Comb Ridge Sale: Shame on Who?

Sent to Des News, SJR and Times Independent   10/27/16

     Yes, there should be shame, but not because STATE SCHOOL TRUST LANDS were sold to a private bidder, but because extreme environmentalists don’t want to share any land with anyone except Conservation Land Foundation devotees.  They are using everything in their power and in their banks to force local Native Americans, Anglos, and Hispanics away from a land they chose to live in, here in San Juan County.  These are families with local roots to San Juan, who didn’t migrate to more enticing lands in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico centuries ago.  

     Unlike the opposition who follows the dictates of the CLF, these locals oppose a National Monument because the CLF does not want free enterprise, access to public lands, grazing rights, or a strong tax base in San Juan County. They don’t care about jobs and improved schools They are against private enterprise and they would be delighted if everyone moved away. 

     Moreover, CLF followers don’t want to share any of the 1.9 million acres they greedily seek in this current “campaign” for National Monuments, which involves not only Utah, but Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, California.  (Hawaii, Maine have already been checked off their bucket list.)

      The State of Utah covers 52,696,960 acres. They have already given up 35,033,603 acres to 13 different national parks/monuments.  That means the Federal government owns/ runs/ manages 66.4% of our state. And they say Utah is greedy?!  The scenario in San Juan County is even worse. Only 8% of San Juan County’s 5,077,120 acres is privately owned.    

    Those with a socialistic mind set don’t seem to grasp the idea that private property rights exist in the proposed Bears Ears monument area.  Some areas in that coveted land do NOT meet the definition of “public lands”, including 43 grazing allotments, 661 water-right infrastructures, 151,000 acres of state trust land, 18,000 acres of private property, and hundreds of miles of roads and infrastructure which are granted a RS2477 right-of-way. 

     This leads us to the most recent whining of the week--Comb Ridge.  The actual Comb Ridge wilderness consists of 17,400 acres; HOWEVER, adjacent to Comb Ridge proper exists SITLA land. SITLA land is not "public land", it is STATE land. Even though local people have long used it for their personal playground, they were trespassing.  

     Two weeks ago 391 acres of SITLA land were sold by the State to the highest bidder.  That land would be .02% of the total Comb Ridge acreage.  And the playground bullies don’t want to share even that pinpoint of land with anyone else.  In the bigger more coveted landscape of 1.9 million acres, 391 acres comprises only .0002 %.  Additional SITLA lands take up another .079 % of the ill-conceived 1.9 million acre monument.  I suppose there will be whining about that too, when legitimate companies who pay taxes and support schools are able to purchase and utilize state lands.  Shame on YOU for not being willing to share.  Is compromise not in your vocabulary?

Janet Wilcox  Blanding, Utah