“Mexican Drug Cartels Are Growing Marijuana in
U.S. National Parks and Forests,”
News Brief, PRFA, August 2007
Pres. Bush Executive Order for Cooperative Conservation
- August 26, 2004
Pres. George W. Bush directed the Departments
of Interior, Agriculture, Defense, and the Environmental Protection
Agency to promote cooperative conservative conservation, emphasizing
local participation. he directed agencies to take appropriate
account of and respect the interests of
persons with ownership or other legally recognized interests
in land and natural resources. His directive requires an annual
report on the implementation of the order by each agency to the
President’s Council on Environmental
Quality. It sets the stage for a White House Conference on Cooperative
Conservation in one year.
Letter from Fred Grau, State College, Penna. to The
Honorable Robert C. Jubelirer, Pennsylvania State Senate, May
31, 2003
Letter protesting possible confirmation of
Kathleen McGinty by default, without a Senate vote, and urging
that the McGinty confirmation be decided by a roll call vote
of the Senate.
“McGinty Nomination Withdrawn”
Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell withdrew, at least temporarily,
Katie McGinty’s name from consideration to head the Department
of Environmental Protection. (PRFA, April 24, 2003)
Pennsylvania - Urgent Action Alert!
Oppose the Appointment of Katie McGinty as Secretary of the Department
of Environmental Protection (PRFA, Jan. 31, 2003)
January 24, 2002 Action Alert:
OPPOSE CARA
IN THE HOUSE
“Son of CARA” Has Already Passed the Senate
September 2001
“CARA
Alert-Letters, Telephone Calls, and Faxes urgently Needed”
The $45 billion Conservation and Reinvestment
Act would automatically funnel $3.1 billion annually into an
untouchable trust fund to buy up private land and preserve natural
resources.
August 2001
“House
of Representatives to Consider CARA, The $44 Billion Anti-Private
Property Bill”
Defeated last year, the Conservation and Reinvestment
Act passed the House Resources Committee on July 25.
June 2001
“Pat
Callahan Stands Up for Private Property at CARA Hearing”
The president of the American Association
of Small Property Owners offered unflinching testimony at the
June 20 Congressional hearing on H.R. 701
June 24, 2001
“Property
Rights Battle Cry: Field Hearings for CARA”
American Land Rights Association’s campaign gathers steam.
Twenty-one Congressmen have signed on to a letter asking for
local hearings on CARA (HR 701).
See Also
Additional Helpful
Organizations
Alliance for America
(Alliance
of property rights and wise use groups)
website
American Association of Small Property Owners
(Expert in small urban property investor issues.
On-line newsletter.)
address
American Land Rights Association
(Leads fight against
congressional land grabs)
address
American Policy Center
(Incisive monthly reports about issues related
to government overzealousness, private property rights, internationalism,
education issues)
address
People for the USA
address
Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation
address
Essential Books
& Publications
Defending Illusions - Federal Protection
of Ecosystems
By Allan K. Fitzsimmons
3192 Rivanna Court
Woodbridge, VA 22192
(703) 491-5615
This book examines the science, philosophy, and law of ecosystems
management and shows how
efforts to make federal protection of ecosystems the centerpiece
of national environmental policy are driven by religious veneration
of Mother Earth wrapped in a veil of science.
www.rowmanlittlefield.com
Robert H. Nelson, A Burning Issue-A
Case for Abolishing the U.S. Forest Service (Rowman &
Littlefield, 2000)
Examines the history of government management of National Forests,
from the near-century of bureaucratic incompetence to the present-day
philosophy of “management” toward imagined pre-colonial
conditions, leading to catastrophic wildfires.
Additional information and latest on the Klamath Basin
www.snowcrest.net/
siskfarm/klamlinks.html
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In-Depth Information
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 “Enormous
Wilderness Corridors Masquerading as Land Management Refinements”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, Reprinted from New York Property
Rights Clearinghouse, Vol. 15, No. 1 (PRFA, Spring 2011)
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s
Strategic Plan for its 442 state forests comprising 786,000
acres outside the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserves
focuses on ensuring connectivity for wildlife movement between
large “matrix blocks” of state forests
maintained as mature cover connected with wide, natural strips
of land with a high percentage of forest cover. This system
would enhance connectivity though deep forested areas from
Ontario to Georgia.
