It is claimed that the deal between the nation’s largest private property owner, the Nature Conservancy (the world’s largest land trust), and the Trust for Public Land, will set a precedent, an example for land transfers throughout the country.
A deal it is, but is it ideal? Who are the winners; who are the losers? “Land grabs” of all types are gaining momentum throughout the country, consuming billions of dollars. Our government is buying out the people’s land with our own money. As land is acquired by, supposedly, nonprofit governmental agencies, there goes the county tax base. Also, that portion of this Plum Creek sale going to the U.S. Forest Service will be subject to the same roadless, no-access gate closures, no timber harvest and “just let it burn” federal policies that 193 million acres are experiencing nationwide.
Conservation easements ban mineral, oil and gas extraction on both private and public lands. Non-taxpaying agencies, placing both private and public lands under conservation easements, eventually make this country dependent upon foreign countries for finished goods. Regulations and restrictions, on use of our own natural resources and raw materials, discourage investment in reactivation of our own manufacturing capability.
Is our government setting us up for a “sellout” of land and natural resources to other countries, or are we already collateralized, with imminent takeover by foreign countries, our Federal Reserve and/or global financial institutions? We cannot continue to be the world’s best, most lucrative marketplace while continuing the loss of our own capability to produce and provide jobs, incomes and national revenues.
Is this situation evolving through ignorance or through a massive plan fed by greed of a few ruthless benefactors at top levels? I sense that this expansive, complex real-estate sale is far more about acquisition of land, wealth and power, than about the highly clouted protection of our environment, wildlife, recreation and enjoyment of the ordinary citizen.
The rest of the story is yet to be revealed, especially if this becomes an established procedure for land transfers to complement the other assorted agency-driven and legislative programs under way. We simply must protect private property and rights of the property owner, the very foundation of our form of government and its success. This event urgently deserves very serious consideration by our entire Congress, not just one U.S. senator seeking re-election recognition and notoriety.
The land and its natural resources are the source of all wealth, security, comfort and freedom for citizens. Totalitarianism involves property ownership by rulers of the state with control over all aspects of citizen life and productive capacity. The people become serfs on the land while paying all the bills.
Clarice Ryan has followed land use policy for 15 years and lives in Bigfork.
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