Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights
October 14, 2006

First Hand Report
PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS
— The Record & The Vision —
The Visionary Tenth Annual National Property Rights Conference

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• “Welcome - A Look Over the Wall”
  - Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation of America, Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y., October 14, 2006)
  The vision of the future where justice is restored to private property owners will become reality when and if great masses of the people of the United States join our movement to eliminate the great proportion of regulation of private property; the unjust, excessive taking of private property; the excessive government land ownership; the infringements facilitated by non-profit organizations, especially environmental groups; and the other structures that are steadily decimating private property rights.
  

 Opening Address

• “Environmentalism and Its Consequences”
  - By Bonner R. Cohen, Senior Fellow, National Center for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C., Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 14, 2006)
  In the world of environmentalism, human beings who live in rural areas are creatures that disturb the environment. But there is no such thing as the balance of nature, because nature is always changing. To get big money, the environmentalists tapped into the foundations, which are instruments of capitalism, radically transforming them over the past two or three decades. American environmental groups receive $9.6 million daily in donations.
  

• “RICO Action-Rancher Stops BLM Access Extortion” - By Karen Budd-Falen, Esq., Senior Attorney, Budd-Falen Law Office, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 14, 2006)
  When officials of the federal Bureau of Land Management used repeated harassment to try to intimidate Frank Robbins into granting an easement across his property, the owner of High Island Ranch in Wyoming sued the individual officials under RICO, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Robbins.
  

• “Turning the Tables-Defamation Suit Defeats Environmental Group”- By James K. Chilton, Jr., Chilton Ranch & Cattle Co., Arivaca, Arizona, Tenth annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, NY, October 14, 2006)
  James Chilton won a ruling in Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that his ranch could not be regulated under NEPA because of potential habitat when the species under consideration was not present. Afterwards, Mr. Chilton successfully brought a defamation suit against the Center for Biological Diversity for their publication of photos to maliciously misrepresent conditions on his ranch.
  
  

• “The Eminent Domain Crisis” - By James E. Morgan, Esq., Principal, Galvin & Morgan, Counselors at Law, Delmar, N.Y., Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 14, 2006)
  Eminent domain is being abused by circumventing New York’s Enabling Act. The Fifth Amendment right to compensation for a taking of private property is being denied with the government’s imposition of transferable development rights for valuable property in the Long Island Pine Barrens, and with the use of zoning and smart growth regulation.
  

• “Update on Eminent Domain in the New York State Legislature” - By Jim Malatras, Legislative Director, Office of Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, New York State Assembly, Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 14, 2006)
  
  

• “Eminent Domain-Where We Are, Where We’ve Been, & Where We Should Be Going”- By Gideon Kanner, Professor of Law Emeritus, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 14, 2006)
  Eminent domain is the dark corner of the law. There is no “public use” requirement increasingly in eminent domain, and the “just compensation” is concededly unjust. The legal development of private eminent domain took several key turns in American jurisprudence, but the big problem surfaced in the Berman case in 1954 in Washington, D.C. Eminent domain for redevelopment in New York involves favored, wasteful, big money deals.
  

Keynote Address

• “Private Property Rights—Freedom in the Balance” -Keynote Address by John Fund, The Wall Street Journal, Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 14, 2006)
  “Often the best template by which to judge a member of Congress is not whether they have an R or D behind their name, not whether they say they are a conservative or say they are a liberal, but what their philosophical impulses are towards Kelo.”
  

• “Wild Cities, Suburb Zoos and RuralOutrages — Reflections on My Career in Wildlife Management”-By Nathaniel R. Dickinson, Wildlife Biologist, Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 14, 2006)
  To understand the today’s alarming increase in the conflict between different species of wildlife and man, Nate Dickinson recalls his successful effort to restore wildlife management in New York State to the legal mandate to maintain deer in balance with natural food supplies, to create conditions where man and nature can thrive in harmony. To prevent conflicts, there are places where wildlife should not be.
  

