| Nature Conservancy does rumor
control at commissioners' meeting Idaho
Errata (RANGE Magazine's TNC 24-page section) (Note from CJ: Thanks to Tom Findley for writing -- and to Range Magazine for publishing -- the great article on the Nature Conservancy. Maybe it will wake up more people to the real agenda of the Nature Conservancy. Of the 14,000 words written on TNC in the spring 2003 issue of RANGE, only a couple of graphs were wrong. Don't let them ignore the other 99%! Here's an explanation from Tim. Pass it on to anyone who is helping spread the word about TNC. Thanks a lot. C. J. Hadley, publisher, RANGE) March 24, 2003 By Tim Findley I owe publisher C.J. Hadley, the readers of Range, and, yes, The Nature Conservancy an apology for the sloppiest blunder of my career in writing that TNC had traded properties in the United States for controlling interests in the Brazilian rainforest. It's not true. The story repeated in our special supplement called 'Nature's Landlord' was a hoax written by the environmentalist Grist Magazine web site as an April Fool joke in 2001. It came across my desk nearly two years later -- without the punch line -- but I have no excuse for taking a short cut without double-checking on something I could too readily assume to be accurate. For more than a decade -- by their own account -- The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has been wrangling ways and means by which to establish control over forests and savannahs in Costa Rica, Columbia, Guatemala, Bolivia, Belize, Panama, and Brazil. Millions of acres of land acquisitions accomplished in various ways, from reductions of national debt to the U.S. government to the swap of properties and outright purchase, have established TNC's authority in the region. In February 2003, for example, General Motors put up a matching grant totaling nearly half a million dollars to purchase more of the 30,000-acre Parana Reserve established in southern Brazil by a $10 million grant from GM to The Nature Conservancy in 2000. Utilizing its dominant Earth Foundation data bank, TNC has absorbed vast regions and scores of indigenous economies under its control and management. A million-and-a-half acres along the border of Panama and Columbia; at least 148,000 acres in Brazil; 260,000 acres of Belize -- a fourth of that nation's total land area -- that TNC says is now protected from conversion to agriculture; and completion of a half-million-acre-portion of Guatemala comprising the largest 'cloud forest' in Central America and requiring the relocation of indigenous people to a new farm managed by TNC, are just a few examples. Early in 2003 the influence of 'Nature's Landlord' led to the introduction in the U.S. Congress of the Tropical Forest Conservation Bill, offering to forgive $400 million in debt to the United States in exchange for agreements by Third World countries to save rain forests designated by TNC and offshoot conservation groups. Even other environmentalists worry that such 'debt for nature' swaps might actually open the countries involved to further resource exploitation and undermine the democratic efforts of indigenous people to achieve self-determination. I went wrong in by buying a hoax that made it all seem simpler, but it doesn't change the essential fact that 'Nature's Landlord' is intent on acquiring all the land and power it can to establish the 'nonprofit' groups authority over life on this planet. Nobody elected them, and nobody elected appointed them to act in your name with your money for that purpose. Most Americans, even most politicians, donut even know who they are. When you make a stupid mistake like I did, its justifiable that anything else in the piece should be questioned. The credibility of my reporting and of the magazine is put at risk. So I am also sensitive to the reaction of readers who insist that their relationship with TNC has been not only beneficial, but comforting in securing a ranching future that is nowhere near what I suggested as being 'something like Chicago.' In that regard, I still say that in the Chicago I have in mind, most everybody loved Al Capone. Maybe somebody needs TNC, but I'm still not clear on why. The answer is always that TNC 'saves' land from being lost to development or resource extraction. It can't be that 'Nature's Landlord' is destroying heritage and culture at the same time that it is preserving those very values for future generations. What is objectionable and dangerous about TNC is the arrogance with which they presume to decide what will be destroyed and what will be saved. Their unaccountable power to use surrogate authority such as the Endangered Species Act and bureaucracies such as U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to force conditions of sale on small landowners amounts to a form of extortion. When TNC is the only 'willing buyer,' you can bet it has already done its work in spoiling and threatening the rest of the market as well as the ³willing sellers² themselves. Even if it is usually a fair price paid, it is often the only option left for bedraggled owners, many of whom see themselves as sacrificing the work and dreams of generations of their own families. To The Nature Conservancy, that is mere sentimental collateral damage necessary to the ideology of transforming western ranching culture in particular. What TNC gives back to us or to our future generations is purely a matter to be decided by the secretive organization itself. What ³we² get for this is an amuck gang of elitists and power brokers unrestrained by even so much as property taxes and yet presuming to dictate policy on fundamental rights to property itself. If it was a private cartel, or a conglomerate, or a mega real estate group, The Nature Conservancy would be under far greater legal scrutiny. Yet so many Americans remain willing simply to ³trust² the monster in its category of ³charity² to decide what is in our best interest. Maybe in the end we are all so uncertain of our own democratic abilities that we need some kind of ³Godfather² to help us with decisions about our own property. I blew it on Brazil, and I apologize, but I hope the point is not lost. The Nature Conservancy must be brought under control. ===== Nature Conservancy does rumor control at commissioners' meeting (Idaho) March 20, 2003 By Todd Adams http://www.challismessenger.com/staff.html#anchor328360 Custer Publishing, Inc. P.O. Box 405 Challis, Idaho 83226 208-879-4445 Fax: 208-879-5276 To submit a Letter to the Editor: peggy@challismessenger.com