Posted: 8/14/2008 7:32:43 PM EDT
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If you love the fact that Oregon has thousand upon thousands of land open to the public please review this article and help by emailing Oregon senators & BLM to oppose the exchange of 1,000 currently private owned acres for 11,000 currently publicly owned acres. Article; OHA Opposes Land Grab; You Can Help! The Oregon Hunters Association is trying to stop a land exchange that would result in a net loss of more than 9,000 acres of public access land. An individual who has recently acquired 1,000 acres on Steens Mountain is seeking Congressional approval of a land swap in which he would trade his holdings for nearly 11,000 public acres in and around the Silvies Valley. The owner of the Steens property, Dr. Scott Campbell, recently gave notice that he is petitioning our Oregon Congressmen for the exchange. The public ground he seeks to acquire is BLM land between Burns and John Day, close to Yellowjacket Reservoir, and consists of sagebrush and forest transition land, mostly within the Silvies River drainage. The area is excellent deer and elk habitat, supports valuable timber, is accessible year round, and would be closed to public access if acquired. The 1,000 acres of Steens property holds two small streams (portions of Fish and Lake Creeks), supports sagebrush, some juniper and aspen, some deer, and would be accessible to walk-in public access for about six months each year after the BLM took it over. The Oregon Hunters Association is opposed to this land exchange, and in June of this year sent a letter to Oregon’s Congressional delegation opposing this exchange. In part the letter reads: "While acquisition of 1,000 acres in the Fish Creek drainage of Steens is a worthy addition to the public lands of Steens Mountain and would be of benefit to the general public, we cannot support the loss of nearly 11,000 acres of public land in the Silvies River watershed to achieve this goal. If the Fish Creek property is high priority for BLM to acquire, we would rather have BLM purchase the property." "The portion of the Silvies River, plus certain tributaries and access roads that would be affected by this proposed land exchange constitutes an important part of the Silvies Wildlife Management Unit. The Silvies Unit is well known for its premium big game hunting, offering about 1,000 deer tags and 2,100 elk rifle tags per year. The Steens Mountain Unit also is well known for its fine hunting, but opportunity there is limited to about 250 deer rifle tags and 600 elk rifle tags per year." "OHA is opposed to this proposed land exchange." What can you do? Send a letter or email to Oregon’s Congressional Delegation. The best way to accomplish this is through OHA’s email alert system. You can find that by going to the OHA website (www.oregonhunters.org) and follow the easy directions and get your emails and letters in today. BLM Email: [email protected] Oregon Senator Contacts; http://wyden.senate.gov/contact/ http://gsmith.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home Senator Assistants Emails; [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Yes this article is from the Oregon Hunters Association, but this does not affect hunters only. This effects anyone who does, will, wants, or currently hikes, dirtbikes/ATV, camps, or uses state land for any recreational purpose. ALSO Please review President Bush's current proposed reform for the Endangered Species act; http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080811/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/bush_endangered_species Please dont turn this into an animals rights discussion. Either way Oregon and the rest of the USA needs more protected lands to prevent further "suburban sprawl", clear cutting without replanting, development, and restricted public use. If you agree please help, if not do what you feel is right. |
| Wow that article about Bush's environmental protection cutbacks was a riot, thanks! I especially liked the part where the Interior Minister says "It is not possible to draw a link between greenhouse gas emissions and distant observations of impacts on species." Classic! It never ceases to amaze me... what will the dickbags who run this country do or say next? |
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The reason the BLM wants to do this is because the Steens are more "beautiful" and the Eco wackos would rather have that then flat ugly land. My family actually owns the largest cattle ranch in Oregon and we have done these types of land exchanges with BLM of the steens mountains in exchange for flat grazing land. We would rather have grazing land for cattle than a bunch of rocky mountains. Instead of fighting it, I would get to know the private party doing the deal and ask for permission to hunt on their land. I am all for private land ownership over government ownership any day. After all I'm a republican who believes in democracy and private ownership, not large government communist control and ownership of everything! In a perfect world I would like to see private citizens own every square inch of land in this country. By the way 11,000 acres is nothing down there. Our deals with BLM have been A LOT more than that. We also do grazing deals only, with BLM instead of actual ownership swaps and we are currently grazing on over 1.2 million acres in total. So BLM can do all sorts of things. Point being, there is a lot of frigging' land down there... I guess it's sad to see people cry about this kind of stuff. Don't be the type of person who feeds off of the government. Shit I would expect everyone on this site to be pro private party, pro business and anti government ownership and control. Keep in mind they can very easily take our rights of hunting away on public land. They cannot do this on privately owned land. So has anyone thought about sending a letter to the private party in this case and see if they would be open to allow hunting on the property? 
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