• “Update on Property Rights in the U.S. Congress”-By Jason Knox, Staffer, Resources Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y., October 14, 2006)
  Rep. Sensenbrenner’s eminent domain reform bill (H.R. 4128) died in the Senate. Rep. Chabot’s bill to enable property owners to bring Fifth Amendment takings cases into federal court (H.R.4772) would overcome the requirement that state remedies be exhausted and the ironic application of res judicata. Eminent domain due process reform would eliminate the bulk of federal condemnation abuse.
  

• “Invasive Species—Regulation by Fraud”
  - By Fred V. Grau, Jr., President Grasslyn, Inc., Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 14, 2006)
  Invasive species rules are already having negative impact on ranchers, farmers, sportsmen, and boaters. “White listing” in accord with the precautionary principle requires that you have to prove that a species doesn’t cause harm before you can trade in it. The concept of “biological pollution” is starting to bring U.S. EPA jurisdiction over aquatic invasive species. Invasive species laws are a federal funding mechanism to The Nature Conservancy.
  

• “The Endangered Species Act—Can It Be Reformed?”
  - Robert J. Smith, President, Center for Private Conservation & Adjunct Environmental Scholar, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 14, 2006)
  The Endangered Species Act was conceived to control people, not to save species. It has never worked for its supposed purpose to save species. The Endangered Species Act created incentive to destroy red-cockaded woodpecker habitat in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was backed down by bad publicity after trying to force tree farmer Ben Coon of North Carolina to put his land under their extreme red-cockaded woodpecker restrictions. Congress is unlikely to reform the ESA soon.
  

• “Corruption in Trail Funding” - Linda S. Rowley, Railroad Impact Committee of the Hilltowns (RICH), Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 14, 2006)
  While fighting a planned bike path through her barn in Haydenville, Massachusetts, Linda Rowley discovered that federal transportation enhancement funding that was exclusively for congestion mitigation and air quality improvement (CMAQ) was being misapplied for purely recreational purposes. She also won a ruling in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that the railroad right-of-way was a road or a way under the Derelict Fee Statute, making it ineligible for federal trail funds because the property belonged to the underlying owners after the railroad was no longer in use.
  

• “National Heritage Areas—An Appearance of Innocence” - By Peyton Knight, National Center for Public Policy Research, Washington, D.C., Speech at Tenth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 14, 2006)
  National Heritage Areas are pork barrel earmarks that harm property rights and local governance. Heritage Areas have definite boundaries and are subject to a management entity composed of Green groups and the National Park Service to pressure local government to enact land-use restrictions. The Park Service surveys property within the Heritage Area for suitable land for National Park status.
  

Closing Address

• “U.S. Private Property Rights Under International Assault” - By Lawrence A. Kogan, Esq., Institute for Trade, Standards and Sustainable Development, Presented at the Tenth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights, Albany, New York, October 14, 2006, sponsored by the Property Rights Foundation of America
  Left-leaning foreign governments, activists and academics are waging a campaign against the American free market, private property, and science and economics-based regulatory systems. The non-scientific Precautionary Principle, which has assumed regulatory status in Europe, means banning whole classes of products, substances and activities from entering the marketplace if it is merely possible, absent any scientific risk analysis, that they or the processes used for their manufacture might cause uncertain health or environmental harm sometime in the future.
  

Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights
The Burning Quest—Rules of Engagement for Defending Our Private Property Rights

Ninth Annual National Property Rights Conference Slated for October 22, 2005

“PRFA Holds Successful Ninth Annual National Property Rights Conference” -
PRFA, October 2005
This report describes national leaders and local activists addressing a rapt audience of individuals gathered October 22, 2005 at the Turf Holiday Inn, Albany, N.Y., about the theme “The Burning Quest—Rules of Engagement for Defending Our Private Property Rights.” Bill Moshofsky, Oregonians in Action, gave the Keynote on Oregon’s Measure 37 referendum. The Supreme Court’s destructive Kelo eminent domain ruling compelled intense interest; the final panel and closing address focused on how citizens can battle the ruling locally and across the country.

Awards

• “Rules of Engagement”- By Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation of America. Speech to the Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
  “First of all, fight to win. Set your goals. Speak your issue clearly to be heard by the government and by those who can follow you,” begins Carol LaGrasse’s short, to-the-point summary of the basic, essential rules for grassroots success in defending private property rights at every level.
  

