I’m sincerely disappointed in Sen. Ellen Roberts for her recent column on public lands issues (Journal, July 7). Her characterization of people within the district that disagreed with her vote to “study” transferring our national public lands to the state as “partisan hellhounds” is both unfair and counterproductive.
I’m not a partisan hellhound — I’m a small business owner and my livelihood depends on our access to public lands here in Montezuma County.
While there are definitely challenges in working with federal partners to manage our lands, the way forward is collaboration, not spending precious county resources supporting land-transfer ideas being pushed by out-of-state special interests. In the end, as Sen. Roberts noted, the costs of managing our lands — and especially wildfires — is just too much for the state to bear. Transferring lands to the states would lead to widespread privatization, and I, for one, don’t think we need to spend any more time discussing or studying that idea.
Our national public lands, like Phil’s World, Mesa Verde, and the San Juans, belong to all Americans and should remain as such. It’s time to drop this fruitless issue.
Pete Eschallier
Cortez