Aspen (c91) News

WILD BILL

Comments Worth Repeating, 2006

By Bill Schneider, 12-28-06

As I'm sure many of you have noticed, NewWest.net has engaged readers who take the time to make excellent comments that frequently add value to stories. This week, I read through the hundreds of comments I've received on my weekly columns this year and picked out some gems worth repeating.

The hard part was narrowing down the list of insightful, well-written comments to a manageable size. Even though there are obviously many more comments worth repeating, here, in chronological order, are some of my favorites from a whole year of Wild Bill columns. Enjoy.

A Natural Alliance Not Foiled, Yet
"I too am absolutely convinced that the protection of public lands would be a piece of cake if environmentalists, sportsmen, and others could unite." (Charles Saunders)

Selling Some Public Land Could Be Good Idea
"Selling land to get better land could be a great idea, but it never will happen under this administration because it really just wants to sell land, period." (Ralph Maughan)

The Absurdity We Call Public Involvement
"I think your comments about public involvement being a hurdle that agencies have to jump over is right on the mark. In good conscience, how could the IDFG proceed with this proposal in the face of such overwhelming opposition, unless they viewed the whole process as just a step that had to be undertaken." (Jim)

Please, Not Kempthorne
"Getting Kempthorne at Interior is a little like having bald tires on the car and just rotating them. Well, at least it wasn't Racicot." (Robert Hoskins)

Kempthorne, What Happens Now?
"I am a moderate Republican and an active duty service member recently returned from Iraq and I am HORRIFIED at how the current president is selling out our natural resources and destroying the environment. It is NOT just a liberal cause to celebrate quality of life and want to protect our Nation's natural resources to include its wildlife and public lands. The nomination of Kempthorne as the new interior secretary, considering his stance on the management of wolves, weakening the Endangered Species Act, and opening up pristine lands to ORVs, is one more indictaion that Bush has no intention of protecting this country's natural resources." (Dennis Desmond)

The Delisting Dilemma
"Given what I know or think I know about bear conservation in general, and the implications of climate change in particular, I think that de-listing would be an exercise in irrational enthusiasm, blind to a world on the cusp of serious change." (Lance Olsen)

Needed: More Bicycle Sense in Driver’s Manuals
"The public roads are just that--public--and no one has a superior right to them. Pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists have equal rights to use the public way provided they observe the laws regulating their various modes of transport. Yet motorists complain when cyclists 'impede' traffic. To my mind, if a motorist can't figure out how to pass something as small and slow as a bicycist, and perform that maneuver safely, perhaps he shouldn't be driving a car in the first place. Equally, the cyclist who blows through redlights and stop signs or rides the wrong way against traffic should be stopped and ticketed." (Ed Wagner)

The Revenge of the Bunny Hugger
"Green groups forming alliances with hunting groups is the most effective way to preserve habitat in the current political climate. While I am neither a hunter nor angler, I still have respect for those who perform these activities in an ethical manner. We must have tolerance for those who may not share our sensibilities." (Elizabeth Parker)

Outdoor Industry Association Should Stand Up For Wilderness
"I take exception to the observation…that only 5% of the (national forest) visitors 'use' wilderness. That is a very narrow definition of 'use.' Whether you actually hike in wilderness or not, you may in fact be benefiting from wilderness because wilderness designation protects many resources that 'flow' from it including clean water, scenic quality, wildlife, clean air, and so on. There's plenty of evidence to demonstrate that wilderness is a big economic engine as well as a major contributing factor to a sense of quality of life for people, (The Outdoor Industsry Association) is missing the boat by not supporting more wilderness." (George Wuerthner)

Outdoor Writers Association Should Stay Focused on Business
"When elephants fight, it's the grass that gets damaged." (Gandolf)

NRA Doesn’t Represent Both Hunters and Gun Owners
"I strongly believe, backed by a couple of generations worth of direct involvement and experience, that the NRA cynically panders to a select segment of opinionated, but generally naive and intellectually less mature, people, deliberately whips them into a paranoid frenzy, manipulates them with spin-doctored information, and then uses them and their money to pursue a political agenda that has only marginal relation to the gun ownership, shooting sports, or hunting issues that they purport to focus on." (Mike)

