Last week, I wrote about the various ideologies of climate change and how the issue is driven by fear and money. We posted the article on our Facebook page, and an odd pop-up article showed up just underneath my column that says “Explore Climate Science Info.” In that article, there is a section called “Facts about climate change.” Ironically, the first point Facebook made in its article was that 97% of climate scientists believe climate change is man-made. Of course they do. If they don’t, they don’t get free money to sit in their labs or take wilderness field trips.
The thing I can’t figure out is why Facebook made an editorial addition to our page. It certainly forces me not to trust Facebook and its privacy claims. Are they now the communication force of the world? Facebook is major media and has influence on folks, just like any other media source. Remember, you can’t have freedom or a democracy without a free press, which appears we are losing around the world.
Now we have several conservation groups—which are the usual suspects, and there are too many to name, but you know who they are—that have been touting scientific research called “Rewilding the West.” Anna Miller wrote about it in the Sept. 5 issue of WLJ.
But here we go again: A bunch of semi-credentialed university professors have determined that placing more wolves and beaver communities in the more desirable ranges of the Rocky Mountains, Cascades and the Sierra Nevada is the most suitable. It looks like they are going to leave Nevada to the wild horse activist groups.
These people wish to retire all grazing allotments in what they call the “reserve network for the American West.” Sounds like a bigger version of American Prairie in Montana. The WildEarth Guardians appear to be the most radical group, and it has more of a “lock up the land” approach with no grazing, mining, logging or oil extraction. In other words, leave it up to the wolves and beavers to control the ungulates and stop the mountain waters from flowing. And put western agriculture out of business.
Somewhere along the way, we changed the name of “federal lands” to “public lands,” giving citizens the feeling that they own a piece of the West. Signs that say “Welcome to your public lands” have given people the freedom to trash the landscape. Ironically, the federal government still controls what happens on federal land. You need a permit for any commercial venture on federal land, so the public really doesn’t own it. They can use it if they respect it.
Removing resource use has been a major goal of these so-called conservation groups. Essentially, they don’t like anyone to earn a buck off federal lands; they consider it exploitation. These folks don’t like the multiuse concept the government is obligated to operate under. The country needs those natural resources that the West provides. Eastern states seem to function with cattle, timber, mining and oil production, which is generally on private lands.
Some of these concepts may have worked 300 years ago when a couple million people lived in North America. But now we have 330 million folks in the U.S. alone. The need for natural resources has grown over the years to feed modern society.
I don’t think we can look back and wish things were the way they were 300 years ago; modern society won’t allow it. All these conservation groups want some other group to make the sacrifices. For instance, ranchers using federal lands will have to make the ultimate sacrifice and lose their multigenerational legacy to passive users. These conservation groups want the government to pick winners and losers.
These conservation groups have targeted western federal land ranchers because they are the easiest targets. The government has ultimate control over western federal land use. Cattle falsely take the brunt of climate change criticism: Only 2% of the beef is produced on federal lands, the 18% contribution of methane gas and the cost of the grazing program is too high.
This “Rewilding the West” is a dangerous concept. It will separate the country and create social unrest. It will be bad for the economy, especially when we are entering a period of history when energy production will need to be much greater.
We certainly don’t need the wild horse people or the wild bison folks or the free-range wolf wildlife crowd managing western lands. We can’t allow activists to run the government. The West is working well because everyone has a shared opportunity to use and respect it. It’s a multiuse resource, so I suggest getting along and respecting it and each other. And rain and snow will fix a lot of western issues. — PETE CROW
