A Letter to Colorado Editors:  
Saving Colorado

I spoke recently at THE GOOD NEIGHBOR FORUM in Greeley .  The subject was how
the Federal government and various environmental organizations were using
the Endangered Species Act to insert Federal authority into the future use
of water and the future of agriculture and rural livelihoods in the Platte
River watershed in Eastern Colorado and Nebraska.  At that meeting I became
familiar with the US Army (and The Nature Conservancy) expansion plans in SE
Colorado ( Pinon Canyon ) and Federal takeover planning on the Republican
River watershed before I returned to my home in the Washington , DC area.

Folks, make no mistake, the Federal government (bureaucrats and politicians)
and national environmental organizations like The Nature Conservancy and The
Wildlands Project intend to gain authority and jurisdiction over Eastern
Colorado at the expense of landowners, rural communities, and the State of
Colorado .  Sadly, the situation is steadily worsening and state politicians
and bureaucrats are cooperating or remaining silent as their Federal
counterparts bargain away Colorado 's future.  Their (state officials) excuse
is the promise of future money and continued employment to retirement.

You are being hoodwinked by Army claims of more (private) land needed for
training when there are literally millions of equally suitable (similar to
mideastern topography and climate) acres already in the Federal estate in
National Forests, BLM lands, National Wildlife Refuges, and National Parks.
Similarly, Federal claims of Platte and Republican Rivers water being
"critical" for plovers, terns and cranes when predators that are killing
them as you read this go uncontrolled: or the claim of it somehow being
"necessary" to maintain year around sturgeon at the mouth of the Platte when
they inhabit hundreds of miles of the Missouri River would somehow be
laughable if they were not so seriously detrimental to the future of Eastern
Colorado.

You are being bombarded with myths and doublespeak meant to confuse you,
divide you, and to put you at ease as the Army and The Nature Conservancy
lay claim to SE Colorado and the US Fish and Wildlife Service and,
eventually, the Wildlands Project replace NE Colorado with unoccupied space.
All of this will eventually be untaxed, unoccupied, and a
Federal/Environmental NGO fiefdom of easements, Federal land, closed to all
but a few.

Be alert when you hear the following terms:

Conservation Easement - These are obstructions meant to make current owners
think they are getting something for nothing but future owners and land
values will dispel this notion.  Go to where "Easements" have been in place
for 50 years.  Ask the members of the Landowners Association of North Dakota
what it is like to have a road project back up water on a field and then to
face Federal law enforcement thrice as much as any illegal ever faces as
agents trained and equipped for combat with Russian Special Forces descend
on your farmyard as your wife is in the kitchen and your kids are playing in
the yard.

Biological Assessment - This literally means the device meant to either stop
any use or development of private property or to devise a means to extort
money or land from citizens wanting to use or improve private property.

Up Front Promises - Federal Politicians and Administrators say that public
use will be maintained or continued.  Ask the sportsmen of Florida about
Federal promises concerning hunting when asking for the Florida Panther
Refuge or on Everglades purchases.  All lies.

Corridors - If "riparian" corridor isn't sufficient justification how about
"wildlife" corridors" or "Native Ecosystem" corridors.  They are all
nonsense.  Ask the retirees of Eastern Connecticut about the state and
Federal lies about corridors and when that didn't work about " Scenic Rivers "
and "Scenic Highways" that involved TNC and easements and set-asides for no
reason other than government control.  The same goes for "Buffer Zone".

Coalition Board and Consensus - These are merely monikers for managed
government actions meant to give the aura of cooperation and wise decisions
while being merely smoke and mirrors to attain the original government
purpose where citizen opposition is expected.

Tools in the Toolbox - This Orwellian term was coined by Federal regulators
to mask the weapons they were using (much like a dentist's tools).  The
impression is that certainly there is "something in the toolbox" that is
helpful or fair, but that is only a mirage; they are all one-sided and
harmful to targeted citizens.

Ask the Maine newspapers fighting TNC takeovers (with government funds and
their tax-free status) or the former Oregon logger driving a cab in Los
Angeles about what is happening.  Denver, like Boston and Chicago and San
Francisco thinks it will not harm them but a weakened State government,
evaporating property rights, and emboldened radicals driving Federal
politicians and bureaucrats will soon enough get around to you.

If your state politicians refuse to fight these Federal schemes; replace
them.  If your Federal politicians pander to these groups or refuse to
control the Federal agencies; replace them with those who will.  This is
perhaps, next to the Terror issue, the most important and threatening issue
of our day, especially if you live in Colorado .

Jim Beers

(Retired Wildlife Biologist, Wetlands Biologist, Special Agent, & Refuge
Manager, US Fish and Wildlife Service)

Centreville , VA 20120