• “Property Law Today—The New Feudalism”
  - By Peter Blackman, Author and Attorney, Louisa, Virginia, Speech to the Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
  Mr. Blackman discusses the disastrous ramifications of the disregard of property rights in American law today. He points out that we “have a burden of proof, but one that we can ably meet, to show that not only are property rights consistent with these other human rights, but that property rights are critical to them.”
  

• “Successful Copyright Defense against the National Wildlife Federation”- By John C. Gile, Author and Publisher, Rockford, Illinois. Speech to the Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
  The National Wildlife Federation pirated John C. Gile’s copyrighted children’s book, The First Forest, and distributed it to 547,000 homes, libraries, and schools. “Remember, copyright, intellectual property, is the driving force for our nation’s economy,” said John Gile, who is seeking Justice Department prosecution of criminal violations of the Constitution’s copyright provision.
  

• “Litigating for Private Property Rights — A Western Perspective” - By Harriet M. Hageman, Attorney, Hageman and Brighton, P.C., Cheyenne, Wyoming; Speech to the Ninth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 22, 2005)
  Threats to private property rights affect our families, our communities, our environment, our educational system and the future of our children. With the Preble’s Jumping Mouse and the introduction of the Canadian gray wolf into Wyoming as examples, the Endangered Species Act is being manipulated, not for the purpose of benefiting endangered species, but to limit management and use of private property.
  

• “Court Battle to Protect Old Mountain Road from State Wilderness” - By Jim McCulley, Lake Placid, N.Y.; Speech to the Ninth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 22, 2005)
  

• “The Campaign to Save Hurricane Mountain Fire Tower” - By Gretna Longware, Elizabethtown, N.Y.; Speech to the Ninth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 22, 2005)
  The 80-year-old Hurricane Mountain Fire Tower is the symbol around which local Adirondack people are rallying to preserve their cultural heritage. Mrs. Longware is leading a campaign to stop a State plan to dismantle the tower.
  

• “Organizing Against the New Jersey Highlands Preservation” - By Devlen Mackey, Mackey Orchards, Belvidere, N. J.; Speech to the Ninth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 22, 2005)
  

• “Organizing Successfully Against the Sacandaga Reservoir Regulating District”-By Guy Poulin, Speech to the Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
  Guy Poulin, a resident of Northville in Saratoga County, rallied the shoreline owners on the Great Sacandaga Lake when the Hudson River Black River Regulating District Commission obscurely announced that the access permit fees would go sky high. His researched the law controlling the fees, exposed the new scheme, which was illegal, and aroused the property owners to action.
  

• “Regulatory Taking Compensation—The Successful Oregon Measure 37 Referendum” - By Bill Moshofsky, President, Oregonians in Action, Tigard, Oregon; Speech to the Ninth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 22, 2005)
  The Oregon Measure 37 referendum created a solution to the “regulatory overkill” that besets Oregon’s property owners, under arguably the strictest land use planning regulations in the country, excessive wetlands, endangered species and forest practice regulation. Oregonians in Action is still fighting against government’s attempt to nullify the law.
  

• “Forward for Private Property Rights”
  - By James S. Burling, Senior Counsel, Pacific Legal Foundation, Speech to the Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
  Go to the mirror to see the real enemy of property rights, ourselves. Pacific Legal Foundation has won lawsuits such as the Suitum and Palazzolo cases by looking at what happens to real-life people hit by regulations. In the older Nollan and Dolan cases, the property owner won because of the nonsensical results of regulation. But an oil company was not a sympathetic litigant in Chevron v. Lingle, and the justices failed to grasp economic logic. The Endangered Species Act Reform Act has important provisions to help landowners.
  

• “The Pleistocene Park Project—Removing Civilization from North America” - By Robert J. Smith, Adjunct Environmental Scholar, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Speech to the Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
  Environmental scholars proposed in August 2005 to restore the ecosystem and all the large animals that roamed North America at the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age, replacing extinct mammals with Asian and African counterparts, including elephants, lions, cheetahs, camels, wild horses and a giant tortoise, while eliminating human beings from ten states from Canada to Mexico, from the east edge of the Rockies to just west of the Mississippi River. This is just the latest of radical environmental proposals that are viewed as credible and explain what the environmental leadership is about.
  

