National Forest for sale??

[Mark]

What ever became of President Bush's scheme to sell of parcels of national forest? It seems like parcels included land in the Irish Wilderness and surrounding areas. Is it possible that all this could take place or already has taken place without much fanfare or public awareness? I don't trust the Bush administration and could see them pulling a fast one on people.

[brownieman]

Good question Mark...the system is so overwhelmed these days it possibly could get lost in the clutter and there's tons of clutter.

Oh yeah...I remember hearing about that...next, out of nowhere it's a done deal.

JMO but would not surprise me in the least...all we will know is when it happens, lol...if were lucky.

bm

[steve l]

Yup, pretty sure the plan was to sell the land to Haliburton.

[Phil Lilley]

There's been postings on this for some time... but haven't seen anything in a while. Brian Sloss was up on this- may be he can shed some light.

[Brian Sloss]

I contacted just about every Mo rep when this was happening and expressed my opposition to the sale of any national forest land and the response I got was that everyone opposed the idea accross party lines and the whole deal died. The only concern I had was that some reps and sen. opposed mainly because Mo didn't get enough of the pie and didn't even mention the idea of protecting our public land for future generations. Which leads me to believe that for the right price they could be swayed and that is worrisome if it ever comes up again. That being said, I think this is a dead issue and there are (I hope) enough people in both parties who simply don't want public lands lost to keep it from coming up again.

[brownieman]

Hope that's right Brian,

Just remember, what we think is going on and what is REALLY going on are often indifferent.

That's where the public have to be the watchdogs...they have to be held accountable by someone and it's apparant often they don't police themselves very well...especially when talking tax dollars.

I feel sometimes so much legislation is being introduced it's a useful tool in sliding things through un-noticed...hopefully, unless caught by someone...better be us cause it's our money and we should be able to attain good feasable reasons of where our monies are spent.

State, Federal level don't matter, there is a genuine lack of accountability. JMO

bm

[jdmidwest]

This has been going on for a couple of years now. They released a list of properties nation wide to be sold off. Most were isolated properties that were not connected to any larger parks or forests. I believe the courts or the governor put a halt to it and it stirred up quit a ruckus. I have not heard from it in a while. I thought the issue had probably been tied up in court.

[Brian Sloss]

A large portion of that land was here in Oregon county and though they said no river front land was on the block, there was land that would have been part of the watershed. It did not get through the house though as I understand it.

[Mark]

Thanks to Brian and others for getting involved and keeping us informed. I don't trust the state or federal governments protecting our forests, public lands, and natural resources. I hope we are kept informed on matters and nothing is ever sold or passed in legislatures without the general public's knowledge, but as many of you also suspect, I wouldn't put anything passed our government.

[OzarkKid07]

Hey guys, this is an interesting conversation that has taken place on this thread, and I don't know if this forum is intended for this kind of discussion, but it's happening so I'm definitely going to express my view. I agree with you guys totally about the tax-dollar comments and not trusting our government etc. etc.. However, there are things we can do and, hoping that you'll all forgive me for taking a soapbox moment, I'd like to share with you what I'M doing currently.

First of all, there's a website called www.fairtax.org that I highly recommend you visit and read. There is also a book called the Fair Tax book. It's an easy read and very informative. I can't recommend it enough. We may not be able to control the "values" of our politicians or what is done with our money (at least not very well), but we can control when we pay taxes and how much we pay under HR25, the FairTax Bill. I won't go into details, but read the book and you'll see what I mean.

Secondly, there's not much we can do to preserve Federal Land if the "government" that "cares" for it wants to sell it. Unless we buy it. That's pretty unfeasible for most of us to even think about, but it is attainable and I am trying to make it even more attainable. I own a business and am working on a way to raise $100,000,000 that will be used to purchase private and public land (as it becomes available) to protect it from those whose values lie in profit only and have no regard for our nation's wildlife and the prestige of the greatest undeveloped land in the world. I won't go into the details of this endeavor either, but depending on the response I get from you guys, I may start my own topic thread in an appropriate place on this site. If y'all are interested in the possibility of people who REALLY care about our country owning it and controlling it, definitely let me know in Private Messages or email me at mjmooney4@gmail.com. I'll share my thoughts and my dreams and maybe we can change things for the better.

"Integrity is the strength to not do what's wrong.

Character is the courage to stand up and do what's right."