>From: DavidOrr@aol.com >Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 15:00:01 EDT >Subject: Letter to the Editor RE: Land Exchanges >To: betsy@hcn.org > >Betsy Marston >Editor >High Country News >Paonia, CO > >"The New Carpetbaggers" > > >Dear Editor: > >Thank you for your recent coverage of the scandalous federal land >exchange program. The environmental community is slowly waking up to the >problems inherent in this newest reincarnation of the old Land Rush. >Exchanges are industry's latest solution for ensuring more development, >logging, and extraction will occur, as "raw" private land becomes >increasingly scarce in many areas of the west, and as environmental laws >increasingly restrict destructive activities on public lands. > >The New Carpetbaggers--land exchange facilitators--have moved in over the >past few years to make money for themselves and oil the development >machine. Compliant politicians and bureaucrats, and even some >environmentalists have been easily swayed by the apparent win-win nature >of these deals. It's hard to say no when a developer offers to the >public a parcel of private land in a popular hiking area in exchange for >some so-called worthless land elsewhere--usually on the edge of a booming >resort area, or some overmature old-growth forest. > >Pay no attention to the subdivisions and stumps proliferating behind the >land exchange curtain! > >Recently SIERRA magazine ran a story on Las Vegas' unsustainable growth, >even as Sierra Club and other environmentalists endorsed land exchanges >that made this growth possible. Worthless creosote scrub, indeed. Tell >that to Del Webb, and his favorite land-exchange facilitator, Senator >Harry Reid. > >Some environmentalists prefer making deals with developers and timber >executives instead of taking a stand on principle and fighting for what's >right--all the way. It's going to happen anyway, they say, so get the >best deal we can make. These environmentalists' green credentials are >used by land exchange facilitators--like HCN's board member Andy >Wiessner--to greenwash the swaps and make them appear GOOD for the >environment. Facts have a tendency to come out in the greenwash, however. > >Mr. Wiessner is a resident, perhaps appropriately, of Vail, Colorado, the >scene of a recent land exchange which allowed developers to build more >second homes for millionaires on the town's steep hillsides. > >He had some harsh words for Janine Blaeloch (the Western Land Exchange >Project's "one-woman truth squad") and her fight against Plum Creek >Timber Co.'s I-90 Exchange. However, Mr. Wiessner failed to disclose >that his role helping facilitate the exchange for Plum Creek. > >He seems to have never met a land exchange he didn't like. Mr. Wiessner >calls the Huckleberry exchange a win-win for Weyerhaeuser and the public. > Indeed, Sierra Club staffer Charlie Raines helped facilitate that trade. > Yet Mr. Raines admitted to the Seattle Times that he opposed the swap >until Weyerhaeuser made him an offer he couldn't refuse: a "donation" of >private land adjacent to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, favored destination >of the hiking groups that later supported the deal. Win-win for some, >perhaps, but not for many environmentalists and the Indians who objected >to the planned destruction of protected old-growth forest, the decimation >of fish-bearing streams, and the abrogation of treaty-protected hunting >and fishing in the (former) public lands which were traded. > >Neither was Huckleberry a win-win in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, >which recently found the exchange violated federal law. Private land was >undervalued, and federal old-growth was "overlooked" in the appraisal. >In short, the Huckleberry Exchange was just another public ripoff and a >bad deal for the environment. Sometimes even the Sierra Club can be >misled. > >If Mr. Wiessner really cares about protecting the public interest and >following the law, he should join the growing number of environmental >groups calling for a moratorium on land exchanges and insist on strict >new standards of integrity and accountability. This scandal-plagued >industry needs a time-out. Who better to lead the reform than one of its >main players? > >David Orr >Pasadena, CA >Sierra Club Angeles Chapter > > >David Orr > > > > ===================================================== Tim Hermach Native Forest Council PO Box 2190 Eugene, OR 97402 541.688.2600; fax 689.9835 or 461.2156 web page: http://www.forestcouncil.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~