The arguments in the letters from the same two or three redundant voices over public lands get more surreal every day. Before they read this letter, ask any one of these guys what their idea of a liberal is. Ten bucks says they will say someone who wants something for nothing. What and who does that sound like?
Listening to them you would think that the entire population of the Four Corners is unemployed and starving because Montgomery Burns is living in a castle somewhere up around Dunton and will release the hounds if you take one step past his iron fence and into the trees. Sheesh. Here are the facts: Grazing fees on federal land are a token pittance compared to what a neighbor would ask for his private land. By their definition that makes Cliven Bundy the biggest liberal of all.
Anyone can buy an oil lease on federal lands for a 10-year term and a royalty rate that would insult a private mineral owner. The Forest Service builds roads free of charge for the winners of timber bids. And get this: You can still file a mining claim for a nominal fee and if you work it for a few years, the land does become yours!
It’s also time to back off from that pathetic feeding-the-masses story. Most of the good farmland has been homesteaded and is already in private hands. All this and the feds still leave it open for any of the 350 million owners to come in and recreate – that is, of course, providing these NIMBY letter writers don’t get their way. The federal government has done a great job of balancing commerce, access and preservation. Any decentralization of ownership, or theft from the rightful owners in my book would eventually lead to the aforementioned Montgomery Burns situation, one in which these guys’ fantasies would hardly be realized.
Terry Moores
Mancos