wildfire that burns.

The smoke rising from West of the Mississippi raises another, bigger question: why does the federal government own most of the land in the West in the first place?

America was built on the principle of free enterprise, which begins with private ownership of land and resources. Nearly half of America is now owned by the government - federal, state, and local. How can free enterprise exist if government owns the land and resources?

Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution sets forth clearly the purposes for which the federal government may purchase land "...with the consent of the Legislature" of the state in which the land is located, "for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dock-yards, and other needful buildings;"

There's not a word in the Constitution about the 400,000 scorched acres in Arizona, or the 200,000 acres wasted in Colorado, or the two million acres that have burned this year. Why does the federal government own it?

Until early in the 20th century, the land owned by the federal government was the object of divestiture. The prevailing view was to acquire land for U.S. citizens, but to get it into private hands as quickly as possible. That's why we had a Homestead Act that encouraged people to move west.

Green groups, notably, the Wilderness Society, caught up in fashionable socialism, agitated for the nationalization of all forests, and continued pressing government to end the land give-away, and finally, to lock up all the land that remained in the federal estate. Why?

Years ago, the reason given was to ensure that U.S. citizens would have the wood, minerals, and other resources needed by a growing nation. No more. Green groups have all but stopped logging, mining, and even grazing on federal land. Wilderness and Monument designations have locked out humans from hundreds of millions of acres of this so-called public land.

Now, the fashionable excuse for federal ownership is "to protect biodiversity." The biodiversity in Arizona and Colorado, and the rest of the West, can not afford to be protected by the feds.

There is no legitimate reason for the federal government to own a third of all the land in the United States. If it is right and good for the feds to own 83 percent of Nevada, why, then, should the feds not own 83 percent of New York, or Pennsylvania? It makes no sense. States can manage their own land better than the feds. Private owners can manage their land better than any government.

Divestiture of the federal estate is not a new idea. Many fine politicians have met their doom by trying to promote this idea. Politicians, though, tend to sway in the breeze of public opinion. In the last half of the 20th century, hot air emissions from green extremists have increasingly kept the political tiller turned toward the absurd.

Looking at the charred ruin of wasted forests and roasted wildlife, to say nothing of the ashes of hundreds of homes, it's time to step back and seriously ask, why do we continue to allow the federal government to hold title to our land?

The federal land in which private citizens have a property right - either water, grazing, logging, mining, or whatever, should be offered for sale first, to those individuals. All other federal land, which does not qualify under Article I, Section 8, should be relinquished to the state in which the land lies, for disposition by the state.

The rush to acquire more and more land for "open space," should be halted, and reversed. In a free enterprise society, the market will provide the open space that the people want.

Green pressure groups have been successful in their efforts to transform America from a free
enterprise society, into the socialist society envisioned by the Wilderness Society in the 1930s. It's no longer called a socialist vision, it's now called a vision of sustainability. Call it what you will. A society in which government owns the sources of production, and controls the use of private land is not a free society.

It's time for government to get out of the real estate business.

Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization, and chairman of Sovereignty International.


TOPICS: Editorial; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: forestfires; forestservice
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1 posted on 07/03/2002 12:10:45 PM PDT by gordgekko
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To: gordgekko
bump
2 posted on 07/03/2002 12:20:45 PM PDT by Maelstrom
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To: Carry_Okie
Thought you'd like to read this.
3 posted on 07/03/2002 12:24:41 PM PDT by m1911
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To: gordgekko
Damn right - we want "our" lands back. Greenpeace and the rest of the envirowackos need to be detained and "rehabilitated".
4 posted on 07/03/2002 12:25:33 PM PDT by 11B3
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To: 11B3
Damn right - we want "our" lands back.

True, but since it is collatoral on the National Debt, I don't see it happening any time soon.

5 posted on 07/03/2002 12:33:46 PM PDT by c-b 1
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To: m1911
To quote myself again:
When the disaster comes, whether it is a firestorm with the attendant death and destruction, massive landslides, rapid infestation of exotic species, fatal contagious epidemics, whatever it is, take “custody” of The Environment. Demand a gradual divestiture and privatization of all non-military public resource land and withdrawal of government authority for specification of conformance. Hold activist organizations and their supporting foundations, criminally and financially accountable for the needless loss of life and destruction of habitat; for knowingly promulgating false and misleading information with negligent culpability in pursuit of financial and political gain. Sue for the privatization of wilderness land to manage it under contract because you know better what you are doing than they do.

