Public Lands Use-Chouinard Op-Ed

[hutash]

American politicians have always been obsessed with running government “like a business.” They promise to make bureaucracies leaner and let the free market fix all our problems.

Well, if America’s public lands were a business, shareholders would be shocked by the gross negligence of some of their top executives. Every American citizen owns stock in 640 million acres of federal public lands. We hire public servants to manage our precious assets for maximum return. For decades, we’ve taken these sizable holdings for granted, assuming they’re in good hands.

But we’ve let the fossil fuel industry into the boardroom. We’re allowing gas and mining companies to boss around our elected officials.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed...309-story.html

I have to admit I am partial to Federal protection of lands. I use National Parks and Forests several times a year, and BLM lands not infrequently. I have no issues with National Wildlife Refugees, and use by hunters and fishers of public lands with good management. Over all there is a pretty good mixed use of these lands, maybe not perfect, and certainly every user group has something to bitch about somewhere, but over all the lands are pretty well managed. This may all go out the window if corporate America gets control. National lands should not be run as a for profit business, at least the profits shouldn't be measured in $ and ROI for stockholders.


The mods are free to move this to pollyass if they so choose, but this is more about the land we all tend to recreate on so I put it here.

[Supermoon]

Agreed! As a group who uses public lands almost every time we ride a ski lift, hop on our bikes or drop a line in a river, it should be easy to come together to protect the public's interest in access and preservation.