Help Protect Public Land

In response to the Herald Journal article (linked above), the local radio station on last nights talk program, KVNU's "For The People", covered the Cache County Council donation as well as the fallacy of the entire land-grab idea.

The quote on their facebook page teasing the story is, "County Exec Craig Buttars defends the county council pouring out $10,000 for membership in Rep. Ivory's ALC, a "plan" budget analysts deemed financially unsustainable..."

There was also a well-written Letter to the Editor in today's paper from a hunter rejecting the donation and the land-grab in general. I'm hoping to see more in coming days.

Hopefully this is the beginning of a movement that will educate the rest of us as to exactly what this land grab will accomplish... the unavoidable loss of public land.

Please contact your elected officials and let them know where you stand and that they are picking a fight not with an individual, but with a way of life. As I keep repeating... please write Letters to the Editor of your newspaper of choice. The point here is to keep the discussion in the public forum, and Letters to the Editor are a great way to do that. They also serve to let the mainstream media know it is an important subject and one worth covering.

Thanks to all those who have sent PMs voicing their support and especially thanks to those that have stood up for what they believe in and contributed to the effort by talking to their buddies and writing letters to elected officials and newspapers.

We still have a lot of work to do but I wanted to let you know what Randy Newberg said yesterday, "You, and others in Utah, have done a great job of raising awareness of what your politicians are up to. If you had told me a year ago that the passive media of Utah would take on this topic and raise the volume, I would have doubted it very much. Kudos to you and others. You are making a difference."
Let's keep it up guys. Preserving our hunting heritage may very well depend on it.

Herald Journal Editorial - 12/3/15

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OUR VIEW

Let’s talk a bit about the Cache County Council’s decision to financially support the American Lands Council, an organization that is spearheading the fight to have federal property turned over to states.

The County Council has reportedly made payments totaling $10,000 to maintain a “silver membership” in the organization led by Utah Rep. Ken Ivory, R-West Jordan. When contacted by The Herald Journal for an article in Sunday’s newspaper, County Executive Craig Buttars defended the expenditure, saying the county supports “the organization’s stance against the federal government’s overreach.”

Obviously, Buttars didn’t mean everyone in the county supports the cause, just the county’s elected leaders, but that’s among concerns raised by a number of local residents after learning of the situation. Since when, they are asking, has county government spoken for the whole community on a divisive national issue of this kind?

And since when has there been any expectation that local tax dollars be devoted to causes outside the purview of the government entity collecting those taxes?

Since never.

Forget for a minute the issue at hand — control of public lands. And let’s even overlook the controversy surrounding Rep. Ivory’s $95,000 salary for running the nonprofit American Lands Council. It doesn’t matter what the issue or organization is.

Local government simply shouldn’t be spending taxpayers’ dollars on any advocacy organization, be it the ALC, the NRA, NOW, Green Peace, PITA, you name it.

So here’s a simple solution for any local political leaders wanting to support any such organizations. Reach into your own pockets. That way you won’t have to face any more criticism of this kind, and you should sleep a little better to boot.
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