Thanks a lot, HCN, for trying to
kill another effort at environmental conservation in the West (HCN,
5/30/05: Write-off on the Range). As if it’s not hard enough
to get landowners to think about conserving resources, then the
government tries to put “cash-poor” landowners out of the running
by getting rid of their incentives to do so.
So what if
some property owners want to create greenbelts around their land?
That’s not the problem with Western real estate. How about
artificially inflated prices for land being marketed overseas by
unscrupulous out-of-state realtors/developers? Or extractive
industry speculators seizing on corrupt mining and water laws here
in the West?
It’s easy to point fingers at
organizations that have little money for lawyers and (gasp) “no
staff,” are loosely networked and independent, yet are doing far
more to protect our environment than our current administration,
despite the paltry handouts of tax credits.
P.D.
Griffin
(City withheld), Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Don’t point finger at land trusts.
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