I was disappointed to see in the May 1 Cortez Journal more letters and even a sort of commentary on uninformed histrionics about how the state wants to sell off the public lands and people would be no longer have “free use” of the lands that our taxes are paying for. Huh? These comments denigrate people that seek to restore the health of the public lands and resources and build the economy of the various businesses, such as recreation, hunting, fishing. They worry that state control of its own lands and resources would damage the resources. How does that figure, with the state funding extra wildland fire equipment because the Forest Service cannot and will not do the job? How does it figure that both the Forest Service and BLM have been and continue to exclude access and use by a majority of the public. Seventy-eight percent of the San Juan National Forest is accessible and used by 2 percent of the populace, at best. Recreation businesses that feature mechanical modes are severely damaged by that limitation of public use.
If you are among the 2 percent that the 98 percent supports, then that is good for you. The public lands are there because the federal government was supposed to sell them back in the 1880s, and could not even do that right, so kept them. Today the lands are stagnating, insect infested, and burning up and you call that protecting the land? That is waste and is poor stewardship of the resources our creator has entrusted us with. They cannot be returned to health and protected for benefit of all the public and state while they remain under illegal control of the federal government. Congressmen from New York, New Jersey, etc., control our federal lands policies today. As lousy as much of our Legislature is, it beats Washington, hands down in concerns of Colorado’s lands and economy. Our legislators are accountable to us; the eastern states congressmen are not! Sen. Ellen Roberts obviously sees the truth and we need to encourage her.
Dexter Gill
Lewis