• “Endangered Species Act Victims” - By Mark Bragg, The Broadcast Group, Washington, D.C., Speech to the Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
  After surmounting years of obstruction by the Sierra Club and the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service of his proposed golf resort in Palm Springs, California, Mr. Bragg founded Victims of the Endangered Species Act to publicize the stories of people who have been hurt by the law.
  

• “The Eminent Domain Battleground-Panel Introduction” - James E. Morgan, Galvin & Morgan, Attorneys, Delmar, N.Y. (Remarks to the Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
  The best way to change circumstances is by convincing local and state leaders of our principles. The best protectors of property and the environment are the people who own it.
  

• “Local Citizen Organizing to Defeat Eminent Domain”
  - By Michael Cristofaro, Resident of the condemned Fort Trumbull neighborhood of New London, Speech to the Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
  The Cristofaro family gave up their first house to eminent domain, supposedly for a levee, but a private development was built there instead. They refused to move when the City’s New London Redevelopment Agency condemned their second home, and fought their way to the U. S. Supreme Court, where their case, Kelo v. New London, was defeated. Michael Cristofaro speaks about the injustice of eminent domain at every opportunity and is campaigning for the City Council.
  

• “New York State Legislative Reform”
  - By Jim Malatras, Legislative Director, Office of Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, New York State Assembly; Speech to the Ninth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 22, 2005)
  Jim Malatras discusses key problems with New York’s eminent domain process, the role of public authorities in eminent domain, and compares the approach of Assemblyman Brodsky with others in the context of the Kelo v. New London Supreme Court Decision.
  

• “National Property Rights Ombudsman Legislation” - By Craig M. Call, Utah State Property Rights Ombudsman Speech to the Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
  The Utah Property Rights Ombudsman has successfully acted as a neutral third party to make sure that people have straight answers to the questions that they face in land use and eminent domain situations involving state and local government. “I try to make the law work better for individuals who call me,” said Mr. Call. U. S. Senator Orrin Hatch has proposed legislation for a federal property rights ombudsman within the Department of Transportation.
  

• “Eminent Domain Reforms at Every Level”
  - By Steven D. Anderson, Castle Coalition, Institute for Justice, Speech to the Ninth Annual National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 22, 2005)
  The majority’s point in Kelo v. New London that it must defer to a state deliberative body on the meaning of the Constitution borders on lunacy. Its point that state laws requiring some type of plan protect property owners from an overreaching government confirms the Court’s detachment from reality.
  

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Awards

• “Challenges to Our Vision” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, Welcome Address, Eighth Annual N.Y. Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Oct. 23, 2004)
  With our conviction for private property rights, we can counteract the do-gooders who are using environmental schemes to force rural people off their land and using eminent domain to destroy downtown urban neighborhoods.
  

• Opening Address - “International Property Rights and How to Win in This Country” - By Richard Miniter, Founder and President, Brussels Institute, Brussels, Belgium; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  Property rights are already lost in Europe, but in the United States only a few battles have been lost. It is time to win. Modeled after successful movements, Richard Miniter’s ten steps to win start with recruiting a legislative champion.
  

• “Utah Property Rights Ombudsman — A National Model” - By Craig M. Call, Property Rights Ombudsman, State of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  The first property rights ombudsman in the world is a powerful negotiator for small property owners—mainly homeowners — facing eminent domain, land use takings and land use ordinances imposed by state and local government.
  

• “A Voice for Forest Landowners in Washington—Protecting Productive Private Property” - By Scott Jones, Executive Vice President, Forest Landowners Association, Atlanta, Ga.; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  By partnering with organizations like the Forest Landowners Association, we can educate Congress about private property rights. Working together, we stopped regulations like TDML, which would have hurt forest management. We can eliminate the “death tax” and make incremental changes to the Endangered Species Act.
  

