Letter to Idaho Newspaper Editors

Letter

Letter to Idaho Newspaper Editors

The Warm and Fuzzy Fraud

Between now and May 27th, let's all sit by the sidelines and watch while a handful of so-called "conservation republicans" ram a left-wing socialist Wilderness bill down our throats — again. It's all about the money, baby. When it comes to the federal dole, there are no party lines. Democrats sit at the table in republican laps and they all get hog fat on bureaucratic pork.

The lock-up of another 300,000 acres in the White Cloud Mountains is sick and sad, and the closure of a half million more acres of Owyhee County's best trails is even sicker and sadder. What is most sad is that Americans are generally unaware that mountain lands are shot in linear square miles.

The environmental fuzz-heads claim that about four million acres in Idaho are ‘Designated Wilderness'. Wrong! Way Wrong!

One square mile on the flatland is 640 acres. One square mile in the mountains can be up to 4,000 and more acres in actual surface area. The BLM, Forest Service, National Geological Survey, Interior Department, and USDA haven't got a clue as to how much land has already been locked up in America. If they do, they sure aren't telling anyone.

When are the voters going to break their addiction to the same old sleazy bromide about Idaho's much lauded ‘Wilderness'? How is it that an entire national audience can be so easily hoodwinked?

CIEDRA is a warm and fuzzy fraud, and so is the Owyhee Canyonlands proposal. Linear square miles in the mountains is a complete and total fantasy. Actual surface area is reality.

In reality, the Owyhee lock-up is far more than a half million acres, and the 300,000 acres land grab in the White Clouds may be as much as 1.2 million acres — maybe even more! Nationally, there is probably close to 400,000,000 (yes, four hundred million) acres, just in ‘Wilderness', not even counting National Parks and Preserves. The truth is; nobody knows how much of America is already on ice. Why don't we? We have the technology to easily make this determination.

Truth: Idaho has by far closer to 15 million acres of real surface area locked-up in ‘Designated Wilderness' than the meager 4 million that the government and the environmentalists claim.

CIEDRA and the Owhyee lock-up are enough to make a grown man throw up. What is even more tragic is that the citizenry doesn't have the courage to stand up and fight. Well, I will!

Sincerely,
Jack Wayne Chappell

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