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- “Governor’s
Tax Cap Threatens 125-Year-Old Covenant to Pay Local Taxes”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse, Property Rights Foundation of America,
Inc., February 12, 2009
When the New York State Legislature established the Adirondack
Forest Preserve, the Legislature followed the recommendations
of the official commission, which concluded that because the
protection of the forest “would be chiefly for
the benefit of the rest of the State,” the State
should “hereafter bear taxes upon its lands in
the Adirondack region.” It may take 125 years,
but with control of much of the land, preservationists control
the tax base and future.
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- “Governor’s
Proposed State Tax Cap Would Be A Tax Outrage” -
By Carol W. LaGrasse, Property Rights Foundation of America,
Inc. Reduced size version (pdf) of advertisement that appeared
in the Adirondack Journal, January 31, 2009
A cap on the State payment of property taxes to localities
within the 6,000,000-acre Adirondack region would gradually
cause a damaging and destructive shift of the tax burden to
the already restricted and weak local economies. Fair play
demands that the Legislature’s long-established
doctrine to pay local taxes be upheld.
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 “Farmers Fight Back
in the New Jersey Highlands” - By Devlen Mackey,
Owner, Mackey Orchards, Belvidere, New Jersey; Eleventh Annual
National Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, Albany,
N.Y., October 13, 2007)
Farmers, local government, and developers are opposing
the state regional zoning law, the New Jersey Highlands Regional
Planning and Water Protection Act, which imposes 88-acre zoning
and exploits endangered species rules in Hunterdon, Warren,
and other northwestern New Jersey counties to stop the use
of land. The law is said to be intended to protect the watershed
for drinking water, but sewers to keep flow from Lake Hopatcong
are prohibited by the Department of Environmental Protection.
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 “Update
from Congress” - By Jason Knox, Esq., Member of Legislative
Staff, Natural Resources Committee, Subcommittee on Forests
and Public Lands, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington,
D.C.; Eleventh Annual National Conference on Private Property
Rights (PRFA, Albany, N.Y., October 13, 2007)
Part of the legislation that Nancy Pelosi would like to
ram through Congress is H.R. 6 to take, Chavez-like, the contracts
of oil companies awarded to drill on the outer continental
shelf during the Clinton Administration. A National Heritage
Area omnibus bill (H.R. 1483) would accomplish the Journey
through Hallowed Ground and Niagara Falls National Heritage
Areas, among others. The Niagara Falls area would involve
the National Park Service in casinos. H.R. 2016 would do away
with multiple use in BLM lands, making billions of acres into
defacto wilderness.
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 “Warriors
for Our Time” - Book review by
Nathaniel R. Dickinson, Property Rights Foundation of America,
March 2007
Review of Warriors for the West by William Perry Pendley
(Regnery Publishing, Inc. 2006)
Perry Pendley, president and chief legal officer of Mountain
States Legal Foundation, chronicles the heroic battles of
westerners for freedom and land rights in the face of bureaucrats,
environmental groups and judges who are destroying the rights
to land, the viability of local communities, and freedom itself.
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 “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.
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 “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.
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- “Yes, Our
President Has a Clear Mandate and the Will of the People Must
Be Heeded” - By Nate Dickinson (PRFA, November 10,
2004)
The election of 2004 gives President George W. Bush the
opportunity to correct the Administration’s neglect
of so-called environmental matters. Issues such as endangered
species, wise use of the National Forests, and oil drilling
need to be tackled with intelligence. The influence of radical
environmental groups must be challenged and diminished.
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- “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.
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- “New
Land Designation Threatens Northern New Jersey Communities”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, December 8, 2003)
The New Jersey delegation maneuvered the “Highlands
Stewardship Act,” with $110 million for land acquisition,
into the “Healthy Forest Restoration Act,”
the bill that Western states ardently sought to reduce the
risk of catastrophic forest fires, but the addition was stripped
in conference.
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- “Open Range
Warfare — The 2003 Version” - By Ron Zumbrun
(Reprinted by permission, from The Daily Recorder,
City of Sacramento, October 13, 2003)
Plumus County, California adopted an open range ordinance,
forcing property owners to allow cattle grazing. Jack and
Millie Herzberg are suing for trespass and illegal rent control.
They want full compensation and liability insurance.
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- “Bill
would create Highlands Stewardship Area - $25 million fund
would tie up land in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and
Connecticut” - By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, August
27, 2003)
Wealthy New York interests, non-profits, recreationists,
and preservationists have been working for over ten years
on a grandiose greenway from the Delaware River across northern
New Jersey, southern New York just north of the metropolitan
region, and western Connecticut. A new bill in Congress will
direct money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund to
buy up land.
