Land issues

Rep. Walden told a crowd: the law needs to be changed to keep environmentalists from blocking forest and range management techniques. "We need to get to the fire, put out the fire and get in to salvage," [ Here’s another critical need for forest access other than recreation that the environmental left is exterminating. As a wildland fire fighter of 10+ years, I can confirm lack of access for manpower and equipment equates to larger fires and sometimes dead fire fighters. Areas burned off are usually closed to all access until reforested and stabilized against flooding and erosion. They probably will not be reopened in the current political climate. Our issues are the same as many other federal land users including loggers, miners, ranchers, as well as other types of recreation that need access to enjoy a forest, not a black wasteland ]

53,741 Fires; 3,788,883 Acres Burned So Far http://www.libertymatters.org/newsservice/newsservice.htm

Western forests and prairies are ablaze again. As of July 20, there have been 53,741 fires in the western United States since January 1. The fires have burned 3,788,883 acres and there are months of warm weather yet to go. This year's fires will probably surpass last year's record 4,676,830 acres of burned timber and destroyed grasslands, not to mention habitat of untold numbers of endangered species. Ranchers are seeing their summer range go up in flames and they are hot under the collar about government mismanagement of the public lands. "The way we manage our resources today is to let it burn," said Harney County , Oregon Commissioner Jack Drinkwater of Burns. "We need to go back to the days when we logged and let the cattle in there to eat the grass. Then there wouldn't be all that fuel for these catastrophic fires," he said. Oregon 's U. S. Rep. Greg Walden visited the site of the huge Egley Complex Fire after being deluged by calls from angry constituents. Walden told a crowd of about 50 ranchers, agency personnel and concerned citizens the law needs to be changed to keep environmentalists from blocking forest and range management techniques. "We need to get to the fire, put out the fire and get in to salvage," Walden said. "190 million acres of land nationwide need treatment." Idaho ranchers have also been hit hard as the fire in the 975 square mile Murphy Complex has killed unknown numbers of cattle. "This didn't have to happen," said Rep. Bert Brackett to The Times-News of Twin Falls as he stood over the charred body of a cow. "Had more cattle been allowed to graze, there would have been less available fuel." stated Bracket. Jon Marvel, executive director of the Idaho-based environmental group Western Watersheds Project, disagreed. "There is no scientific evidence that cattle or sheep grazing prevents fires at any time," he said. "If ranchers have evidence that grazing prevents fires, they should produce it." It is Marvel's group, however, that has worked for decades to remove cattle from the area. The wealthy Sun Valley architect's organization has filed countless lawsuits against the BLM in an attempt to force the agency to fulfill Marvel's political agenda against the ranchers. Meanwhile, a northern Idaho man says firefighters set a backfire that destroyed his $1.2 million guest ranch, including an indoor riding arena. And another northern Idaho resident reported that his home was looted after he fled a fire near Waha. Utah ranges have been equally devastated. The Milford Flat Fire burned over 360,000 acres in July and many think the Bureau of Land Management made things worse by not allowing enough cattle to graze rangeland and permitting piñon-juniper forests killed by bark beetles to remain standing. Utah State Senator Dennis Stowell, (R-Parowan), said, "I just feel like [we have] failed environmental policy in the whole country. We've got a lot of fuel build-up, a lot piñon-juniper. We're not managing the land enough." The people who bear the burden of government land mismanagement know how to solve the problems; question is will the politicians ever figure it out?

[National Heritage areas take in huge amounts of private and public land and gradually squeeze out all property rights and human activities in an agenda of converting it to pieces of the Wildlands Project puzzle. Once turned over to the NPS, motorized access will be one of the first casualties in public land taken to create buffer zones around trails and park land. Again here is another example where property rights and access rights are one and the same in the fight to stop out-of-control federal land acquisition. In a time when National Parks infrastructure are falling into decay, and budgets are cut, why is additional land being acquired when the current land cannot be managed?!]

Perfect Nonsense
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee must have their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing the public outcry against out-of-control spending and demands for stronger private property rights protection in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court Kelo ruling. How else to explain the Committee's approval, last week, of pork-barrel legislation and increased federal control of private property? S. 278, the "National Heritage Areas Partnership Act," would establish "a system of National Heritage Areas" throughout the country, leading to de facto control of private property by government and special interest groups. "The National Heritage Areas Partnership Act would establish a 'system of National Heritage Areas' throughout the country, leading to creation of even more new national heritage areas," according to Peyton Knight, National Center For Public Policy. The federal government (taxpayers) makes funds available to special interest preservation groups that partner with the National Park Service to manage local land use policy. The august group of senators also approved S. 289, S. 443, S. 444, S. 800, and S.955 to create five new national heritage areas, including the contentious "Journey Through Hallowed Ground." S. 817 and S. 1182 would expand the boundaries and/or increase funding for six existing national heritage areas and corridors. S. 169 would allow the federal government to grab land adjacent to ten existing National Trails. All of these bills facilitate and accelerate the implementation of the Wildlands Project that will eventually set aside over 50 percent of the landmass of the United States . With Congress' help, we are witnessing the demise of private property at an alarming rate.