A war of attrition

This wasn't supposed to happen here

[Reprinted from Issues & Views August 6, 2001]

Environmental groups are destroying the access and recreational use of our public lands by an organized assault against all groups and individuals who don't conform to their environmentally correct, "eco-sensitive" agenda. It's death by a thousand cuts, each slash destroying the rights of a segment of citizens by restricting or terminating access to certain areas.

This ongoing war of attrition has spread across our nation leaving in its wake a plague of locked gates, fences, closed campgrounds, fees and permits--and roads with signs that read, "Keep Out," "Road Closed," "No Fishing," "No Hunting," "No off road vehicles," "Beach Closed," "No Snowmobiles," and on and on.

The entire nation is infected with the insidious disease of environmental socialism. It's disenfranchising ranchers, farmers, loggers, hunters, fishermen, equestrian groups, boaters, surfers, home builders, property owners--and anyone else the Eco-Elite determine to be an "enviro-threat." If Americans don't wake up, they will find themselves, not only fenced out of the land that rightfully belongs to them, but out of their freedom and heritage as well.

-- Richard Schaefer, property rights advocate

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