• “Greetings” - By Matthew McKeown, Deputy Solicitor, U.S. Department of Interior; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  The Secretary of Interior is committed to protecting water rights of ranchers, using the Healthy Forest Initiative to restore communities in the Northwest, working with landowners to protect habitat under the Endangered Species Act, and establishing a way to settle RS2477 access roads.
  

• “Abundance Ecology—The Liberty Garden”
  - By Michael Shaw, Freedom 21 Radio Talk Show host, Proprietor of Liberty Garden
  Aptos, California; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  By using intensive management, native plants whose seed bank was long dormant returned in great variety to Liberty Garden in Santa Cruz County on coastal California. Abundance ecology, based on private property rights, is the opposite of shortage ecology, based on the Endangered Species Act.
  

• “Repealing the Death Tax—Preserving Small Businesses” - By Dick Patten, Executive Director, American Family Business Institute, Washington, D.C.; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  Private property rights were held to be absolutely inalienable in the American constitutional system. But the Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels began to have influence, calling for the abolition of private property and inheritance. The 10% inheritance tax of World War I rose to 77% by 1941, and is currently at 48%. A close battle rages in the U.S. Senate for permanent repeal.
  

• “Eco-Terrorism and Animal Rights Extremism” - By John Gray, Intelligence Analyst, Federal Bureau of Investigation Counter Terrorism Division; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)

• Keynote Address - “Restoring Constitutionality and Rationality to Environmental Protection”
  - By Becky Norton Dunlop, Vice President, The Heritage Foundation, Washington, D.C.; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  Environmental policies that emanate from liberty are the most successful. But constitutional principles of liberty, private property, due process, speech trials, and just compensation have been diminished in the name of environmental protection. We must advance an ownership society. Communicating with Congress and networking with potential allies are essential.
  

• “Eminent Domain Reform” - By Jim Malatras, Legislative Director, Office of Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, New York State Assembly; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  People across the ideological spectrum have joined Mr. Brodsky to successfully reform New York’s eminent domain law, requiring notification of individual property owners. More reform lies ahead.
  

• “Root Shock—How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What We Can Do About It”
  - By Dr. Mindy Fullilove, New York State Psychiatric Institute and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Public Health at Columbia University, New York, New York; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  People love the buildings they live in and their neighborhoods. When urban renewal destroyed 1,600 African American neighborhoods in the fifties and sixties, the losses were horrific. The black people called it “Negro removal.” Vibrant neighborhoods were lost. Nine out of ten jazz clubs died.
  

• “Hope for People Fighting Rent Control” - By Mark Alpert, Attorney, Hart, King & Coldren, Santa Ana, California; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  In the decision Chevron USA v. Lingle, the Ninth Circuit ruled that a rent control law has to substantially advance a legitimate state interest, e.g., to provide affordable housing. Rent control laws are an example of the “tyranny of the majority” feared by Madison, which was why the framers of the Constitution adopted the Fifth Amendment.
  

• “Landowners United to Defend Private Property Rights”
  - By Mark Nix, Executive Director, South Carolina Landowners Association
  Columbia, South Carolina; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  This speech includes good advice for all property rights groups, including: Form alliances with homeowners associations, churches, and other groups to defend property rights. Frame the issues to be understood. Warn people that government is “taking away your property’s value,” instead of about “zoning.” Get the news out to your members at least once a month.
  

• “Landownership in America” - By Robert J. Smith, President, Center for Private Conservation & Senior Adjunct Scholar Competitive Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C.; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  The federal government owns about one third of the American land. All government landownership is between 42 and 48 percent of the land in the United States, the most socialized land system in the world.
  

• Closing Address – “Inverse Condemnation—The Rationale for Compensation for Regulatory Takings”
  - By Henry St. John FitzGerald, Attorney at Law, Arlington, Virginia; Speech to the Eighth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 23, 2004)
  The Constitution is the biggest bulwark to protect our rights, including private property rights. Government keeps trying to expand its power, and important cases hold its power in check. The cases protecting property owners from regulatory takings began in 1922 with Pennsylvania Coal. “Inverse condemnation” is when so many land rights have been taken away that a Fifth Amendment Taking occurs.
  

