Legal Funding Another Multiple Use?
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
Since coming to the West over 21 years ago the concept of multiple use for our federally managed lands has been a central, core value that I have been taught to appreciate. The multiple uses these lands provide include recreation, wildlife habitat, livestock grazing, mining, Wilderness and funding for special interest who take advantage of the court system to press their agenda.
While livestock operators are called greedy for their paying grazing fees to use the federally managed lands, the groups who seek to drive livestock grazing (and really any responsible management) out of multiple use resource management believe the courts and public input process is their instant cash machine. As Jeff Faulkner describes here, the big-money pillagers are those who spend their time in the court room taking advantage of the system.
As we’ve seen with the University of Nevada’s and Bureau of Reclamation process of using the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) as a sham operation to give ”evaluated” justification for their politically assigned task of sucking water away from productive use – the advocates who use the NEPA process for raiding the public checkbook for their purposes is another twist of resource management turned upside down. If the public decision process is so choked with abuse as to prevent legitimate evaluation of decisions, consideration of options and in the end the delivery of sound management to the end resource…we are long past the time for meaningful reform.
Since coming to the West over 21 years ago the concept of multiple use for our federally managed lands has been a central, core value that I have been taught to appreciate. The multiple uses these lands provide include recreation, wildlife habitat, livestock grazing, mining, Wilderness and funding for special interest who take advantage of the court system to press their agenda.
While livestock operators are called greedy for their paying grazing fees to use the federally managed lands, the groups who seek to drive livestock grazing (and really any responsible management) out of multiple use resource management believe the courts and public input process is their instant cash machine. As Jeff Faulkner describes here, the big-money pillagers are those who spend their time in the court room taking advantage of the system.
As we’ve seen with the University of Nevada’s and Bureau of Reclamation process of using the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) as a sham operation to give ”evaluated” justification for their politically assigned task of sucking water away from productive use – the advocates who use the NEPA process for raiding the public checkbook for their purposes is another twist of resource management turned upside down. If the public decision process is so choked with abuse as to prevent legitimate evaluation of decisions, consideration of options and in the end the delivery of sound management to the end resource…we are long past the time for meaningful reform.
Posted by Doug Busselman at 11/18/2009 5:50 AM 
Categories: Public Lands
Tags: Legal Funding Abuse Nevada NEPA
Categories: Public Lands
Tags: Legal Funding Abuse Nevada NEPA
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