Privatization

  • Failure to pass in this Congress might improve the two Idaho "wilderness bills'

    Ralph Maughan

    Both CIEDRA and the Owyhee Initiative are probably stuck and will die in this Congress due to the failure of the current “lame duck” session to take them up in the short period of time available. Both bills have been very controversial with many conservation groups calling them “too weak” and with too many “giveaways.”…

  • Washington County, Utah "wilderness bill" faces much opposition, but could pass

    Ralph Maughan

    Of all those wilderness, plus side-payment (to non-wilderness interest) bills that have suddenly emerged, this is the worst. Washington County, Utah is the fastest growing part of the state because it is scenic desert country–warm in the winter, and cool in one’s air conditioned house in the summer. It’s a magnet for LDS retirees and…

  • Phoney property rights measure (Prop 2) goes down in Idaho; Arizona dummies approve it

    Ralph Maughan

    Out-of-state developer Howie Rich’s Proposition 2 got the bum’s rush in Idaho, losing by an overwhelming 76-to 24%. Except for $50 all of the money spent in Idaho on behalf of the ballot initiative came from Howie’s group. Conservative Idaho voters saw it for what it was, a radical effort to remake the foundations of…

  • Poll shows Oregonians now regret passing their state’s "property rights initiative"

    Ralph Maughan

    It ‘s a case of buyer’s remorse. Oregon voters were suckered into passing a proposition like that before ten states this November, only Oregon did it in 2004. Now the state’s much praised land use lies in ruins and the Oregon taxpayers owe billions of dollars to developers whose “rights” were taken away by sound,…

  • Montana's governor calls on Idaho to ban game farms

    Ralph Maughan

    “In Montana, we said it’s a bad idea to pen up a bunch of elk, feed them oats and have fat bankers from New York City shoot them while they’ve got their heads in a grain bucket,” Schweitzer said Wednesday during an interview in the Boise offices of The Associated Press.

  • Proposition 2 on Idaho ballot opposed

    Ralph Maughan

    There are many copycat measures in other states. I have heard of almost no non-paid support for prop 2, which would by trick not only take away the protection you get from zoning but defeat efforts to conserve open space all over the West. The features in Prop 2 on “takings” have no historical basis…

  • BLM trying to sell off public lands again.

    Ralph Maughan

    After being repeatedly slapped down by folks all across the political spectrum, the BLM, at least in Wyoming, hasn’t learned that Americans love their public lands, and they don’t want them sold off. This latest proposal is in eastern Wyoming. The media picked up the story a few days ago. At first it seemed like…

  • Potlatch Corp. to charge fees for access to its land in Idaho

    Ralph Maughan

    Potlatch has joined a growing trend toward access fees. It is the largest private land owner in Idaho, with almost all of its land in the Idaho Panhandle and in North Central Idaho. There is also a continuing battle over US Forest Service, BLM, and other public land management agencies charging access fees. Story in…

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‎”At some point we must draw a line across the ground of our home and our being, drive a spear into the land and say to the bulldozers, earthmovers, government and corporations, “thus far and no further.” If we do not, we shall later feel, instead of pride, the regret of Thoreau, that good but overly-bookish man, who wrote, near the end of his life, “If I repent of anything it is likely to be my good behaviour.”

Edward Abbey

“The continued existence of wildlife and wilderness is important to the quality of life of humans.”

Jim Fowler

“Our forests offer much more than just beautiful landscapes and wildlife. Each one has a different story to tell.”

Raveena Tandon

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