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Awards

PRFA’s Annual Awards Ceremony recognized Dana Berliner of the Institute for Justice in Washington, D.C.; Don Parmeter of Northern Resources Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Kelli and Joseph Havranek of the Rondout Landowners Alliance in Rosendale, N.Y.

• “Our Inalienable Heritage” - By Carol W. LaGrasse, Welcome Address, Seventh Annual N.Y. Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Oct. 18, 2003)
  Taking a look at the ways our rights are being eroded and setting history back on a path toward justice. Countervailing the soft-sell, long-term approach of moneyed interests - conservation easements, scenic byways, heritage areas, trails - the high-sounding tools of landscape preservation.
  

• “Grassroots Action—Changing the Way We Govern Ourselves” - By Don Parmeter, Northern Resources Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Speech to the Seventh Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany, N. Y. October 18, 2003) Watershed planning, or basin-wide planning, mean regional land use control of the entire country. Citizens must organize, bring in diverse populations, strategize, figure out how to fix it, play offense, and not give up.
  

• “Property Rights Bills in the New York State Legislature”
  - By Jeff Williams, Assistant Director of Government Relations, New York Farm Bureau - Speech to the Seventh Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, October 18, 2003)
  The New York Farm Bureau’s 34,000 grassroots members succeeded in defeating a mislabeled “canned shoot” bill, which had no acreage limitation. Open burning and light pollution (fugitive lighting) bills threaten farmers. Tax exempt reform legislation could relieve undue burdens on property owners.
  

• “Property Rights—The Court of Appeals of New York” - By Stuart R. Shamberg, Founder, Shamberg Marwell Hocherman Davis & Hollis, P.C., Seventh Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, October 18, 2003)
  “In 2002 the Court of Appeals sent a very clear message that courts were not to substitute their decision for the determination of the local zoning board if there was any evidence in the administrative record to support its decision.” In environmental law, in the case of Bath Petroleum Storage v. DEC, the Appellate Div. - 4th Dept. reversed the Supreme Court in Livingston County, in effect sanctioning endless information requests by an administrative agency requiring the applicant’s agreement with the agency’s conclusions.
  

• “Conservation Easements-Perpetual Problems”
  - By Julia D. Mahoney, Ph. D., Professor, University of Virginia School of Law, Speech to the Seventh Annual NY Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, October 18, 2003)
  Conservation servitudes have been used to protect millions of acres of lands. Is it feasible or desirable to bind future generations? Conservation easements are designed “to prevent the reunification of the interest to the property owner.”
  

• “Eminent Domain for Private Gain”- By Dana Berliner, Keynote Address, Seventh Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, October 18, 2003)
  Eminent Domain is being widely abused to benefit private parties. New York is the worst state in the country for abusing the power of eminent domain. Where the courts are hostile, creative citizen activists defeat eminent domain.
  

• “Scenic Byways — Innocent Sounding Land Management” - By Susan Allen, Adirondack Park Agency Reporter, Speech to Seventh Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, October 18, 2003)
  A succession of interlocking programs and preservation plans in northeastern New York build a juggernaut of restrictions on private Property. Included are federal and state Scenic Byways, Heritage Areas and watershed management.
  

• “The Proposed Rondout Creek Canalway Trail — Defending Property Owners” - By Joseph Havranek, Rondout Landowners Alliance, Seventh Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, October 18, 2003)
  A classic of successful activism. FOIL Requests revealed that the true intent of the local project in Rosendale and Marbletown was a 108-mile trail linking the Hudson and Delaware Rivers. The Rondout Landowners Alliance got the information to the people and went on the offensive.
  

• “Invasive Species—Intrusive Regulation”
  - By Robert J. Smith, President, Center for Private Conservation, Washington, D.C., Speech at the Seventh Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, October 2003)
  Invasive species are everywhere. If the Greens get an invasive species program started, they’ll have an Office of Invasive Species or Invasive Species Program so that they can take all the things they dislike, whether it is crown vetch or whatever, and put them on the list and then start eradicating them, and that is going to mean an end to your private property.
  

