Selling Public Lands: Bad. Take Action!
by Kyeann Sayer, Nomad on 04. 4.06
The Bush administration wants us to sell 300,000 acres of public lands to fund rural schools and county governments in 35 states and, maybe, pay off some of our national debt. I don't think I need to explain the short-sightedness and absurdity of this: we can find alternate solutions to pitting kids against precious habitat. In Montana, sportsmen and environmentalists are bucking the preservationist vs. recreation stereotypes and working together on the issue. After all, public lands not only protect vital habitat for bears, wolves and trout, but they belong to all of us. Should they really be sold off, for instance, to developers to build second and third houses for those who want to own a little piece of paradise? We should feel lame if we let our busy lives get in the way of speaking up about this. Learn more here; contact your Senator or Representative. As my bear biologist friend wrote to me, "This proposal has the potential to do more damage to the natural environment and change the landscape of this country than perhaps any other in our lifetime." Via Angela Klinefelter. ::
There is a blog and website dedicated to collecting images and comments about all of the US National Parklands for sale. Check out Forest Images Registry and the Forest Images Flickr! Group.
This post is a little late...the comment period on this to the US Forest Service ended on March 30th. Nonetheless, thank you for bringing it to the attention of those who may not be aware. Depsite the end of the offical comment period, it may yet help to contact our legislatures to tell them the plan stinks.
*does some quick math* Gee, a whole billion dollars, that's about the cost of 5 days of war in Iraq. :-(
You want to save this country some money....quit wasting money in Iraq!!
ah, andrew beat me to it!
check out our project, the forest images registry
Environmental Action has been, well, taking action on this since it hit the news. Their most recent call to action is a vote between two ads to get public lands off the auction block. They'll plaster the winning ad in Rep. Richard Pombo’s district.
The law which authorizes these sales has been around since October of 2000. The full text can be found by googling "106-393_text.pdf". A VERY important provision of this bill is that Local Government and non profits get non-competitive preferential bid treatment. Which means if you really want to protect land, you can buy it and place it in a trust. God knows the Forestry service isn't always a good steward of lands, and 30,000 acres ought to go cheap.
Local and non-gov's can purchase these lands, but what about individuals? I know it may be no safer in the hands of some, but what a thought - If we could all go out out and actually buy parcels as citizens and keep all these lands in trust as a consortium.
Then again, read the fine print too. Many of these deals don't include mineral rights. I've heard stories about people out west who bought developed land that are being surprised by instant oilrigs in their yard. Apparently the developers were willing to sell you a house for half a mil, but didn't mention that Uncle Sam can sell what's under you to the highest bidder...