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Originally Posted by dpm1
So the fed cant give up control of the west because there is a lot of land and it was daunting when first settled?
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Unfortunately my class on the impact of pivot center irrigation and various stock grazing practices on the environment and ecology of the American West has already closed. I'd put you on the wait list for next semester, but at my age I tend to become quickly bored with smart ass students. Maybe someone in the biology department over at Boston University might be able to help you out.
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Suggesting that states and the people within those states have control over their land instead of me is authoritative? Its authoritative to think we should give them more liberty? That word does not mean what you think it means.
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And in addition you are a mind reader. My, my. What do you think I think the meaning of the word "authoritative" is in the context in which I used it? Pray tell, I'd love to see you demonstrate your psychic powers. Or you could just go to the highly regarded, 26 volume Oxford English Dictionary, pull the "A" volume and ponder the definition it gives for yourself.
No, really? I'm afraid we don't have much use for the Denver Post out here. We've got enough troubles of our own without having to read about what the largely out-of-state, newbie residents in Denver are up to. The last I heard they were complaining about traffic jams in and around Denver. Whatever. I prefer to peruse the Cortez Journal which at least keeps me up to date about the progress of the hemp growing industry out here and the latest clash between environmentalists and ranchers just over the state line in Blanding, Utah.
I have no opinion on what "many in Colorado" desire. You still haven't picked up on the lesson I explained in my post summerizing the unique characteristics of both the land and the people of the American West in my other post a few pages back. Colorado is actually a deeply divided state. There is the Front Range where the big urban centers are located and the rural Western Slope where I and a few other Coloradans live. Needless to say, the Front Range with its vastly superior numbers trumps over rural Colorado every single time. I and my friends can get pretty angry over the fact that a bunch of nomadic out-of-staters from NOVA or elsewhere can land in Denver for a year or two, vote to divert all our agricultural water to use on Denver's lawns instead and then drift off to some other state, leaving us to attempt to clear up the havoc they've blythly left behind. We are also not too fond of the antics of hard rock mining companies who set up shop somewhere in the high mountains and open up a few dozen or so uranium mines which leach into our once pure mountain streams. When the company's CEOs figure they've extracted all the profit they can, they sell out to some other company, change their name, declare bankruptcy and vanish. It's the same Denver trick all over again. Rural Coloradans are left to cope with radio-active tailings, superfund clean-up sites, and entire towns simply getting emptied and paved over because its too toxic for any living creature, human or not, to live there. Google "Uravan" if you don't believe me. Among ourselves, we share a certain grim humor and post pictures to each other of some rancher's cows contentedly lapping up the water from a settling pond with a huge DOE sign next to it bearing the symbol for radiation and which reads "WARNING! Contaminated site. It is illegal to cross fence" (the fence fell down ten years ago). BEEF! It's what makes America glow in the dark!
Come to think of it, the Western Slope is just plain skeptical of ANY outsider. We are not overly fond of the EPA either, especially after the debacle of the Gold King mine spill which happened last summer after the EPA botched yet another hard rock mine clean-up and triggered a 3 million-gallon blowout of toxic heavy metals which turned the Animas River between Silverton, Durango and San Juan, NM a nasty mustard yellow as the chemicals were carried by the river down from the mountains where the mine is situated. Before that happened I was of the (decidedly minority) opinion that the EPA served as mostly a force for the good, protecting our land and water, but now I wonder about them along with the rest of my neighbors.
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And in the last Colorado legislative session there were three bills around the subject. Only one passed. House Bill 1225, a bipartisan bill supported by environmental groups, strengthens communities' position in saying how local federal lands are managed.
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I appreciate your most kind efforts to help me be aware of what's going on in my own state legislature, but you can stop now. Thank you. I have no quarrel with Colorado House Bill 1225. I think its an excellent start to bring local communities, ranchers and farmers, industry interests, and Federal officials all together at the same time to determine what is the best use for any land in question. No more of these behind closed door deals which benefit big corporations at the expense of the small family rancher. Local entities can even apply for money to hire their own experts if a dispute over land use arises. I think that's great. The Western Slope rocks! However, I am still firmly opposed to give-aways of Federal lands to just about anyone. Time and time again, history has shown us that such give-aways benefit big ag or big oil and leave the rest of us empty handed. Federal lands in the West are America's unique treasure. We must protect the gifts our most special country has given us, not sell them off to the highest bidder somewhere in China or worse.
A picture is worth a thousand words. With all due humility I refer anyone who may be interested to check out the
pictures I have taken in and around my home in SW Colorado. I'd fight to the death anyone who tried to take these places away from me and every other American. And I'll gladly share these places with anyone who wants the chance to love this land as I do.
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