Letter: Beware of push to privatize federal lands

By Tony Schoonen - 12/14/2007

In response to Terry Anderson’s Dec. 6 guest opinion dealing with public land user fees, he’s only extolling the corporate side of this issue.

Anderson, a corporate lap dog and promoter of privatizing all public lands and waters, fails to mention that those individuals and companies that are grazing, logging or mining on our public lands are all profiting from these uses. The taxpayers are subsidizing these three industries quite heavily. One needs only to log onto the General Accounting Office in Washington, D.C., to uncover the actual numbers.

Taxpayers also pay for all wages and benefits for state and federal public land employees and all associated management expenses. The vast majority of these taxpayers are also users of public lands who pay camping fees and buy licenses as well as paying taxes on fuel, guns and ammunition, etc.

Anderson also fails to mention that energy leasing should be compared to the highest and best uses for public lands, something the Bureau of Land Management sometimes fails to do. In many cases, wildlife and recreational values far exceed energy values over the long haul. Some areas should be excluded from energy development.

Unfortunately, the failed leadership in Washington, D.C., and the former director of the Department of Interior, Gail Norton, gave energy development the highest priority over other resources. Norton, a disciple of James Watt (father of the Sagebrush Rebellion, a public lands takeover) made the decisions for the BLM.

Anderson should disclose to the public that his right-wing organization’s board of directors is made up largely of corporate heads, not your average recreationist. They push for public land user fees, knowing that some recreationists would be priced out. They want to privatize all national parks, state parks and wildlife refuges.

The public needs to be aware of this philosophy of privatizing all Montana resources because changes are occurring rapidly.

Unfortunately, in the corporate world, profits are the bottom line, not wildlife and recreation, which have been a part of our Montana heritage for decades.

Tony Schoonen, director Public Lands/Water Access Association P.O. Box 2 Ramsay