Sixth Annual Conference
Celebrating Private Property Rights, Keeping Private Lands in Private Hands
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Full Proceedings of Sixth Annual Conference available from PRFA.
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• “Welcome - Celebrating Private Property Rights”
  - By Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation of America, Sixth Annual Conference on Private Property Rights (November 16, 2002, PRFA)
  Some people think that we can defend private property rights without standing up for the preservation of private property ownership. From the beginning, PRFA has stood for the preservation of private property ownership.
  

• Keynote Address - “Private Conservation — Proven Environmentalism” - By Robert J. Smith, Center for Private Conservation, Washington, D.C.
  This engrossing discourse on ornithology and other wildlife is meant to convey the good news that private landowners and private associations are almost always better stewards of the land, resources, and wildlife than government coercion and government ownership.
  

• Opening Address - “The Noblest Triumph — Private Property, The Historical Route to Prosperity
  - By Tom Bethell, Senior Editor, The American Spectator, Speech at the Sixth Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights
  (PRFA, November 16, 2002)
  Private property has been neglected by economists, but is the logical starting point of economic analysis. Mr. Bethell points to the role of private property in the development of Western civilization, contrasting it with the failed one-hundred year “experiment” in Communism.
  

• “Practical Experience with the U.S. EPA—Arbitrary Regulation of Small Oil Producers” - By Steven Kennemuth, Olean, New York
  

• “Rural Cleansing in Maine: Watermelons, Wildlands and RINO’s” - Jon Reisman, associate professor of economics and public policy, University of Maine at Machias
  How religious environmentalism, anti-capitalism, and the Endangered Species Act are destroying a rural natural resource-based economy.
  

• “The Wildlands Program” - By Thomas M. Bennett, Maryville, Tennessee
  While describing how The Wildlands Project’s core, buffer, and corridor zones are meant to accomplish the return of at least one-half of the land in North America to wilderness with no human influence, “Matt” Bennett of Treekeepers.org warns an unsuspecting populace to be on the watch for “synergy,” where the Wildlands vision is implemented piecemeal.
  

• “Defending New England Traditions” - By Sean McKeon, Speech, Sixth Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, November 16, 2002)
  The American tradition of private property is rooted in the documents from which the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were drawn. To defend Vermont traditions, the forest industry, farmers, small businesses, and activists who believe in freedom should stand together.
  

• “Private Property Rights of Farmers: Updates in Takings and Related Case Law” - By Jeff Williams and
  Leah Hurtgen, New York State Farm Bureau
  A broad overview of significant recent cased that have occurred in New York State and in other parts of this country, which affect agriculture and other land-intensive business such as logging and will touch individual property owners: Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council, Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (122 S. Ct. 1465 (2002); the victorious Palazzolo v. Rhode Island and related historic cases; Town of Lysander v. Hafner (New York State Court of Appeals, October 18, 2001); the disappointing Long Island Pine Barrens v. Town of Riverhead;the California case Pronsolino v. EPA; and another Ninth Circuit case Borden Ranch v. Army Corps of Engineers.
  

• “Private Conservation of Wildlife in Africa” - By Brian Seasholes, Speech to the Sixth Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, November 16, 2002)
  The creation of property rights to wildlife in southern Africa caused wildlife to burgeon on private lands. In Zimbabwe, the black rhinoceros, lions, elephants, and imperiled wild dogs migrated to conservancies, where they multiplied.
  

• “Protecting Private Property-Prospects in the 108th Congress” - By Michael Hardiman, Hardiman Consulting, Washington, D.C., Speech at the Sixth Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, November 16, 2002)
  Mr. Hardiman sees a strong chance for improvements to the Endangered Species Act, to require sound science to list new species, and an excellent chance that the estate tax, whose biggest supporter is the land trusts, will be permanently repealed.
  

• “Eminent Domain - Current Status, Future Directions”
  - By James E. Morgan, Attorney, Galvin and Morgan, Delmar, New York, Speech, Sixth Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights
  Government is misusing eminent domain to transfer property in so-called “blighted” downtown neighborhoods to developers. At the same time, where New York’s eminent domain rules would be the fair answer, Long Island Pine Barrens properties are zoned for zero use, but receive no compensation.
  

