The Nature Conservancy's "outrageous contradictions and sad lies."

Paragon America News (PAN) ^ | February 12, 2003 | J. Zane Walley

[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.

[Renfield]

I don't know where you got the idea that I think logging on private land is innapropriate; I didn't say that. And I get the point of the piece, but don't agree with it.

[Iconoclast2]

Would you agree that it is incompatible with a Free Republic for the government to take tax money and use it to tie up more and more land, either directly or in cooperation with TNC? Would you agree that it does violence to the Constitution, insofar as that document was designed to ensure limited powers of the Federal government, for the Federal government to engage in this activity at all?

[Quix]

Great question. I hope there's an answer below.

[Quix]

YOU'VE CONVINCED ME.

Have long felt the Feds and such others as TNC need to get the blazes off the Western States' heritage with very few TRULY TREASURED NATIONAL PARKS, military and Native American exceptions.

Ain't gonna happen.

The death dealers have a death grip on it and won't let go until Christ deals with them. But we should still fight when and where we can. It is worthwhile to stand up and be counted for sanity, decency etc.

[Quix]

Strongly agree.

I've forgotten the details over the years, but their [BLM ETC] nonsense in NM, AZ, UT etc. that I used to routinely hear about were exceedingly stupid, ignorant and fraught with bureaucratic egos gone to seed.

The land was virtually ALWAYS MUCH WORSE OFF when they were done doing their bit 'in behalf of the land.'

[Quix]

And the BLM et al act like that SOP

is PATRIOTIC!!! Sheesh. What idiots.

Egos AND idiots gone to seed.

[Carry_Okie]

Those dirt bags are manufacturing a desert on an almost unimaginable scale. Whole civilizations have been destroyed by this kind of thinking. They don't recover either.

Read any of Savory's stuff?

[Quix]

Guess I'm not really familiar with Savory's stuff.

Any better links? Trying to collect potent docs to disprove my Mentor's affinity for leftist conservationists.

[Renfield]

I would agree that those expenditures violate the 10th amendment, as do the bulk of current federal expenditures. Strict interpretation of the Constitution, in the current political climate, is a pipe dream. It would take a violent cataclysm (something on the order of a civil war) to return us to constitutuional government, and I don't see this happening in my life time, especially as those who most desire strict constitutionalism don't control tax revenues.

[countrydummy]

http://www.nationalcenter.org/dos7128.htm

This might help explain why TNC is not the good guys!

[Cuttnhorse]

Allen Savory, from Rhodesia I believe, is a pioneer of grazing methods in arid and semi-arid areas...the basic concept is to divide pastures up into small individual units, then they are grazed intensively for short periods of time in a continuous rest and rotation program. It's much more complicated than what I described and if you want more information on this type of land management, I strongly suggest a subscription to RANGE Magazine. It is a magazined dedicated to ranch life and contains lots of good articles on techniques and examples of good range management. Savory occasionally writes articles for RANGE.