The state-established religion of Environmentalism

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 28 May 2001 10:03:12 GMT

FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED JAN. 14, 2001
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
The state-established religion of Environmentalism

Bruce Wilkin is a Pioche native and 1958 Nevada high school graduate who came back to Ely to practice medicine in 1975.

Like many long-time Nevadans, Wilkin remembers when the game herds were thick on the land those animals shared with Nevada's cattlemen. He's seen the campaign by government regulators to move the cattle off the land (Clark County retains only two of what were once 50 ranching families -- and the federals have been trying to run Cliven Bundy off his Mesquite allotment for eight years now) ... walling off human access to swatches of real estate the size of New England states under a brand of "environmental protection" that forbids cattle or sheep from grazing back the forage, which subsequently dries out and leads directly to our current wave of cataclysmic wildfires.

Furthermore, Bruce Wilkin the country doctor has done the studies and can show the graphs proving it's not cattle that are responsible for these bigger and more destructive wildfires, or for the thinning of game species like the deer and the sage grouse.

Dr. Wilkin's graphs (based on the state's own data) show Nevada's deer herd was healthiest precisely when the most cattle were run on the range -- from about 1948 to the early 1970s -- and then dropped precipitously when the poisoning of coyotes was halted during the Nixon and Ford administrations.

Further, while government regulators claim ranchers and hunters are to blame for the thinning of the sage grouse, the good doctor hands me a copy of the 1990 study which he says the Nevada Department of Wildlife has "buried" ... precisely because it shows the problem is not the cattle, but the end of programs to control the now exploding populations of coyote, raven, and mountain lion.

The official October 1990 report "Sage Grouse Production and Mortality Studies," prepared as the final report of the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Project W-48-R-21, Study XVII, Job 1, edited by San J. Stiver and prepared by Don Klebenow, Gary Zunino and others, demonstrated (by using chicken eggs to set up mock sage grouse nests near typical raven habitat) that the decline in sage grouse populations can be entirely attributed to raven predation of the nests.

"At the completion of the 15 day period, all 1,400 eggs were destroyed in both study areas," the report concluded. "On the Grassy Meadows Study Area in Surprise Valley, 84 percent of the nests were destroyed in the first three days. Ravens were believed to be the chief nest predator."

The 1990 study only confirmed earlier studies such as that of researcher Warren Allred, who found that in Wyoming in 1942, "Eighty percent of all sage grouse nests were being destroyed by predators -- of which 23 percent were attributed to ravens and 14 percent to coyotes. It was found that even in areas completely protected from hunting, sage grouse were steadily declining."

In fact -- here Dr. Wilkin agrees with such long-time Nevada ranchers as Cliven Bundy and Cliff Gardner -- the journals of the first white men to cross Nevada found it so bereft of game the Indians were reduced to eating insects, while the travelers often considered eating their pack animals to make it through.

Thick herds of deer and flocks of game birds showed up only after ranchers moved in to improve the water features (clearing springs, building tanks and ponds); set their cattle to improving ground cover by cropping plants which evolved in an ecosystem dependent on large ungulates to clear room for new growth and to help the plants re-seed; and finally completed the equation by severely thinning out such predators as the coyote and the raven -- all now "protected" by muddle-headed "environmentalists."

But because information like the Klebenow-Zunino report doesn't mesh with the current drive to force ranchers and hunters from the land in keeping with the new state-established religion of Environmentalism (which designates "untouched wilderness" as its cathedral), the 1990 study was "buried" by Willie Molini's state Department of Wildlife, Wilkin insists.

Over dinner at the Prospector restaurant in the Ely Holiday Inn, Wilkin -- glancing occasionally at his pager in case he should be called back to the ER -- hands me an invitation to the "Nevada Land Use Summit 2001," being put on by Assemblywoman Marcia de Braga and Sen. Dean Rhoads in Carson City Feb. 23 and 24 (call 775-883-7863), which intends to focus on the interrelated issues of noxious weeds, wildland fires, and Nevada's sagging sage grouse population.

Wilkin points out a section on page 2, underlined by the organizers: "There have been questions about distributing materials other than those provided by the 2001 Summit. We respectfully request (that) NO outside materials be brought in by any individual or group for distribution."

This is so the state wildlife bureaucrats can make sure no one presents copies of studies -- even their own studies -- which contradict the current myths about hunters and ranchers, Dr. Wilkin says.

I called both Assemblywoman De Braga and Sen. Rhoads -- both of whom are in the ranching business -- to ask about that. Both denied it was their intention to ban any such relevant material.

I asked if Dr. Wilkin or Cliven Bundy or Cliff Gardner has been asked to address the meeting. Ms. De Braga said there "are no specific invitations, we're not going to have many actual speakers." (Actually, two hours are set aside Friday morning for a motivational talk by "renowned facilitator" Susan Carpenter, on the topic, "How to Get to Yes.") "But certainly anyone is welcome to attend."

Cliff Gardner says he has no intention of showing up where he's not wanted. "They don't want Cliff Gardner and his stuff; they don't want the truth. What do you suppose that 'no outside materials' rule is all about? I've got more scientific evidence about what's happened to the sage grouse than anyone else in this state, but do you think Cliff Gardner is welcome there? All it is is a PR event for the (Department of Wildlife) bureaucrats."

NEXT TIME: BAGS FULL OF TORTOISE SHELLS

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. His book, "Send in the Waco Killers" is available at 1-800-244-2224.

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

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Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair

End the War on Freedom

The state-established religion of Environmentalism