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 “The Corps of Engineers’ Columbia River Estuary
Fiasco” — By Jim Starr, Contributing Writer
(PRFA, March 2003)
Dredging, tern, and salmon smolt pose conflict. The Corps
of Engineers’ dredging has created islands from
which tern prey on juvenile salmon, but the Corps’
doomed approach to reducing predation is heavy-handed and
based on fallacy.
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- “Maine
Is Not Alone in Experiencing Rural Cleansing” - by
Nate Dickinson, Wildlife Biologist (PRFA, November 2002)
A review of Professor Jon Reisman’s speech
“Rural Cleansing in Maine,” which
was delivered at the Sixth Annual New York Conference on Private
Property Rights.
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- Asst. Sec.
of U.S. Dept. of Interior responds to LaGrasse (DOI Letter,
June 18, 2002)
Commenting specifically on LaGrasse’s March
10, 2002 letter to DOI, Lynn Scarlet, Asst. Secretary, Policy,
Management and Budget, responded, “With respect
to your recommendation that endangered, threatened and rare
species restoration should be contracted out, the President’s
Management Agenda does call for a greater focus on competitive
sourcing...We share your desire for transparency and a wide
range of partnerships for conservation.”
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- “Congress
Holds Stacked Hearing on Conservation Tax Credits”
- By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, May 4, 2002)
Fifty percent capital gains tax break would shift title
to private land and conservation easements to land trusts
and government. Land trusts, members of Congress, and big
industry testify exclusively. However, articles give visibility
to property rights activists’ objections to Administration
proposal.
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- “Supreme
Court Rejects ‘Categorical’ Compensation for Temporary
Taking” — By Carol W. LaGrasse (PRFA, April
27, 2002)
Justice Stevens writes that the Tahoe Regional Planning
Agency took only a “temporal slice”
of the property interest by imposing lengthy building moratoria.
No compensation to landowners is required. The troublesome
ruling broadly affirmed the justice of central planning, but
left open room for “ad hoc” appeals
for compensation for temporary takings.
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- “Letter
to Kit Kimball, Director, Office of External and Intergovernmental
Affairs, U.S. Dept. of Interior” - From Carol W. LaGrasse
(PRFA, March 2002)
This letter gives ideas for reform to incorporate in DOI’s
five-year strategic plan. Wildlife restoration and land acquisition
should take place under transparent processes and be privatized,
eliminating corporatism between government and non-profit
organizations. Management of DOI land should promote private
property rights, while protecting human life, adjacent lands,
rural communities, wildlife and the environment, to produce
raw materials, provide recreation, and reduce eco-colonialism.
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- Don Fife’s Page
(Updated June 6, 2002)
An environmental geologist, Don Fife has served four secretaries
of the interior as an appointee/advisor for the 25-million-acre
California Desert Conservation Area. His incisive topics range
from “Greens Force Strategic Mine Out of Business—Communist
China now controls supply of rare minerals” to
“Locoweed Closes 48,000 Acres of Alogones Dunes
Off-Highway Vehicle Park.”
(Updated February 11, 2002)
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- “Klamath
Basin farmers fall victim to the Endangered Species Act”-Reprinted
by permission from Wyoming Agriculture, June 2001,
published by the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation.
Using the Endangered Species Act this year, the Fish and
Wildlife Service and the Bureau have turned off the water
to protect the shortnose and Lost River suckers, although
they are neither endangered nor harmed by the farmers’
water use.
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- “The Los
Alamos Fire” - Carol W. LaGrasse, reprinted
from Positions on Property, Vol. 5, No. 1 (PRFA, July
2000)
The danger of widespread wildfire caused by federal mismanagement
of government-owned land.
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- “Federal
Landownership and Control” - Robert J. Smith,
Senior Environmental Scholar, Competitive Enterprise Institute,
Washington, DC, from Proceedings of the Fourth Annual N.Y.
Conference on Private Property Rights (PRFA, 1999)
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- Letter to
Honorable Pat Roberts, Chairman, House Agriculture Committee,
from W. L. Harris, Holcomb, Mississippi, September 22, 1995.
This letter describes how rice farmer W. L. Harris, after
recovering from severe financial problems common during the
1980’s, tried to exert his lease back - buyback
rights, but the Farmer’s Home Administration (now
the Farm Services Agency) placed wetlands easements on the
1004 best acres, prohibiting him from doing anything but paying
taxes on the land.
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- “The End
of the Long March-Environmentalism’s Iron Grip”
- Carol W. LaGrasse, excerpted from full article
by that title in Positions on Property, Vol. l, No.
2 (PRFA, May 1994)
This penetrating article presaged the national concern about
the potential for the unlimited power of environmental regulation.
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