Terry, the reason some of the public
land (the parts that wild horses usually live upon) is not in private ownership
is 1) it was too poor quality to be homesteaded in the first place, so the
government took it and put it into, primarily, BLM control, and 2) now that it
is in government hands, it is not for sale. Furthermore, every time I see
a sign that says BLM or Forest Service with "This is YOUR land", I think, "Yes,
but it is controlled by YOU (the government agencies)" and it is beyond the
public's reach for any kind of decisions. I've attended many meetings that
give lip service to public input, and in the end, the controlling government
agency calls the shots. I've seen firsthand, government agencies set
fires, supposedly cleansing; remove roads, one of which was a remote community's
secondary escape route in case of wildfire and to which they had a deeded right
of way; and close off land that the agency felt people should not have
access to. One good thing that BLM allows is controlled grazing,
because such use keeps invasive brush and weeds to a minimum.
We have a BLM presence in our area
for the first time in history. We're hoping they handle the land with some
degree of common sense. Presently, there is grazing, but otherwise the
land is NOT open to "us,the owners of the land". We are also hoping
that in time, they will allow a plan to develop riding trails, which certainly
can be compatible with grazing, but when that will happen, no one knows.
The wheels of bureaucracy grind ever so slowly. I feel certain you will
understand that some of us are more cynical than others, and why.
Excuse me, It is not OK to misquote/slander people on
this site. I responded to a totally fabricated statement about me personally
"we need to kick everybody off of it, according to you."
because nowhere did I say/imply these words. Then came
the quote "The land belongs to ALL of us." Well, that was the
original topic. And I have a right to the opinion that to me, that
means we should all have the right to control it. If only a
few are going to control it, then that is not
really "everyone's" land. But I did not mention anything about
loggers, miners, hikers or anyone else being "kicked off" our
land. Cattle was the only thing mentioned ~ because it entails fencing
and affects wildlife management (not just mustangs). Some people felt that
the excess/public land in our country could be better managed by private
enterprise, I asked rhetorically, why not SELL the public land to private
enterprise so there would not be the issue of managing/controlling it. That is
a legitimate topic of discussion, especially to endurance riders who might be
interested in wilderness preservation.
Then these two conflicting
quotes were made, again, neither by me,
"oh,
yeah--don't ride on it either, then--" "you can't just claim it for YOUR
use as a rider-"
So which am I supposed to be saying?
don't ride on public lands ~ or ~ only riders can use public
lands?
It seems like someone just likes to argue, because the
"discussion" was not even understood.
CC: ebeyrider@xxxxxxxxxxx; ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx From:
lynne@xxxxxxxxxx To: heidi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: [RC] Our
land Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:27:41 -0700
All, righty now-- stop it
please. Terry, stop pulling quotes out of context. And Carrie,
reacting to a message that was addressed to Terry makes you look bad.
Can we just GIVE IT A REST? The whole wild horse thing? Geez,
once a year oughta be enough but we JUST did this! I'd rather see
packing pistols, loose dogs, or even GENERATORS than this--we're not gonna
solve it here, and there are plenty of other discussion sites for this!
Lynne
who admits to being grumpy because riding at all hurts too much
Terry, the land belongs to ALL of us. That means riders,
ranchers, loggers, miners, hikers, EVERYBODY. You can't just claim it
for YOUR use as a rider--we ALL have a right to use it wisely. We are
ALL members of the public--and those who make a living on public land (and
pay for the privilege of doing so) also serve the WHOLE public by what they
produce.
By what magic is YOUR preferred use of OUR land more "right" than the
uses to which it is put by other members of the public who "own" it just as
much as you do?
Heidi
(who not only rides on public lands, but also uses the products that
are produced there by other members of the PUBLIC who "owns" it--as does
Terry, even though she apparently isn't willing to admit
it)
Oh, yeah--don't ride on it either, then--after all, it's "our" land, and
we need to kick everybody off of it, according to you.
Huh??? Where
did you pull that from? Riding on "our" land is what weshouldbe able to do! Why do you ride
endurance, if not for the wild erness experience?
