Posted on 07/27/2007 7:14:05 PM PDT by george76
Lawyers for media mogul Ted Turner persuaded a district judge to issue a restraining order blocking Gallatin County from paving a five-mile stretch of road that runs through Turner's sprawling Flying D Ranch south of here.
Attorneys for Turner Enterprises Inc. obtained the order from District Judge John Brown. It bars the county from paving a segment of Spanish Creek Road.
Commissioners said the county has been planning to pave the road for years.
To save money, the county was planning to use millings - essentially ground-up rubble from other road projects - provided by the Montana Department of Transportation to pave the road.
Joe Barr Coleman, an attorney representing Turner, said they sought the restraining order that was issued Monday because the millings could endanger water quality in Spanish Creek, which runs parallel to the road.
Commission Chairman Joe Skinner said the county has never had any violations or complaints about water quality from past road projects that used millings.
A meeting between the county and Turner's representatives last Friday left both Skinner and Commissioner Steve White with the impression everything was basically all right, White said.
"There was no mention of this action, there was no mention of anything about water quality," White said. "This whole thing is just a big surprise."
(Excerpt) Read more at billingsgazette.net ...
Liberals hate it when their exhalted personal elite liberalism is offended by the little people.
The gravel road carries about 450 vehicles a day, making it a prime candidate for paving. It also generates more than 200 hours of work a year for county road maintenance crews, work that would be reduced considerably by paving, White said.
Unfortunately, the county’s cost to pave a road with asphalt is about $120,000 a mile, compared to about $20,000 a mile using millings. Without millings, the road will likely never be paved, White said.
Ted does not want any little people around...unless they are there to serve him.
Why doesn’t TT offer to pay for the asphalt paving or else STFU. Typical left-wing elitist bozo.
If it were up to me that SOB would pay to have it paved in gold.
I wish we had the money to explore this further. It would be ahoot if Turner’s reasoning was personal and nothing about water “quality”...
Hey Ted, what about all that cable and wires for your broadcasting companies..Not only did it tear up natural habitats to lay wire but what do you do with the old cable? Probably just throw it out in some land dump.
Libs are such egotistical phonies! Ha.
Did Ted every pay that $ One Billion to the UN ?
A rich arrogant hypocrite and an ignorant judge = intolerable stupidity.
Ted Turner, how is he relevant today, in the general scheme of things? He should just go into senility with serenity. Dreaming of his sexual exploits (gag) with Hanoi Jane should keep his mind busy until death.
Of course his real reasons are personal. He doesn’t want the road paved at all, because paving will attract more traffic and increase land values because of easier access.
He prefers to buy it up as cheaply as possible and/or discourage discourage development.
Anybody got an address?
I don’t know. I don’t believe so. He spent a lot of dough founding the United Nations Foundation, which he runs. But that’s completely different from giving the UN a billion dollars.
This is pathetic! He’s using the enviros tactics and this moonbat judge is going along with it.
If they haven’t had a problem with millings polluting in the past I don’t see where those millings will all of a sudden start polluting.
You can bet your last buck that’s not the real reason Turner’s against it.
But neighbors and other critics say Turner has an odd way of demonstrating his concern for nature on his own land:
* Six of his ranches are world-class sporting destinations that charge up to $4,000 per person for big-game hunts. The CNN founder has sponsored elite bison hunts at $10,500 per person and erected “killer fences” that snare and torture migrating wildlife.
* The exploration for natural gas on the pristine Vermejo Park ranch in New Mexico is expected to net more than $80 million in royalties for the Turner clan during the next 20 years, according to Forbes magazine.
* He ordered the topmost 10 feet of a Montana ridge to be “shaved” by bulldozers, according to The Guardian, so he “could see the Spanish Peaks mountain range reflected in his trout pond.”
Ordinarily such behavior would draw howls of protest and legal action from a broad range of environmental groups. But critics of Turner’s stewardship say he largely escapes repercussions for such activities because the media mogul is one of the environmental movement’s most generous benefactors, donating millions to the cause. Indeed, environmental groups’ nickname for Turner is “Daddy Greenbucks.”
in December 2001, a judge blocked a U.S. Forest Service plan to salvage timber from destructive wildfires in 2000 even as a Turner ranch began salvaging timber burned by the same fires. The projects are different because one was on private property and the other on public property, says Miller. Turner’s project, he adds, is endorsed by the Nature Conservancy.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_7_18/ai_83553863/pg_3
Thanks to a land swap, Montana commoners will no longer be able to hunt, fish or hike on state lands nestled deep within the private kingdom of media mogul Ted Turner ...
Turner didn’t like uninvited guests invading the Flying D Ranch southwest of Bozeman, Mont., so he offered the state a deal it couldn’t refuse.
