The elitist’s war on rural America
continues as the entrenched civil service continues fighting to preserve the ‘Obama
Legacy’, IMO. Being a Colorado resident, this post will be Mountain West
centric.
The three main agencies grinding down
rural America are the EPA, the BLM, and the USFS.
Many people are aware of the EPA’s war on
coal. Fewer are aware of the EPA’s war on water, the Waters
of the United States rule.
There was a lot of hollering about a
small rancher near Gillette, WY being attacked over a small stock pond on his
property. A sideshow and smoke screen.
The single most precious commodity in the
West is water. Water rights protect all agriculture operations and municipal
water sources. What the Waters of the United States “rule” does is give the Federal
Government a back door way to control all water rights. How long before allocating “for the common good” follows? Supercede all those pesky State's rights. Visualize the "pay to play" opportunities.
A hoary old Colorado saying, “Whiskey is
for drinking, water is for fighting” may be more than an amusing phrase if the government
starts messing with water rights.
Stock growers depend on public land grazing
for their livelihood. They pay some steep fees for the privilege. The practice is always under attack.
Much the same goes for the US Forest
service.
The Colorado Rockies have a maze of old
railroad grades and mining roads that have been used for decades for back
country recreation. The USFS is systematically closing them down to anything
but foot traffic. Why, because they can get away with it.
Means they need fewer ‘boots on the
ground’ rangers freeing money for more REMFs. Also pleases the tree huggers.
Speaking of trees, in the 1950’s Engelmann spruce trees were killed off by
Japanese beetles. In the past twenty years or so much of the lodgepole pines
have been killed by native beetles. The USFS has done little to mitigate the
problem or allowing logging of the dead trees. Surprise, wildfires have become
a huge problem.
In areas not burned, the spruce trees are
staging a comeback in the midst of the dead lodgepole. Will we have another
spruce beetle crisis?
Will we ever see an end to stock growers,
loggers, ORV operators, and other recreationists behaving badly? Of course not.
That is why we will always need some type of policing. Will we ever see an end
to police overstepping their boundaries? Again, of course not. What we do have
are policies and procedures that work, even imperfectly.
Reforms? Interesting proposal from
Senator Cory Gardner (R) CO.
As stated, this posting is Mountain West
centric. Anywhere around the West you will find the Obama legacy over reach.
John Day, OR. The Bundy Ranch. The Bears Ears National Monument in Utah.
And
the list goes on.
So far President Trump seems to be
forming a cabinet of adults. Given his business background, he will likely let
them do their jobs as opposed to the last eight years. Other than Eric Holder, and maybe Shillary, the Obama Cabinet were figureheads following orders from unelected and unvetted
West Wing staffers, IMO.
15 comments:
Yeah, I've been following this for the last several years, and not just because we were planning on moving to Colorado.
I grew up in farm country back in Illinois, so I'm acutely aware of things like you talk about, and I'm generally in favor of the farmers. I think some of the farm subsidies need to be scaled back a bit, and things like the Ethanol programmed need to be killed with fire, and stake driven through it.
We didn't have problems with water and water rights back in Illinois, but I've known since I was a kid how important it was "Way Out West".
Grazing rights were another thing we learned about in grade school back then, but I highly doubt things like that are taught kids anymore, as it's far more important to teach them about bullshit like "diversity" and "tolerance".....
I'm still definitely not a Trump fan. But also not an Obama fan. Or a fan of any of the crop of happy assholes who want to dictate not only my working life but leisure time to me by taxing the shit out of my paycheck, then stealing more of my money for the privilege of camping, fishing or hunting.
John Day. Where I spent a portion of my formative years. They've closed down SO many areas. Mysteriously, people with bolt cutters have, well, opened them back up. Repeatedly. No fanfare, no confrontation.
I'm really tired of the overstepping by the feds. Not that it makes a bit of difference how I feel.
It does piss me off that we pay those people top wages, great benefits and retirements while the regular working people get nothing much.
Water rights are part of the curriculum for Colorado History, usually taught in Grade 8. How much emphasis by the teachers? Would guess it depends on the area.
The Grant County, OR has been fighting the good fight for a long time.
I think that the Trump Administration will do more to return control of the Intermountain West to its residents than any president in recent times. That is the trend that he's followed so far and it's likely to continue.
The holdovers will be the problem. I agree he will be good for the region.
Much like Snuffy Smith fightin' them dang 'Revenooers.' Our modern day revenooers (the feds in the BLM and USFS) are the laziest asswipes west of the Mississippi. Of course they close down as many roads as possible, just so they don't have the maintenance and supervision required of normal folk with any gumption. And these revenooers, especially in the park system, tell you that they are there to help the public, but that is far from reality. They are there solely to squeeze every last penny they can from the public via fees, fines, and even confiscation over their judgement of how Snuffy uses 'their' land.
Correct.
One hopes some 'sanity' will come with administration WRT returning control to the States... sigh
Returning control to the States should be the goal. The immediate need is to kill these eco freak "rules" by unelected and unaccountable civil servants.
Can you say River War Haus? That is an example of government over reach. I hope things turn around. People are far gone with the common sense and logic of fairness. I don't get that so many of my liberal friends feel all this control and government seizure is okie dokie. Maybe they have never owned desirable land sought after by special interest groups or the USA. To be blunt, it felt like the last 8 years we were getting fucked in the ass and the liberals were OK with it. Now they are throwing a fit when the administration or Congress tries to put some fairness into life. I seriously have read, researched, and tried to make sense of the liberal rhetoric and NO CAN DO. I think we need to be good stewards of the land. I believe we should have clean water. I think we can also have energy and environmental concerns work together. I read a good article today that Trump thinks energy and environmental needs can work together whereas the Obama era felt if you were pro-energ...you were anti-environment. Not so at all.
I think being the worst president in history is legacy enough. His Presidential Library should be a pay toilet.
One time my parents were part of an investment group wanting to develop a piece of commercial property. Native American artifacts were found. That was 1970. The state of Colorado's minions are still sifting the property and no development has occurred.
How long do you think a pay toilet would stay intact in Chicago? An argument can be made that is his true legacy.
Wow. Not surprised. I shake my head.
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