People Say Conservatives Are Not Conservationists

There is an idea that conservatives do not push environmental or conservation issues, but nothing could be further from the truth.  As a backpacker, sportsman and hiker I am passionate about the outdoors and protecting it.  I do not know of anyone, liberal or conservative, who thinks we should leave a legacy of contaminated earth, air and water.  I watched my father's generation leave a mess in the oilfields, and I have helped my generation begin to clean up those mistakes.

My wife and I bought a property that had been grandfathered into allowing oil waste to be put into the septic system.  We gave up that grandfather privilege and paid $30,000 to clean up the former owner's septic system.  We didn't want that contamination to someday make its way down into the water table.

Liberals and conservatives do differ in their proposed solutions and desired outcomes on conservation.  The designation of wilderness areas is a very good example.  Designating land as a wilderness area is highly restrictive:

• It prohibits the use of mechanized equipment
• It makes it almost impossible to use the area for farming, ranching or other revenue production
• It results in counties with wilderness areas being starved for tax dollars

For example, much of Catron County in New Mexico is in the Gila Wilderness; leaving it with practically no tax base and therefore almost unable to function.  Not too many years ago there were many ranches in the Gila wilderness, today there are none.  Property taxes once funded Catron County but today, no one pays taxes on this land.  Some people don't care about such things.  I do care about the ranchers who lost their livelihoods and the county that struggles to operate.

The endangered species act is another law that reaches far beyond the original purpose.  None of us want to see species become extinct, but environmental extremists want an outcome far different from just preserving a species.

The blunt-nosed shiner is a great example.  This fish can be easily bred, but instead, environmental extremists sued the government using your tax dollars to prevent them from being bred in captivity.  In order to preserve water levels over a huge area of river, they insisted that irrigation canals be closed; destroying farms, killing jobs and taking away more people's way of life.

Sean Hannity highlighted a classic endangered species case in the San Joaquin Valley, reporting that environmentalists chose fish above the 37,500 jobs from that valley which happens to grow nearly a tenth of the vegetables in the US.  Thirty thousand jobs represent every job in the city of Las Cruces.  Where is the sense in eliminating the equivalent of every job in a town the size of Las Cruces?  The judge in the case went right along with the environmentalists who said no to breeding in captivity; no to any win-win proposal and decided to eliminate thousands of jobs at a time when unemployment is the highest since the great depression.

It Gets Worse

• Your taxes go up because you now have to pay welfare and support to those thousands of people out of work.
• Banks weaken as productive farms go bankrupt and can't pay off their loans.
• We import the lost vegetable production from Mexico, since we can't grow them here.
• Mexico allows the use of chemicals that are illegal in the US.
• We open ourselves up to disease and contamination as we saw with peppers and tomatos last year.
• We fire our workers.
• Destroy our economy.
• And - we never really solve the problem, we just outsource it.
• Our whole system weakens.

When I first ran for office, almost every county commission in the 2nd district of New Mexico said we needed to reform the endangered species act - that something created to protect against the extinction of a species had become a weapon, a club used to hurt their counties and communities.  Back in the 1970's the endangered species act was used to "protect" the spotted owl.  They said the spotted owl was losing habitat, so they forced legislation to stop logging in much of the country.  As a result, we killed the timber industry so the owl could have a natural habitat. 

New Mexico had 20,000 jobs in the timber industry, about the same number of jobs as in a town the size of Roswell.

Today We Have 8

Lost: the same number of jobs that exist in Roswell - - -  jobs killed, and we will never get them back without sweeping reform.  We lost a tax base, we lost economic growth and we lost people's livelihoods.

Ironically, the legislation harms the environment rather than helping it.  When we quit logging:

• Trees accumulate in the forest and there just isn't enough rain to support the buildup.
• The trees become spindly, weak and susceptible to diseases; we recently lost almost a million trees to rampant disease around Santa Fe.
• Trees also become dry and vulnerable to fire - in the last decade we have watched as millions of acres of forest, billions of dollars worth of trees just went up in smoke.

Does That Really Benefit The Spotted Owl?

And, as always, in these cases there is the nagging issue of the Constitution.  The 14th amendment prohibits the taking of private property.  But the Constitution is a minor issue to those who have so much more in mind.  They litigate to stop people from trying to keep their water rights - rights on the property they own, and the right to even use the land they own.  This effectively takes their land right out from under them.  If you can't use it, what difference does it make if your name is on the title?

The real intent of the environmental extremist is to stop all agriculture, ranching and farming.  In the very being of the ranchers in Catron County, I see the pain and loss in decent people who were just trying to make a living who have lost the use of their land.

My father never understood the political process.  He just wanted to live a quiet life, farm a few acres, raise some pigs for local 4-H kids and provide for his family.  The ranchers and farmers who have been driven off their land are just like my father.  Their livelihood is being recklessly rubbed out by people who do not care what the consequences are.

Farmers and ranchers are becoming an endangered species in this country.  Maybe it's time to pass a law so that they can use the endangered species act so they can sue to protect themselves and keep their constitutional right to property and their right to use it.  Yes, we need to be responsible land owners, but it's definitely time to bring some accountability back to government and the legal system.  You can be a part of that.  Donate a few bucks or a few minutes and talk with your friends about what is really going on when it comes to these issues.  Join me in taking our country back "for the people."