• “Turning the Tables — ‘Good Guys’ Using Environmental Law” - By Kathleen Benedetto, National Wilderness Institute, Washington, D.C, Speech at the Sixth Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, November 16, 2002)
  Federal agencies fail to abide by environmental law that everybody else has to adhere to. NWI’s Endangered Species Act lawsuit complains that the EPA and other federal agencies are failing to protect the bald eagle and the short-nosed sturgeon during construction of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge over the Potomac. Their Clean Water Act lawsuit charges that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers allows the Washington Acqueduct to discharge 200,000 tons sludge annually into the Potomac.

• “Cutting Edge Litigation for the Future”
  - Madeline Sheila Galvin, Galvin and Morgan, Delmar, N. Y., Speech, Sixth Annual New York Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, November 16, 2002)
  Property owners must stand up again and again to bureaucrats in the court room. Gather documents from bureaucrats by doing Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests long before going to court.
  

• “Land Grab by Conservation Easement”
  - By J. Zane Walley, Editor, The Paragon Powerhouse, Paragon Foundation, Lincoln, New Mexico
  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is enlarging the Everglades by using its canals to raise the water level in Dade County, Florida — flooding an 8.5 square mile area where over 500 families live, ruining the avocado orchards and other farms, and making the area uninhabitable. Transferable development rights are also imposed to return the land to “Wildlands.”

Fifth Annual Conference—A Wake-Up Call, Organizing for Success
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Full Proceedings of Fifth Annual Conference available from PRFA.
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• Keynote Address - “Freedom—The Way Up From Racism and Poverty” - By Reginald G. Jones, President, Reggitainment Group, Lindenwold, New Jersey
  

• Opening Address- “We Have A Movement—Joining Forces and Reaching Out” - By J. Zane Walley, Editor, The Paragon Powerhouse, Paragon Foundation, Lincoln, New Mexico

• “The Web — Unlimited Outreach” - By Ray Kreig, R. A. Kreig & Associates, Anchorage, Alaska
  

• “Reaching out on the Web — Unlimited Outreach, How to Basics for a Website on the Fly”
  - By Lee Ann Gerhart, Anchorage, Alaska
  

• “Sustaining a Local Property Rights Group” - By Barry Klein, President, Houston Property Rights Association
  

• “Reaching Your Representative” - By Jeff Williams, Assistant Director of Governmental Relations, New York Farm Bureau
  

• Closing Address - “Burning Issues—The Dangers of Government Forest Management,”
  - By Robert H. Nelson, Ph. D., Professor of Environmental Policy, School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland
  

• Also included in Full Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Conference:
  • Welcome—Going Forward, Carol W. LaGrasse, President, Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc., Stony Creek, New York
  • An Introduction to Panel I—Quality Organizing, Walter H. Olsen, Sr., Civil Property Rights Associates, Inc., Riverhead, New York
  • The Power of Information, Bruce G. Siminoff, Author, Califon, New Jersey
  • Fund Raising—The Nuts and Bolts of Advocacy, Kevin Gentry, Vice President, Mercatus Center, George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia
  • An Introduction to Panel II—Communicating Your Case, Thomas A. Miller, Allegany Citizens Rights Committee, Allegany, New York
  • Keys to the Successful Newsletter, What to Do and What to Avoid, Adrian R. Tiemann, Ph. D., Homeowners Against Rent Kontrols (HARK), Schenectady, New York
  • Media Success, Michael Hardiman, Hardiman Consulting, Washington, D.C.
  • Reaching the World Through Local Television and Web TV, Gary Edwards, Edwards Production Television, Massena, New York

• Opening Address - “Unequal Protection — The Injustice of Using Eminent Domain on Behalf of Private Business” - By Dana Berliner, Attorney, Institute for Justice, Washington, DC
  

• “Fisheries Conservation Through Property Rights” - By Frederick William Meeker, Attorney, Hampton Bays, N. Y.
  

• “Access to Natural Minerals — A Hard-Won Success Story” - By Geraldine Tortorella, Partner, Shamberg Marwell Hocherman Davis & Hollis, P.C., Mount Kisco, New York