Sportsmen who didn’t like the deal challenged it in court. One of the main complaints was the loss of fishing opportunities on several prized streams. But District Judge Thomas Honzel approved the exchange in late October, acknowledging that it would not please everyone.
http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=2920
Ted's buying up water rights. He doesn't want his asset spoiled.
“his mind busy until death”? Only a couple of minutes worth. At least with Hanoi Jane.
ROFL!
Don't know but it was $1.25 billion.
What do you expect from a father of five who is for population control?
He has a double standard for everything ?
Thanks.
I knew it was a big number and like most of Ted’s promises...he broke it.
Ted Turner ought to die and go to noxious geezer heaven. That’s a bit south of the regular heaven, and a lot hotter!
george,
Thanks for this ping.
I have seen these “conservation” groups up close and their mission. I covered some stories here about this issue in the early 1990s. I also attended some meetings where the public was shut out, and some private “environmental” groups and federal/state employees set the policy for the public use of public lands/streams, policy that later showed up in state regulations.
Best areas of the best trout streams were designated “trophy” trout waters, then regulations established that basically outlawed everything but dry fly fishing.
Then, the people (organizations)who looked down on the “lowly” bait angler, destroyer of the streams,” went about buying up prime land on the stream. Several stories and attention finally roused up enough average outdoor enthusiasts, and these “trophy trout zones” eventually were abolished.
If the everyday anglers and hunters don’t get their ducks in a row, they will be shut out of the public lands they paid for.
Sportsmen, conservationists join forces to protect prized trout habitat in NC and TN; SELC Press Release 6/28
Press Release
June 28, 2007
>
Sportsmen, conservationists join forces to protect prized trout habitat in NC and TN
Groups to sue Forest Service for mismanagement of
off-road vehicle area.
DJ Gerken, SELC Attorney
828-258-2023
Representing:
>
Trout Unlimited
Kirk Otey, 704-301-2627
>
Tennessee Council, Trout Unlimited
George Lane, 865-414-1527
>
PEER, Tennessee Chapter
Barry Sulkin, 615-313-7066
>
Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project
Chris Joyell, 828-337-6927
>
For permission to use this and other photos of Tellico
Trails, contact Cat McCue, cmccue @ selcva.org, or
> 434-977-4090
>
> Asheville, NC - The U.S. Forest Service is violating
> multiple federal and state laws - and its own
> regulations - in failing to prevent mud from severely
> eroded off-road vehicle trails from polluting streams
> in the Tellico River watershed in the Nantahala
> National Forest in North Carolina and Cherokee
> National Forest in Tennessee, sportsmen and
> conservation groups said in a letter today to the
> agency.
Muddy runoff in the Tellico watershed is
> devastating one of the last, best strongholds for
> native brook trout, a native species in decline in the
> two states.
>
> The Tellico Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) area, located in
> the Nantahala National Forest in the headwaters of the
> upper Tellico River, is one of the largest and most
> heavily used ORV areas on public lands in the
> Southeast. The area has twice as many designated ORV
> trails as allowed by the Forest Service’s own plan -
> not counting innumerable illegal trails. The agency
> has also documented dozens of stretches where trails
> are within 100 feet of streams - again, contrary to
> its own rules. Years of heavy use have turned many of
> Tellico’s ORV trails into massive ditches, some more
> than seven feet deep. In wet conditions, these eroded
> trails turn into ditches that send muddy water
> directly into nearby creeks and streams, violating
> state and federal water laws.
>
> Sportsmen and conservation groups have repeatedly
> asked the Forest Service to rein in damaging ORV
> traffic, but the agency has taken little effective
> action. In their letter today, the groups - the North
> Carolina and Tennessee Councils of Trout Unlimited,
> Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
> (PEER), and the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity
> Project - notified the Forest Service of their intent
> to sue for repeated violations of the Clean Water Act
> and other laws.
>
> “The Forest Service has come up short in taking
> decisive action to fix this problem. We are letting
> them know that the law is unambiguous - water quality
> and mountain trout come first,” said DJ Gerken, staff
> attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center,
> which represents the groups. Gerken said the Tellico
> issue is a bellwether for how the agency handles
> growing ORV use throughout the Southeast.
>
> “With ORV use on public lands growing rapidly and our
> water resources at a premium, it’s imperative the
> Forest Service gets on top of these problems now.”
>
> “The Tellico flows into Tennessee, bringing sediment
> with it,” said Tennessee PEER Director Barry Sulkin,
> the former Chief of Enforcement and Compliance for the
> Tennessee Division of Water Pollution Control. “The
> streams running out of the Tellico area have 100 times
> more mud in them than similar streams unaffected by
> ORV use.”
