Free Republic

While this new world of corporate governance/ lobbyists/ privatization of the commons etc; seems difficult to understand (disguised as it is with buzz words – and meaningless jibberish), it’s really not as complex as one might think. After you learn how to ignore the superficial banalities, and get to the meat (if there is any) of the message being given. Most times you’ll hear just fluff and nutter talk – sounds important but isn’t. While we naturally focus upon local issues and concerns such as community development, roads, tons of garbage, forest access, tourism, sportsmen’s rights, lack of snow, no...

The Bureau of "Nature Conservancy" How this non-governmental entity governs... Article, with links to related material, posted May 26, 2006 at Trumpet America JOYCE MORRISON * The Bureau of "Nature Conservancy" It would almost appear The Nature Conservancy has been given bureau status with the United States government. They don't need appropriations to run their bureau as they are funded from grants given to them by their close partnerships, Memorandums of Understanding, agreements, and other connections to government agencies - as well as public donations. One of TNC's most recent actions as a bureau has been the signing of an...

Administration seeks $2.27 million for Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge NASSAWADOX, Va. – The Nature Conservancy today applauded President Bush’s request to fund the Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge with $2.27 million from the Land and Water Conservation Fund in Fiscal Year 2007. The Eastern Shore of Virginia National Wildlife Refuge and much of the surrounding area in southern Northampton County, are widely recognized as globally important habitat for millions of migratory birds. The Nature Conservancy works with the refuge staff, state agencies and private landowners on the Eastern Shore to protect these vital natural areas...

Eco-Logic / Powerhouse TNC comes to Tennessee and Alabama...{The "Nature" Conservancy}Posted 03/01/2003 Buy A Little, Steal A Lot By Ken Freeman Alabama voters have resolutely rejected higher taxation and are stridently demanding smaller, more efficient state government. Yet, Governor Riley's 2004 budget proposes that almost 17.5 million dollars of our oil and gas revenues be allocated for the removal of thousands of acres of privately owned lands from our state's tax rolls and that they be placed under government ownership in a program called "Alabama Forever Wild." This is not only a misuse of our tax dollars and a loss...

Conservationists have scored some impressive victories in their efforts to keep southwest Montana from becoming suburbia, largely by buying conservation easements on big ranches. But despite protecting thousands of acres, there are still many more rural properties at risk of development. To keep land from being further cut up and developed, a group of scientists, real estate agents and conservation groups have formed the Conservation Land Network, which encourages recreational buyers to protect the most important properties. "We can't buy them all," Network Director Katie Kelly said. "So it's a matchmaker arrangement where we're trying to match the properties...

DALTON, Ga. - The city of Dalton has been fined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for improperly filling in wetlands and tributaries without a permit, federal officials said. The agency's penalty will cost the city $137,345. But the city only has to pay the government $34,345 if it gives the rest of the fine to the Nature Conservancy for the purchase of land to expand the Chattahoochee National Forest. City officials likely will appeal the fine, said Councilman Mike Robinson. "We reported the problem," Robinson said. "I fail to see what the benefit would be of taking that revenue...

Land Trusts Attempt Stealth Tax Cut TAX FAVORITISM for the Nature Conservancy approved by Senate Committee!! Democratic Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and Republican Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) propose huge new benefit for the Nature Conservancy and other land trusts - at the expense of private property owners, communities and other charities. S.256, Sections 106 and 107! *** ALERT *** TERRIBLE LEGISLATION *** TAX FAVORITISM for the Nature Conservancy and other land trusts!!! Here is the FIRST bill out of the chute that is moving in Congress that impacts private property rights. It has ALREADY been approved by the Senate Finance...

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...

The Nature Conservancy has announced plans to demonstrate sustainable forestry practices while protecting and restoring freshwater mussel sites along the Clinch River. The conservancy plans to establish "demonstration forests" on two tracts - 164 acres in Russell County near St. Paul and 550 acres at Cedar Bluff - the group recently acquired from Holbrook Land Management and Clinch Valley Farms Trust. Both properties will be managed as part of The Nature Conservancy's Conservation Forestry program, according to an Oct. 2 news release from the organization. Under the program's guidelines, the conservancy will carefully harvest timber from the sites using methods...

Buried in an astounding amount of unconstitutional pork within the new Farm Bill (signed by President Bush May 13, 2002) is a key provision, the brainchild of Congressman Wayne T. Gilchrest, from Maryland’s 1st District. In the works for over two years, Gilchrest’s "project" would create the Delmarva (Delaware-Maryland-Virginia) Conservation Corridor(s). Ostensibly designed to "find a way to help sustain agriculture…and help guarantee the environmental integrity of the Delmarva Peninsula for generations to come", according to Gilchrest, "…the Secretary of Agriculture will be able to direct conservation funding on a priority basis to the most economically and ecologically valuable land...

By Tom Holt Between Sierra Club-style lobbyists for costly environmental regulation and property-rights advocates, do land trusts such as The Nature Conservancy, or TNC, offer a compromise "third way" - a means to achieve environmental goals using market-based mechanisms? Too many Republicans and free-market advocates have fooled themselves into believing so. Unfortunately, there is a huge gap between the market-based theory of land trusts and the reality of taxpayer and landowner abuses that occur routinely in land-trust practice. Land trusts, in theory, have appeal, if one disregards the significant fact that trusts exist to remove property from commerce. Trusts acquire,...

<p>An ambitious attempt to marry conservation with the commercial cattle business on the Matador Ranch in Phillips County has ended in divorce.</p> <p>Two years ago, the Nature Conservancy of Montana bought the 60,000-acre spread and sold 16,600 acres to the Tranel ranching family of Roundup. Together, they would preserve the Matador's rich grasslands while working the ranch as a commercial cattle operation.</p>