The Christian Left has published a list of the 20 most dangerous conservative organizations in America. These groups stand united in a broad attempt to forever alter the face of our country: they favor various flavors of rich white men running things for their own profit behind a veneer of repressive Christianity.
None of this will be news to those who carefully follow the insidious web of money and influence the right has developed to manipulate elections, public policy, and fear in our country. For those who haven't had time to ferret out the links, however, this serves as a fair introduction.
Wash hands carefully after reading.
-Dr.DRL
06 August 2011
03 August 2011
My latest column: the value of public lands
Here's my latest column from the St. Cloud (MN) Times:
Public land evidence of government's good
If one spends enough time listening to anti-government ideologues like Rep. Michele Bachmann, it’s possible to conclude that “the government” does very little that’s worthwhile.
That position is easily proven wrong by a simple visit to any of our nation’s public lands. The federal public lands represent the legacy of 19th century American expansion and the wisdom of the 20th century conservation movement.
Today a handful of agencies manage about 575 million acres anyone can access for recreation or other pursuits — an area more than 10 times the size of the state of Minnesota. These lands stand as a symbol of democracy: they are open to all, often at no charge, to use on your own terms, on your own schedule, as often as you wish. There is no private equivalent because they fulfill a role that simply would not exist without government action.
The agencies
Our public lands are primarily managed by four federal agencies: the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
The Forest Service is familiar to many Minnesotans, who know of the Superior National Forest, rightly famous for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, or the Chippewa National Forest, home to two of the state’s largest lakes, Leech and Winnibigoshish. But do they know the service manages 192 million acres of forest and grasslands in other states that absorb more than 200 million recreational visits each year? The local economic impact of sustainable timber harvests from these publicly owned forests should not be overlooked either.
The National Park Service is also well known, primarily for the “crown jewels” of the system: Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon national parks. But the NPS is responsible for 391 other sites nationwide, including not only natural wonders such as Glacier National Park but also historical structures, battlefields, ancient cliff dwellings, wild-and-scenic rivers, national trails and recreation areas. The agency’s 84 million acres are found in 49 states and served 281 million recreational visitors in 2010.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is the primary steward of public lands dedicated to wildlife habitat, especially for waterfowl. It is responsible for 96 million acres of wildlife refuges, including the 14 refuges in our state, including the nearby Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge. These lands provide not only habitat, but hunting, fishing, hiking, bird watching and other recreational opportunities to nearly 40 million visitors per year.
The Bureau of Land Management is the largest of all the federal land agencies. Its 245 million acres are confined to the Western states and include vast tracts of range land, desert and mountains. It serves about 55 million recreational visitors annually while providing grazing, mineral development, timber and other natural resources for economic development.
Foresight
The key is that all of these lands are, by definition, public. We all own them collectively. We benefit from the recreation opportunities, wildlife habitat, biodiversity and other ecosystem services they provide.
A simple glance at history will tell us that had these lands not been protected by the federal government they would have been destroyed or fenced off long ago. Private interests would have cluttered the Grand Canyon with tourist developments. They would have logged Yellowstone and Yosemite. They would have mined, grazed and drilled every scrap of valuable resources long ago for private profit, then developed the remains into expensive condos for the wealthy, leaving little, if anything, behind for the rest of us to enjoy.
Some bright Americans more than a century ago realized that the private sector wasn’t always perfect and that government action was sometimes a much better option. Their leaders — including Republican heroes such as Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot — helped establish the policies that maintain the federal public lands as part of our national heritage.
Pinchot coined the term “conservation” to describe these policies, defining it as action that produced “the greatest good, for the largest number of people, over the longest period of time.”
Unfortunately many of our current leaders are so blinded by their own anti-government ideology that they can’t even recognize the value in what was considered common sense back when horses still pulled streetcars in Washington, DC.
-Dr.DRL
Public land evidence of government's good
If one spends enough time listening to anti-government ideologues like Rep. Michele Bachmann, it’s possible to conclude that “the government” does very little that’s worthwhile.
That position is easily proven wrong by a simple visit to any of our nation’s public lands. The federal public lands represent the legacy of 19th century American expansion and the wisdom of the 20th century conservation movement.
Today a handful of agencies manage about 575 million acres anyone can access for recreation or other pursuits — an area more than 10 times the size of the state of Minnesota. These lands stand as a symbol of democracy: they are open to all, often at no charge, to use on your own terms, on your own schedule, as often as you wish. There is no private equivalent because they fulfill a role that simply would not exist without government action.
The agencies
Our public lands are primarily managed by four federal agencies: the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management.
The Forest Service is familiar to many Minnesotans, who know of the Superior National Forest, rightly famous for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, or the Chippewa National Forest, home to two of the state’s largest lakes, Leech and Winnibigoshish. But do they know the service manages 192 million acres of forest and grasslands in other states that absorb more than 200 million recreational visits each year? The local economic impact of sustainable timber harvests from these publicly owned forests should not be overlooked either.
The National Park Service is also well known, primarily for the “crown jewels” of the system: Yellowstone, Yosemite and Grand Canyon national parks. But the NPS is responsible for 391 other sites nationwide, including not only natural wonders such as Glacier National Park but also historical structures, battlefields, ancient cliff dwellings, wild-and-scenic rivers, national trails and recreation areas. The agency’s 84 million acres are found in 49 states and served 281 million recreational visitors in 2010.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is the primary steward of public lands dedicated to wildlife habitat, especially for waterfowl. It is responsible for 96 million acres of wildlife refuges, including the 14 refuges in our state, including the nearby Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge. These lands provide not only habitat, but hunting, fishing, hiking, bird watching and other recreational opportunities to nearly 40 million visitors per year.
The Bureau of Land Management is the largest of all the federal land agencies. Its 245 million acres are confined to the Western states and include vast tracts of range land, desert and mountains. It serves about 55 million recreational visitors annually while providing grazing, mineral development, timber and other natural resources for economic development.
Foresight
The key is that all of these lands are, by definition, public. We all own them collectively. We benefit from the recreation opportunities, wildlife habitat, biodiversity and other ecosystem services they provide.
A simple glance at history will tell us that had these lands not been protected by the federal government they would have been destroyed or fenced off long ago. Private interests would have cluttered the Grand Canyon with tourist developments. They would have logged Yellowstone and Yosemite. They would have mined, grazed and drilled every scrap of valuable resources long ago for private profit, then developed the remains into expensive condos for the wealthy, leaving little, if anything, behind for the rest of us to enjoy.
Some bright Americans more than a century ago realized that the private sector wasn’t always perfect and that government action was sometimes a much better option. Their leaders — including Republican heroes such as Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot — helped establish the policies that maintain the federal public lands as part of our national heritage.
Pinchot coined the term “conservation” to describe these policies, defining it as action that produced “the greatest good, for the largest number of people, over the longest period of time.”
Unfortunately many of our current leaders are so blinded by their own anti-government ideology that they can’t even recognize the value in what was considered common sense back when horses still pulled streetcars in Washington, DC.
-Dr.DRL
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