Posted: Monday, May 4, 2009 12:00 am
Editor:
Here are the first dramatic effects of our new administration in Wyoming, a wilderness proposal. How fitting that these administrations, Republican or Democrat, always try to rule the West with Eastern ideals and misconceptions. However no matter what administration shall come into play, whatever political manipulations shall arise for us, there will be a fight. And it is a good fight. We fight all the time to scratch out a living in Wyoming, and so there will always be a fight to keep the blind political ambitions of the bureaucrats in the east at bay. This is Wyoming, keeping it Wyoming takes work.
Wilderness proposals are an archaic form of legislation that is akin to a '74 clunking Oldsmobile. To prescribe something as inflexible and exclusive as wilderness designation over areas that are sparsely populated with heavy winters is reflective of the blind perspectives in Washington.
In the Front Range of Colorado, the landscape has become overrun with development and businesses. It has developed into a fairly large population with a large recreational appetite. There I have seen how the parks and counties have had to manage all the different users through a diverse trail system that spreads different users into different areas; dogs allowed, no bikes, ATV only, etc. That was an adaption to a condition made by local governance to accommodate everyone in their community. This proposal of wilderness in our backyard by bureaucrats who know nothing of the land or what it means to live in the high country is preposterous and weak, nothing more than an insult.
We live in a wild place, all over. It's a place covered with two tracks through the sage and trails in the mountains. It is more of a wilderness to live in than those proposing this absurd legislation will ever know. For seven to eight months of the year it is a frozen desert with little or no activity over most of these lands. I have seen how recreation can damage places as populations grow, even in our county. But wilderness is not appropriate, nor practical. If there needs to be management of recreational uses then let local communities decide, not Washington.
FREDDIE BOTUR, Big Piney