Posted on 02/12/2003 2:40:21 PM PST by yoe
"Twelve million acres in the U.S., an area the size of Switzerland, is controlled by the The Nature Conservancy"
The most shocking exposé in America today is in a new publication from RANGE magazine. In "Nature's Landlord," investigative reporter Tim Findley explores "the world's most powerful environmental group, The Nature Conservancy." Findley calls TNC "the monster we made from indifference" and shows how it has carefully and methodically achieved global power on a scale few could imagine. He traces the history of the TNC from its modest origins to its current status as a behemoth with nearly $3 billion (tax-exempt) and worldwide control of some 90 million acres. Twelve million acres in the U.S., an area the size of Switzerland, is controlled by the TNC.
"Nature's Landlord" is not just a compendium of facts and figures. It is a masterpiece of brilliant writing that will fascinate readers. You'll meet "the shyly informed college boy in his neatly pressed blue work shirt" who insinuated his way into the heart of a small community. His real goal was to "seek weaknesses"-people who could be pressured into selling off their land. The TNC admits that it "helps the government get around the problem of local opposition" to property acquisition. TNC, cloaked in environmental benevolence, buys "these properties when they need to be bought, so that at some point we can become willing seller" to the government. As one 75-year-old rancher and poet said, "I had no choice, really. They [the TNC] bought everything around me. I'm just tired of fighting with 'em." The "college boy" who watched her lose her home is now the head of TNC in California.
Ranches across the West have fallen into the hands of TNC "like overripe fruit dropping from a shaken tree." On Virginia's Eastern Shore there was once a sustainable system of food production and ecology, but TNC changed all that. Operating covertly under a variety of names, TNC "saved" the area, putting a largely minority labor force out of work, deepening the scourge of poverty in the area. The "saved" islands were "served with opulent showplaces built for rich clients, all unaffordable to the people of the Eastern Shore."
Findley exposes many more instances of TNC's "outrageous contradictions and sad lies." He points to the mineral, gas and oil rights acquired by TNC under the guise of "saving" lands. For instance, TNC "saved" an endangered bird only to pump at least $5.5 million worth of oil and gas royalties, so far, from beneath its habitat. A million acres of timberland in Maine and New Hampshire are logged by TNC. A swath of American land larger than the state of Delaware was traded to a foreign power without a word from the American press and public. Two million acres of TNC land in the United States was swapped to the government of Brazil in exchange for Amazon rainforest.
It's not just member contributions that sustain TNC. Its chairman says trolling for 25-buck members is wasted effort. Appealing to wealthy corporations is "just a greater return." Besides, between 1995 and 2000, TNC raked in more than $32 million from the U.S. government-your tax dollars at work.
A report by professional ecologist Jeff Goodson on "The Network," describes a system of data centers with nearly 300 centers worldwide that collect and dispense biodiversity data, and include support for land-use planning, environmental impact assessment and endangered species management. Tax dollars and wealthy foundations supported TNC's program that has become "an environmental espionage and land-targeting program" that "collaborates closely" with the federal government.
It is future generations we should be concerned about, Findley writes. We need to bring "some accountability to a small group of people with grossly exaggerated power and authority over fundamental elements of a free society."
Copies of the 24-page, 4-color report "Nature's Landlord" are available from the RANGE (1-800-726-4348) while supplies last. Copies of RANGE magazine including "Nature's Landlord" are also available.
Paragon America is a rural advocacy non-profit organization.
Yes, we know your post was demagogic propaganda.
The TNC is the principle player in manipulating the value of the residential real estate market to benefit big developers. They usually get their land from its owners as a last desperate effort to avoid Federal takeover, whether by regulatory means or estate taxes. The price they pay is that of a distressed sale, under the threat of regulatory action, the prospect of which they often foment themselves by colluding with agency personnel. They then turn around and sell the land back to the agency for a profit (or to developers), assuring future revenue for both TNC and agency with your tax dollars! It's basic tax-exempt racketeering.
Further, the land that ends up "preserved" is then taken out of production forever. No taxes are derived by local government, which then becomes dependent upon increasing urban development. As the retirees and bureaucrats move in, the demographics totally change, as do the politics. Land use decisions then more often reflect political values and interests than objective science.
You see, neither the TNC nor the government are very good stewards. I know you may not believe that (and I was once with you in believing that they did good work), but you would hate learn what the rangelands they have taken over look like now (unless you think thousands of acres of saltcedar is a good thing). TNC is continuing to demphasize its operational land management side by policy (and its CEO has put that in writing). Such takeovers may have pleased their financial supporters who are exporting the cattle business to South America, but it wasn't good for the land. Best you learn the facts and (more importantly) what the alternatives might be, before you so vehemently assert their beningn intent, or their innocence.
Is that what you wanted Jeff?
That's not how it works, and that's not what it's for. The Slave Party doesn't give a hang who hands out the favors as long as they control how it's done.
We generously & carelkessly fund our leftist enemies, propagandisits agaqinst capitalism, & free markets, and freedom (like NPR, which is campaigning shamelessly full-time against Bush administration -- and war with Saddam),
--- especially the radical-envoiros with tax dollars ---
& heretofore the GOP Senate & House & the administration seem to lack the vigilance an political WILL to END this travesty.
However, that may be CHANGING (slowly) with the Bush administration, (e.g,. Mitch Daniels at OMB), and a few vigilant members of Congress.
Wow! These people are just thieves committing themselves to the destruction of industries and of people's livelihood.
In todays world, it is easy to say that they should have not gotten into bed with the Feds at all ... and in todays world that would be absolutely correct. But a hundred years ago feelings, trust and conditions were different in this regard.
You also do not understand the west and its agriculture. Much of the land is very fetile, supportable and very productive. It just needs water. The water comes in the mountains each year in the winter in the form of snow and can be stored behind dams for summer use fairly easily. This was happening long before the federal government got involved ... the Mormon Pioneers and other western pioneers are good examles of this.
There is definite fleecing going on as respects agriculture in our nation ... and in many other areas as the socialization continues. The way agriculture has been regulated and in some areas subsdidized is not the American way ... and it has to stop.
But irrigation projects, particularly those that were designed from the get go to be paid off and privatized and run privately are not part of the fleecing. Most of the farmers in the Klamath Basin are small, individual farmers who are eaking out a living on the land with the water that they have paid for, and that was originally stored in Klamath Lake for that purpose.
Until you get out here and meet some of these folks and understand their issues ... and what the real bottom line is ... all of the statements about agriculture being unsupportable in such a basin are not much more than a mouthing of the liberal/environmental mantra IMHO.
Thinking that most western agriculture exists only because eastern taxpayers are being fleeced for it is just as unsupportable. As I said, irrigiation was happening out here long before the Federal govenment got involved. Had their involvement remained true to such projects as the Klamath Basin project, where farmers paid for the construction costs and were supposed to have the system privatized, we would not have these types of problems today ... but the eastern and western politicians and their appointed administrators got too power hungry IMHO.
Anyhow, you are feel to free however you wish. I am sorry that your opinion of good, hard working, faithful and loyal Americans and their livelihood is so skewed.
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.