County officials keep eye on lands group

A movement to have the ownership of Western federal lands turned back over to the states has spilled into western Colorado and caught the eye of Pitkin County officials. The American Lands Council, a Utah-based, politically involved nonprofit organization, has pushed for the transfer of public lands to local stewardship in its home state, and is also sowing the seeds of its vision nationally. But locally, the movement is seen as a concern, being brought up in recent Pitkin County commissioner and open space and trails meetings. Hawk Greenway, an open space board member, attended a Club 20 meeting that Utah Republican Rep. Ken Ivory spoke at in Grand Junction on Dec. 11, concerning the transfer of public lands. Ivory is president of the American Lands Council. “It’s one of those goofy, far-right, tea-party, Sagebrush Rebellion type of things,” Greenway said at Thursday’s open space meeting. “There were 150 people there who were enthusiastic at, what I can only characterize as ... a snake-oil salesman. He was talking about how everything would be the same, only better, if the federal lands were owned by the public.”...more

Those are certainly intelligent and informative comments on the issue.  Also makes you wonder about all those "goofy, far-right" Founding Fathers and early pioneers who made sure those lands were transferred to states situated east of the Mississippi River.  Those guys must have been nuts.

Commissioner Rachel Richards is secretary for Club 20, a conservative-leaning, Western Slope advocacy group, and is familiar with the pitch of the American Lands Council (ALC). It is one she said tends to resonate with many Westerners. “Many Western counties just don’t like the government,” Richards said Saturday. “It’s easy for them to buy into it. … There are way too many unknowns about state management.” But she noted that Pitkin’s board of county commissioners doesn’t support ALC’s mission. “I don’t support that concept. How can we when we don’t know the implications?” Richards said. “They’ve been pushing this item for a long time. …Making the land pay for itself is a lot of snake oil and pie in the sky with a very slick preacher delivering it like it’s gospel.”

Ms. Richards is worried about "unknowns of state management."  That is why the ALC is promoting legislation to have each state do a careful study of the issue and then come to their own conclusion.  If Ms Richards is really wanting answers to those unknowns she should trot up to the state legislature and support legislation that would fund such a study. Or could it be she's afraid of what an objective analysis would find?

And there we go with the snake oil again.  Seems to be a lot of that in Pitkin County, but its not being slung by Ken Ivory.

Richards said she’d like to see environmental groups paying more attention to Ivory’s group, adding that litigation over the issue is a “horrible distraction” for counties and land managers.

Here we have a so-called conservative soliciting environmental groups to keep an eye on the ALC.  They sure grow'em different up there in Colorado.  I'm sure many will find that its her comments that are a "horrible distraction."

I would suggest folks visit the ALC and State of Utah websites, study the documents and reach your own conclusions.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna see if I can't get legislation introduced to make Pitkin County a federal enclave.  That way Richards and Greenway won't be so horribly distracted by such things as prosperity and liberty.

If that doesn't work I'll have to go to my ace in the hole, President Obama.  I'm sure he'd relish designating the entire county a national monument.

Should we call it the Pitiful Pitkin National Monument?

No.  Most appropriate would be...The Snake Oil National Monument.