In these recent changing times, there has been a real push to “protect” the natural environment. The drive goes out to collect money to save everything from bugs to polar bears from supposed extinction. I have not figured out how giving money to a bunch of plutocrats will save anything. Now the deception being pushed is to save the land and natural resources to prevent climate change from destroying civilization and the Earth. Really? Just what do they propose to “protect and save” from what or whom? Apparently it is all about how to protect the “natural environment” from use by natural man, all for the benefit of the plutocracy.
What is the “natural environment” that needs to be protected? By definition, “Natural Environment encompasses all living and nonliving things occurring on Earth.” That does NOT include climate and weather. Well, that complicates things, since clearly “man” is an integral part of the natural environment, and has been since creation. So, let’s see, one small group of environmental plutocrats are proposing to protect all the rest of the Natural Environment from itself for the benefit of the environmental plutocracy? Am I getting confused?
What is being proposed to be protected? To start with, they are seeking control over all federally controlled lands including the waters, minerals, timber, forage, wildlife and recreation opportunity to “protect” it from management and use for the benefit of the rest of mankind. You will notice they use only the word “protection”. Protection is a word that conjures up a vision in people’s minds that the lands and resources are being destroyed by man and will disappear, never to return, which is actually impossible for man to accomplish, but is a good deceptive sales pitch for support to obtain the “gold mine and give the people the shaft”!
Why the push for “protection” of lands and waters – aren’t they already protected? After all, over 36 percent, or 25.8 million acres of the State of Colorado is in federal control, with those lands containing the bulk of the critical and valuable water, minerals, timber and recreation opportunity, necessary to sustain viable life and economy, within the state boundaries. Those same lands have been additionally “protected” by special federal designations. Additionally, state government holds 4.4 percent of lands within the state, which also has special protection status. So, for you to get the perspective, In Colorado there are: 42 Wilderness Areas, 3 National Conservation Areas, 54 Wilderness Study Areas, 1 Wild and Scenic River, 4 National Parks, 8 National Monuments, 8 National Wildlife Refuges, and 5 Roadless Areas. The Forest Service and BLM also designate numerous other areas such as “natural areas,” “special management areas,” or Areas of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC). The state has 350 protected wildlife and parks areas and 24 trust land “natural areas.” There is nothing left to be “protected.”
It really makes you wonder why they keep coming up with the need to add another level of “protection” by calling a piece of federally protected land by a different name. Is that going to better protect the lands from wildfires, floods, erosion, insects and disease? Last year, in 2020 there were 58,900 wildfires which burned 10.1 MILLION acres of “protected” lands In the U.S. The Covid-19 pandemic didn’t get the memo that the lands were protected. In the last four years, there have been 239,000 wildfires that burned 33.6 MILLION “protected” acres. Having lands in federal control and ownership has obviously not been working, regardless of what name they are called by.
If they are not being protected from fire, storms, erosion, insects and disease, then what are they being protected from? The one and only part of the natural environment that can make beneficial use of, enhance and conduct management action for the benefit of all other parts of the natural environment, MAN! The natural environment must be protected from “man,” well except for the environmental plutocrat. There must be more to what is going on, right? It can be viewed as a rather convoluted mess that has little to do with actually protecting the natural environment. The issue had its origin during the formation of all the western states, where the new federal government failed to follow the Constitution. That failure opened the door for environmental plutocrats, using deceptive concepts of protection to exploit the rest of the natural environment to gain control without any responsibility or accountability.
What does need protection and restoration is recognizing and accepting the reality that the “natural environment” was created, with man being charged with the wise use and stewardship of an area of land under his individual purview to support his life. The area of watershed needed to support a greater community must be under stewardship control of a local governing body, the county, in support of the community as a whole. That was the purpose and intent of the Constitutions in the development of the compact of the sovereign states. The control of the watershed lands of and within the counties and state by environmental plutocrats via the federal government has proven to be destructive to the whole natural environment and economy of local areas and state as a whole. It is time to take the “Constitution” out of dry dock and unfurl the sails!
Dexter Gill is a retired forest manager who worked for private industry, three Western state forestry agencies, and the Navajo Nation forestry department. He writes from Lewis, Colo.
