Writing in Forbes Magazine some economist preaches the greatness of privatizing what he calls “commercial public lands”. What the heck are commercial public lands? I think he means public lands that are being used for commercial purposes. No, and hell no. We allow grazing, mining, skiing, guided rafting, and all kinds of other commercial uses of our public lands because we want to. They are multiple use lands. We don’t allow those things because they are the only use for them now or forever.
Rekindling a hope that Zinke turns out ok, the economist goes on to bemoan,
Unfortunately, President Trump’s Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, is dead set against privatization. Indeed, during his confirmation hearings, Zinke said, “I am absolutely against transfer or sale of public lands.”
These so-called public lands represent a huge socialist anomaly in America’s capitalist system.
Blah, blah, blah. Ya, we’re about to raise a flag of Karl friggin Marxist at the N entrance to Jellystone.
But the best part was the reply from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, written by CEO David Allen. I’ve been parsing and weighing statements by David Allen for years, as they usually represent the carefully considered concensus of the board of what is probably the fastest growing conservation organisation in the US. Most public statements by the org are dry to a fault, and require carfull reading to figure out how strongly they are for or against some sort of action. For David Allen the reply was as strong as it gets.
His reply is titled Never Privatize Those Lands.
Understandably in the intellectual or economist world it is likely difficult to relate to our view of public lands. Where I grew up many in the intellectual world would be challenged to survive more than an accidental night or two in the middle of our vast public land forests or prairies. And certainly most ranking economists would be challenged and perhaps even bored stiff fishing for high mountain brook trout in a glacial lake OR hunting elk in Montana with bow. So can we agree that most things are relative to one’s perspective?
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Sadly, your view is missing a value beyond comprehension when it comes to what public lands represent and what they actually support in terms of rural values and the most successful wildlife system in the world. We could discuss management of public lands or the lack thereof in places but that is for another day. Public lands must remain public if we are going to have any chance of keeping our American wildlife system alive. It is that simple………..
Once the vastness of our American public lands is gone, it’s gone forever………..
I guess for an org whose primary purpose is to get private lands and give them to the US government the thought of privatizing kind of goes against the grain.