6 posted on 07/03/2002 12:46:54 PM PDT by Carry_Okie
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To: c-b 1
Who should manage the asset? One would think that the creditors would want someone who can do it better for less. Of course, I would argue that the debt exists because of fraudulent tax-exempt activities on the part of those who hold that debt...

Privatize.
7 posted on 07/03/2002 12:49:55 PM PDT by Carry_Okie
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To: Carry_Okie
When California became an independant nation, which only lastedf a few days before it joined the United States all the land in the state was privately owned. I have never been able to figure out how the federal government or the state for that matter ever got title to any of it.
8 posted on 07/03/2002 1:05:58 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: dalereed
Good question. I haven't a clue.
9 posted on 07/03/2002 1:10:19 PM PDT by Carry_Okie
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To: madfly; farmfriend
ping!
10 posted on 07/03/2002 1:22:57 PM PDT by Black Agnes
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To: gordgekko
A society in which government owns the sources of production, and controls the use of private land is not a free society.

I'm so pissed off here at the Missionary Ridge Fire, I can't hardly type....I've seen and helped people/friends vacate from this inferno...I gotta tell ya'll...keep yer powder dry, and if you have the misfortune to runoverinto one of these green holier than thou pieces of sh*t arseholes....well, keep yer powder dry.

FMCDH

11 posted on 07/03/2002 1:50:52 PM PDT by nothingnew
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To: freefly; .30Carbine; 68-69TonkinGulfYatchClub; Ace2U; Alas; alphadog; amom; Anonymous2; ...
Henry lamb ping
12 posted on 07/03/2002 2:24:33 PM PDT by madfly
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To: Carry_Okie
Greens facilitated by government and now politicians and bureaucrats are stepping in to set things right but fewer and fewer people are "buying" it. I mean, how could such a big all-powerful government be truly abused by environmental groups? ...Just doesn't pass the smell test.
13 posted on 07/03/2002 3:06:34 PM PDT by Zon
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To: Carry_Okie
This is the perfect opportunity. Why have no suits been filed against the Sierra Club, for example?
14 posted on 07/03/2002 3:15:10 PM PDT by snopercod
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To: snopercod
EO 12986. What concerns me more is why hasn't the Justice Department found a US Attorney with some stones?
15 posted on 07/03/2002 3:38:00 PM PDT by Carry_Okie
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To: gordgekko; Carry_Okie; forester; AuntB; brityank; madfly; farmfriend; dixiechick; blackie; ...
Great find and post! I have book marked it.

I would modify this important paragraph: Every environmental organization that has sued, or lobbied to prevent logging, and to close forest roads, should be required to man the front lines against every wildfire that burns. To read:

Every enviral nazi who has pushed the no roads policy, no harvesting of even dead trees and no brush removal should be forced to fight these fires all summer, this fall and into winter.

They should be taken up into smoke jumping airplanes and fitted in air with a parachute and give a 30 second lesson on how to jump and survive. Then,use cattle prods force them out of the planes. Just before they jump, strap a hoe dag and one canteen of water around their necks. Then push them out.

Once on earth in the middle or on the edge of a roaring fire that is the direct result of their agenda, they can decide to hug a tree or fight the fire.

Why make them jump? Because with the road closures, they are forcing our smoke jumpers to jump into places a decade ago that fire fighters and heavy equipment could have been driven up to fight the fire. How many smoke jumpers have been killed or injured because they had to jump into an area to fight a fire due to closed roads?

Last but not least, is there some Enviral Agenda against using bull dozers and power wagons to make fire lanes? It seems like all we see are pictures of humans fight fires and no heavy duty equipment!

16 posted on 07/03/2002 3:47:01 PM PDT by Grampa Dave
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To: madfly
BTTT!!!!
17 posted on 07/03/2002 3:51:58 PM PDT by E.G.C.
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To: Carry_Okie
bttt!
18 posted on 07/03/2002 3:52:04 PM PDT by Balata
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To: Grampa Dave
Great solution. LOL
BTTT
19 posted on 07/03/2002 3:56:06 PM PDT by dtel
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To: gordgekko
Excellent thread!
20 posted on 07/03/2002 4:06:27 PM PDT by lakey
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