Burnt to a Crisp – Thanks Washington

One of the hallmarks of America’s economic success has been the private ownership of the land.

Think of the Oklahomans-to-be racing their stagecoaches across the wilderness to stake their claims. Whoever got there first took ownership of the property – with the ones allegedly jumping the gun called “sooners.”

Roughly half of the land west of the Mississippi in the year 2024 is still owned by the government.  Much of it is forest.

Our friend Amos Enos of Landcan.org, one of the nation’s leading land conservation groups, has analyzed how the government is horrifically managing these vast tracts of land:

Federal lands are in a crisis. Twelve of 15 million acres of our federal forests in California in the majestic Sierras have been burnt to a crisp and the culprit is not so much the media touted global warming, but the environmental movement and the Clinton Forest plan held steadfast by his successors. We confront 50 years of built up fuel loads in federal forests that our Native American predecessors burnt every year for 5 millennia, so instead of grassland forest floors, we now have kindling half the height of our Ponderosas…

Environmental litigants prevent any forest management, the result is an environmental travesty. Federal strategies have been demonstratively ineffective not only on forest fire management but also endangered species recovery. USFWS has only recovered (3%) of the thousands of listed endangered species.

Ironically, the government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on federal land purchases and “tree planting programs.”  For every tree planted, these fires have burned at least 10 to the ground.  

Forest fires are a MAJOR emitter of greenhouse gasses.  For a fraction of the cost of the Green New Deal we could save the planet by letting private owners manage the lands.

Want to reduce the debt?  Let’s start selling millions of acres of federal lands.