Taking a Giant Step Toward Solving the Conflict Between Cyclists and Motorists
"Cyclists need to get beyond, 'I'm better because I'm on a bike" and be willing to show a little courtesy too." (Marion)

No Need for a Stealth Fee to Fund Montana Parks
"I don't know how much more stealthy it can get. Fees like this, if they are truely voluntary, should be opt in, not opt out." (MT Doc)

Why People Don't Backpack
"I can tell you've got many years left." (Cynthia Ford)

You Gotta Feel for the Forest Service
"If it took a year to break something in government, it will take a decade to fix it. The BLM and USFS are ruined for your and my lifetimes. Perhaps forever. As it appears now, they are well on their way to becoming the USFS..United States Fire Service. We grow fuel. And then put the fires out, maybe." (bearbait)

Time to Re-Think Glacier's Bicycle Restrictions
"This is one of the most scenic bicycle rides I've done, and bicycling should be encouraged, not discouraged." (Lee Taylor)

Beyond the Roadless Rule
"Myths, or lies, told over and over become truth." (bearbait)

Idaho Wolf Plan Shot Down, Anybody Surprised?
"Man, I hear you. It's like we're all living in a totalitarian eco-topia, they won't let us kill off the wolves, or the grizzlies, won't let us build houses or cut trees or dig up coal or drill for oil and gas, they protect silly little species that are supposed to go extinct, there's too much clean water and the air is so clean it's hard to breathe it, the rivers are clogged up with fish, too, and all those deer and stuff are eating all the grass on the plains....it goes on and on, don't it? There's just too much land out there that's goin to waste." (Hal Herring)

NRA Supports Conrad Burns, Proving Again it Doesn’t Represent Hunters
"I agree that the NRA does a very poor job representing hunters, but it also does a lousy job of representing gun owners. The NRA fails us on two counts. First it has politicized gun ownership, and once an issue gets politicized, facts no longer constrain the debate. In this arena the NRA has cornered the market in high-caliber BS." (John Rose)

Note: Contrary to common belief, BS does not stand for Bill Schneider.

NRA Supports Conrad Burns, Proving Again it Doesn’t Represent Hunters
"If we hunters don't again embrace conservation and protection of wild public lands as our primary focus, there won't be many wild places left to use our hunting rifles. The NRA has, like so many other powerful orgs, become corrupted by their own power and influence and political alliances. Those alliances in nearly every case support privitizaton of public lands, and widespread oil/gas/mineral development on our public lands. That is not in the best interests of hunters." (Mark Richards)

Pombo, Green Anger and the Endangered Species Act
"If anybody was counting on R. Pombo to save their rights (unless it was the right to destroy public lands and wildlife and everything else for shortterm profit), they were in big big trouble a long time before the election." (Anon)

The Greatest Hunting Controversy of Them All
"Thinking longer term, I predict the environmental groups who led the effort to reintroduce the wolves will play the key role in whether state wildlife agencies can 'manage' these animals similar to cougar & bear. The challenge for these groups is to change their attitude that these animals are no longer endangered. This is difficult, as difficult as Newt Gingrich found it to be Speaker of the House after the Republican Revolution. He was much more effective leading the insurgency in the US House when Speaker Foley was in charge. Similarly, conservation groups are more in their comfort zone as insurgents. " (Ira)

The Greatest Hunting Controversy of Them All
"May I humbly point out, that according to national statistics, Brother Wolf is a piker compared to the more numerous and ubiquitous Brother Coyote when it comes to predation on livestock." (Brodie Farquhar)

The Greatest Hunting Controversy of Them All
"I’m only 17 and I don’t know what the government is doing at all. People can say that we control the government. I think that were doing a cruddy job. The wolves are probably sitting on the side lines laughing their butts off." (Elaina)

The Real Reason National Park Visitation Has Declined
"If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail." (Ira)

America the Beautiful Pass Sends Us A Strong Message
"The scary thing is that anyone can get something affecting so many people passed as a law with no debate, no publicity, no input, nothing." (Marion)

The Most Pro-Wolf State of Them All
"Those of us who know both the science and the politics of wolves have long known that science has no place in the debate, as much as we try to bring it into the debate. All that happens is that the science is politicized and thus marginalized and grossly misrepresented." (Robert Hoskins)

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