Geoff Pampush, director of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) of Idaho, and Lou Lunte, director of conservation programs, met with the Custer County Commissioners March 10 to try to dispel rumors about TNC's motives in assisting the county to develop a "land package" that would turn some federal land over to private ownership as part of legislation Rep. Mike Simpson is considering to protect the Boulder-White Clouds, possibly as wilderness. Meanwhile, local TNC-paid consultants Mike Larkin and Falma Cullinane told the commissioners they have begun work on the land package, with plans to first identify federal lands that are in "trespass" status, where local ranchers and landowners are using portions of federal lands adjacent to their private property. TNC envisions turning those and other federal lands to private use, thus increasing Custer County's tax base and perhaps creating a multimillion dollar "trust fund," the interest of which could be used for local economic development including aid to county schools suffering budget cuts. Magazine article Pampush presented the commissioners with a copy of a spring 2003 Range Magazine article attacking TNC, and said the article is "not credible" and represents the "wildest attack on TNC we as an organization have ever experienced." Pampush told the commissioners that Range Magazine printed as fact an April 1, 2002, online April Fools' story that claims TNC now owns six-sevenths of the Amazon Basin after trading for two million acres of TNC-owned land in Nebraska. "We own no land in the Amazon," Pampush said, adding that unfortunately, landowners in the West heard this April Fools' story and believed it. TNC's values are "very much rooted in respect of private property," Pampush told the commissioners, adding TNC "promptly fired" a state director in 1984 after he wrote a letter to a private landowner hinting that TNC might write to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to have the private land condemned for conservation. TNC's board of governors expects the conservation group to respect private property rights in its dealings, Pampush said. TNC has a history of purchasing private property and turning it over to the federal government or purchasing conservation easements to prevent development and loss of wildlife habitat on private property. Relationship with county Pampush said he wants to focus on TNC's relationship with Custer County. TNC has proposed acting as a facilitator between the commissioners and Rep. Mike Simpson's office, getting both economic development benefits to the county and the land package written into legislation protecting the Boulder-White Clouds. If the effort succeeds, it could serve as a model to be duplicated throughout the West, Pampush said. TNC and WWP Commissioner Cliff Hansen asked Pampush if TNC has any interest in the ranch near the mouth of the East Fork of the Salmon purchased by Western Watersheds Project (WWP) as its Greenfire Preserve. Pampush said no, adding that TNC is "the object of scorn" from WWP and other environmental groups "because we are willing to work with ranchers and keep them on the ground." By contrast, WWP and other groups have stated they want to end livestock grazing on federal allotments, contending grazing harms wolves and the habitat of endangered fish species. WWP has criticized TNC for its management of the TNC-owned 45 Ranch in the Owyhees of southwest Idaho. TNC continues to graze cattle on the ranch and its federal grazing allotments, and WWP has held TNC up as an example of "destroying public land," Pampush said. TNC wants to take a chance in working with Custer County, Pampush said. "We're not working with any wilderness advocates," including the Idaho Conservation League, Pampush told the commissioners, although TNC has contacts with other environmental groups. "We're working with you." TNC will develop the land package under the commissioners' guidance, Pampush said, emphasizing that both TNC and Rep. Simpson's office know that nothing will fly without the commissioners' approval. Hansen asked if Pampush could provide written documentation of its lack of interest in the East Fork ranch and its conflicts with other environmental groups. Pampush said yes. "We'd appreciate it," Hansen said. "We've gotten a lot of flack from people for just talking to you." "I was impressed you [TNC] owned the Amazon Basin," Hansen joked. "I thought, 'Boy, this is a neat outfit.'" Hansen said he also wanted written documentation of a situation in Nevada, where TNC supposedly pressured a rancher so much to sell his land that he committed suicide. Hansen said he wanted something in writing to prove TNC's dealings involve willing sellers and willing buyers. "I second that," Commission Chairman Lin Hintze said. Conserve the land Pampush said TNC's interest in Custer County and other rural areas is to conserve some land in the best ecological condition, but to work with local communities in the process. Idaho is one of the "last great opportunities" to keep large private ranches intact and prevent development from destroying fish and wildlife habitat, Pampush said. Hintze said that he's "greedy" and wants land, not just cash for land, because down the road, the money could run out. "I want both," Hintze said-more land into private ownership to increase Custer County's tax base and land for county projects. In the past, the commissioners have mentioned the need for landfills and for low-income housing near Stanley. Hintze told Pampush he's had trouble getting appointments to lobby Democratic senators and congressmen in Washington about Custer County's problem-more than 96 percent of the land is federal, but federal payment in lieu of taxes (PILT) funds that were meant to compensate for the lost property tax base have been cut drastically. "Can you get me in to present that to them?" Hintze asked Pampush, who replied TNC is nonpartisan, but would try. Legislation to change the PILT formula to benefit rural counties would help get Simpson's proposed package passed in Congress, Hintze said. http://www.challismessenger.com/newspgs/320rumor.html Please send Tim Findley and C.J. Hadley a note of thanks for their great 24-page special on 'nature's realtor' -- and also for their bigness in acknowledging an error. Heck, the way things are going with TNC, that 'April Fool's joke' misinformation could well come true! RANGE magazine - CJ Hadley P.O. Box 639 Carson City, NV 89702-0639 800-RANGE4U (800-726-4348) 775-884-2200 Fax: 775-884-2213 |