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USDA official praises open land program
- ‘‘The program has
succeeded beyond our wildest dreams,'' County Commissioner Bill
Murdock said. ‘‘If
you don't want people to develop (their land), then pay them for it.''
... it is an example of the kind of work the
Bush administration is advocating.
(Note: And don't mention that their own taxpayer dollars purchase
the noose with which to hang them. When their children rail at their
parents and/or grandparents for effectively stopping "future
generations" from ever having a chance to build on the family
farm or ranch, explain to them how smart it WASN'T, to make a fast
buck but sell the property rights. Because the rope is new does not
mean that hanging is good for you. Sales pitches to put in place land,
water and people Control Agendas continue to woo those who don't
recognize Red Flags when
they see them. The Trojan Horse is at the gates -- how many will
welcome it, never realizing what's in its tummy until it's too late?
It's not conservation; it's Conned Servation.)
August 23, 2005
By The Associated Press
Belgrade, Montana (AP) - The county's open lands program is getting high praise from a top U.S. Department of Agriculture official, who said it is an example of the kind of work the Bush administration is advocating.
Mark Rey, undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture who
oversees the U.S. Forest Service, praised Gallatin County's
conservation easement program, which has so far set aside about 25,000
acres of farmland to prevent it from being subdivided in the future.
Gallatin County voters have twice approved $10 million in bonds to buy
conservation easements from willing sellers. The Natural Resources and
Conservation Service (NRCS) has chipped in matching funds, as
have other government and private entities. Private groups like the
Trust for Public Land help iron out the details.
‘‘The program has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams,'' County
Commissioner Bill Murdock said. ‘‘If you don't want people to
develop (their land), then pay them for it.''
Rey, who spoke Friday at the site of one of the county's first open
lands projects on the Skinner Ranch north of Belgrade, said the
county's program can serve as a national model of public and private
cooperation in preserving open space.
‘‘It's a prototype,'' Rey said.
‘‘I'd like to highlight it'' in an upcoming seminar on cooperative
conservation in St. Louis.
Development of private land is one of the nation's biggest challenges,
and one that makes other conservation problems even harder to handle,
said Rey, who also oversees the NRCS.
In the 1990s, 3.2 million acres of private land were subdivided, and
the pace is quickening this decade, he said.
As a result, roughly 8.4 million new homes have been built in what
officials call the high-risk ‘‘wildland-urban interface.''
That type of growth ‘‘underscores and exacerbates'' a number of
problems, including the loss of wildlife habitat, disputes over water
rights, degrading water quality, spreading weeds, decreasing
recreational access and complicating firefighting.
‘‘The worst-run ranch is better for the environment than the
best-run subdivision,'' Rey said.
Rey touted federal programs, many of them offered by NRCS, that reward
good ranch stewardship and encourage improvement of rangelands and
water quality.
The programs are meant to ‘‘reward
the best and motivate the rest,'' he said. Funding for such
conservation programs totaled about $1.9 billion in the 2002 federal
farm bill.
Conservation easements, which ban most
development but allow ag to
continue, ‘‘work in concert with private property rights, not in
opposition,'' Rey said.
Information from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com
Copyright 2005, Helena Independent Record.
Related, researched, highly
recommended reading:
Land Conservation Easements, Tax Breaks
Being Investigated
The cost of open space - Efforts to
conserve land raise property rights, affordability, and tax concerns
Related articles (truth has been
pretty much cleansed):
USDA
official praises open land program
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