What is a Biosphere?
A biosphere reserve is an area set aside for the purpose of conservation and scientific study. This sounds like a good idea because we’ve all been taught to conserve. Yet these biosphere reserves are an environmental experiment designed to take away our national sovereignty.

The first danger of biosphere reserves lies in their structure. Biosphere reserves consist of three concentric circles: Core Area, Buffer Zone, and Transition Area -- terms commonly recognized in environmental and United Nations circles.

The Core Area, or inner circle, is a wilderness area -- such as Yellowstone National Park -- which is set aside for scientific study and "sustainable use" and the "conservation of biological diversity." These areas can be publicly or privately owned. In 1976, the U.N. designated Yellowstone National Park as a biosphere reserve. The U.S. government owns the park, but the U.N. severely restricts its use because it is a biosphere core area.

Buffer Zones are the second circle outside of the Core Area, and only significantly limited human activities and dwelling may take place within this zone. In other words, individuals whose private property falls within a buffer zone may not do anything that environmentalists believe would in any way be "harmful" to nature -- like keep animals, grow crops, or develop their land. Dr. Reed F. Noss, developer of the Wildlands Project, described core and buffer zones as places where " . . . the collective needs of non-human species must take precedence over the needs and desires of humans." So if you as a landowner need to raise cattle or crops for a living, or if you would just like to have a dog, build an addition to your house, or cut down some trees in your yard, the U.N. and the U.S. government say that the "needs" of rodents, insects, and vegetation are more important than your rights as a property owner.

"Normal" human activity (building, transportation, dwelling, etc.) is allowed to continue in Transition Areas, the outside ring. Some U.S. biosphere reserves are composed of a Core Area only; others have all three. The U.N. and the more radical elements within the environmental movement are working to ensure that every Core Area has a large Buffer Zone created around it.

Surprisingly, biosphere reserves are not a new phenomenon. The first one in the U.S. was created in 1976. Now there are 47 biosphere reserves reportedly comprising a total of almost 44 million acres -- more land than Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine combined! And almost every executive agency in the United States is involved in helping the U.N. implement biospheres. In 1994, the State Department issued the "Strategic Plan for the U.S. Biosphere Reserve Program," the guidebook for U.S. involvement in the international biosphere reserve philosophy.


Pretty scary stuff guys. And its ON the UN web site.

Aviator

Here is a map...

[img]http://www.unesco.org/mab/br/brdir/europe-n/USABR.gif[/img]

It is from the UN page at [url]http://www.unesco.org/mab/br/brdir/europe-n/USAmap.htm[/url]


Aviator

Yep, I'm living pretty close to #46. I think the signs acuatly say "International Biosphere". If the NPS have they're way no one will be allowed off the pavement in a few years. In the last couple of years they've closed a campground and a road which will never be reopened. The park rangers are worse than any city police I've ever encountered, most of the ones I've delt with have a sorry piss poor attitude. Of course guns are a big no no, but no vehicle with any type of lettering (business vehicles) are to pass through the park, you are to never never go off a trail, and if you own land next to the park (I have family and friends that do) they give you all kinds of crap. I really have no love for them myself, something to do with my family being forced off thier land 70 or 80 years back and everything they built up was torn down and burned with the exception of churches and graveyards. I guess they knew better than to try that or they'd have a real uprising on thier hands.[sniper]

It would be interesting to take a little hike around those areas and investigate.