>
> “Trout Unlimited has worked cooperatively with the
> Forest Service in many ways over the years in North
> Carolina and Tennessee, and a lawsuit is a
> conservation tool of last resort for us, but we will
> not stand down when the agency allows destruction of
> some of the most valuable brook trout habitat in the
> region,” said Kirk Otey, Vice Chairman of the TU Board
> of Trustees, from Charlotte, NC.
>
> The groups are calling on the Forest Service to
> permanently close the most environmentally damaging
> trails, and temporarily close the entire system in the
> wettest months. This option was considered by the
> agency in a recent evaluation of the trail system, but
> ultimately rejected by the Forest Supervisor who,
> without conducting the requisite environmental review,
> implemented only a seasonal closure of a few of the
> worst trails in the four wettest months of the year,
> and took no action to address problems throughout the
> rest of the eroded trail system.
>
> The federal agency, at times in partnership with ORV
> users, has over the years installed culverts, ditches,
> sediment traps and water bars, and conducted other
> trail projects. But, as the agency’s own studies show,
> these erosion-control projects are improperly
> designed, poorly maintained, and often fail due to
> heavy ORV use.
>
> In their letter today, the groups say the Forest
> Service is in violation of the Clean Water Act, the
> National Environmental Policy Act, the National Forest
> Management Act, the North Carolina Sedimentation
> Pollution Control Act, and myriad federal and state
> regulations. In addition, the groups’ letter states
> that:
>
> * The almost 40 miles of designated trails in the
> roughly 6 to 7 square-mile system exceed the maximum
> density of trails allowed by the Forest Plan by 200%.
> * The agency’s own studies reveal that streams
> affected by the Tellico ORV trails have 100 times more
> mud in them than unaffected streams of similar
> characteristics.
> * The Nantahala National Forest management plan
> says ORV trails should provide “easy to moderate
> levels of challenge.” But ORV users have rated at
> least half of the Tellico trails as difficult or
> highly difficult, attracting the biggest
> ground-disturbing off-road vehicles.
>
> http://www.southernenvironment.org/newsroom/2007/06_tellico_orv_60-day.htm
What a jack@$$ ! Outsiders especially east coast types come in and start dictating to the locals. I wonder if he is a resident of Montana such as driver’s license, plates for his cars, pay income tax ? If he isn’t, he should STFU !
These ‘watermelons’ are very successful in kicking us off of our public lands.
Their clever lawyers pull one rug at a time. No this, then no the other...soon the whole forest is closed to everyone and every activity.
The ‘land of many uses’ is gone.
sad.
"Mr. Turner continues to serve as the charity's chairman and remains committed to giving the full $1-billion he pledged.
"As the partnership approach has blossomed, he has been giving about half of the $100-million a year he at first intended and now expects to pay off the pledge by 2013, several years after his original plan.
The charity's leaders say the decision was not made in response to Mr. Turner's stock-market losses.
Ted Turner is the largest private land owner in the USA.
.
I doubt that Ted could come up with $1 billion in cash, but whatever he has is more than enough to buy the kind of “justice” he wants.
I wonder how the little liberal people feel who don’t have any money?
That’s right. This guy is never going to heaven.
In my experience as a pavement engineer, millings provide much better long-term strength for a road structure than does standard gravel. The asphalt coating make the material less likely to be affected by water, and helps the gravel bind together.
We’ve used it here over a single-source aquifer for drinking water with no problems. The material is very stable - at least as stable (as far as leaching) as the road it came from.
For all TTs enviroblather, he should be welcoming the use of this. It cuts down on the dust raised from traffic on a gravel road (and the need to oil the road to cut down the dust). This is recycling at its finest. The millings don’t have to landfilled when used as road base.
And the maintenance savings can be applied elsewhere in the county.
Thanks for that info on the millings, it sounds reasonable and it only has plusses, like you say it’s recycling at it’s finest.
TT has to have an angle that for some reason the paving of the road would cost him in whatever he intends to use the land for. The guy has so much money he’s used to buying off people and getting just exactly what he wants.
This has nothing to do with water quality . Turner’s free ranging Bison herd is not covered by Montana’s Open Range Law. In Montana, if you hit a cow or horse on a county road, you, the driver, are responsible and must pay for the animal. Pigs, sheep, and bison are not covered by the law and Ted was not able to get the law changed.
Ted is liable if anyone hits a bison on his ranch and he refuses to fence.
That’s the real reason he doesn’t want the road paved.
MY BAD.
From the Montana code:
“Livestock” means cattle, sheep, swine, horses, mules, and goats.
But Bison are still excluded.
The usual liberal garbage “Do as I say, not as I do.”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.