While the media tends to portray Republicans as environmental exploiters, history shows a more balanced reality. From Republican Presidents Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Herbert Hoover, William Howard Taft, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush to numerous other GOP leaders, Republicans have distinguished records as conservationists.
“What is a conservative after all, but one who conserves, one who is committed to protecting and holding close the things by which we live,” said Reagan. “And we want to protect and conserve the land on which we live – our countryside, our rivers and mountains, our plains and meadows and forests. This is our patrimony. This is what we leave to our children. And our great moral responsibility is to leave it to them either as we found it or better than we found it.”
Comes now one of the conservative founders of the modern Republican Party in Mississippi calling on Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and the GOP controlled Senate to support private investment in conservation.
At issue is House Bill 1231 introduced by Rep. Scott Bounds of Philadelphia. His bill would set up a $20 million Mississippi Outdoor Stewardship Trust Fund “to provide assistance to counties, municipalities, state agencies, and nongovernmental entities for the support of wildlife, nature and other outdoor activity conservation and promotion purposes.”
The House passed the bill 117 to 2. The Senate, however, stripped “nongovernmental entities,” the vehicle for private investment in conservation, from the bill and passed it 51 to 0. That vote signifies it had Hosemann’s support.
After the Senate acted, Hosemann said, “As a hunter and outdoor enthusiast, I am keenly aware of how important it is to protect and improve our public lands for future generations. Mississippi has so much potential because of its wide-open, natural spaces. The creation of this fund will help us to continue to maximize this potential for the betterment of all citizens.” He did not address why the Senate stripped private investment in conservation from the bill.
The problem is, said longtime conservationist and former state GOP Chairman Clarke Reed, “Mississippi is 90% private land,” making private investment in conservation a significant opportunity. But the Senate version of the bill “prohibits our state’s private, charitable, conservation organizations from being partners. These organizations are innovative and are skilled in grant writing, project finance, and delivery. Unlike some of our state agencies, the conservation groups I know have excellent financial records.”
Reed added that the Senate only adds “more land and facilities to the state’s coffers when we can’t properly take care of what we already own.”
He said Hosemann should remember what he said when he helped dedicate the Phil Bryant Wildlife Management Area: “This is the way government, and private and non-profits ought to work - 17,000 acres of land for families to build memories.”
The Senate sent the bill back to the House for concurrence. Reed wants the bill to go to conference where the House version could be re-inserted.
Given the state’s poor record managing state parks, Reed’s comments are on point.
“Whosoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” – 2 Corinthians 9:6.
Crawford is a syndicate columnist from Jackson.
14 comments:
Being from the Delta, I've always known that burning off land was actually a conservation measure. Presidents Lincoln and Grant believed the same.
I know and used to work for Clarke Reed (blue collar manufacturing making grain bin dryers). He is an unselfish, honorable man who I can assure you has the states best interest in mind.
8:41, agree totally. We need to clone him before he is gone.
Umm, no. I'm sure everyone involved is well-intentioned. But this is a very, very bad thing thing. Remember the Dept of Marine Resources Scandal a few years ago? Remember how that started? There was money "acquire and preserve wetlands." What happened? DMR bought up tons of useless real estate. And before you say there will be restrictions,there were restrictions on the DMR money too.
Besides, doesn't MDWFP already have a fund to acquire land?
all this talk about wildlife conservation. perhaps some one could tell me why bobwhite quail have practically become extinct in mississippi and other areas of the southeast.
I’m younger so I’ve never heard of Clarke Reed but his kind of republicanism sounds exactly like the kind we need to return to. What are we conserving by letting toxic chemical companies pollute our beautiful land? What are we conserving if we allow pornography to pollute the minds and souls of our young men?
Libertarianism is not conservatism.
in a book, I think it was “the most southern place onEarth” I read that a medical doctor around the 1920’s killed what was thought to be the first deer killed in the Mississippi delta. As you also know from the Teddy Roosevelt bear story, there were numerous bear in Mississippi.
11:12 am Clarke Reed is a real conservative and honorable.
What you are seeing isn't Libertarianism either though, it's Nihilism .
There is no other theory that supports the destruction and revisionism of values, ethics, philosophies, the rules of law and civility developed over centuries.
What we are seeing is the Barbarians trying to destroy civilization.
"Conservation" today is no more than more tax dodges and furtherance of untaxed inheritance. Look at the Nature Conservancy scandals, the Trump tax dodge in Westchester County NY. The CRP programs. Etc etc.
Most hunting today is done on private land, especially hunting clubs,” said Ted Ownby, the director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi. “And the old idea that most landowners are happy to have hunters on their property gets less common all the time.”
“If you don’t belong to a hunting club or own property, you don’t hunt,” he said.
Look at Reed's language: "These organizations are innovative and are skilled in grant writing, project finance, and delivery. Unlike some of our state agencies, the conservation groups I know have excellent financial records.”
I bet they do, Clarke. And I bet they have a good chef, too.
Whenever you see private investment involving tax dollars and the words "innovative" hold on to your wallet. Richie Rich is looking at more high fence high dollar highball fueled "hunting clubs" for tax dodges.
Yes, YOUR tax money will go to grants for them and their buddies. Frat boys will continue the trend. There will be, as every year until the pandemic, fewer and fewer hunters, as the rich boys become the feudal lords and the game warden has returned to serving the kings who "own" all the deer. Or duckholes. Or even common land for squirrel hunting or rabbit hunting.
And the deer herd will grow, CWD will cut hunting by food hunters, and the Texas genetically engineered horn hunters will enjoy more feeder assassinations for antlers. And fewer regular folks will have afforable hunting leases or access to productive areas.
Or, am I misjudging our good ole Ole Miss boys, again?
I’m younger so I’ve never heard of Clarke Reed ...
Since you appealed to your relative youth as a validation for your further comments how old are you?
to1:21.....you dead on...also no one seems to be able to answer the question posed by 9:57.
Quail, in Mississippi and across the South, have 'succumbed' to the dreaded fire ant invasion. Quail nest on the ground. Fire ants are the same reason you can no longer place a baby on the ground and watch him crawl around.
MDWFP has let some state parks turn to shit, but they have plenty of money to buy up land, turn it into special-privilege hunting acreage and name if after a former governor.
Clarke is correct in saying that the private sector is important for conservation. I have a problem with some government programs that have the money to buy but no money to manage. Yes the parks are a very good example. There are very many good successful private land programs and opportunities. CRP and WRP (now WRE) have been important in removing marginal agriculture land (should have never been cleared) and putting in back into practices that improved water quality and natural habits. These lands are still in the hands of private citizens that maintain them and pay taxes on them. There are so many good conservation easements that have conserved and protected millions of private lands and a few bad apples like the one mentioned in New York state is a rare example of abuse . There is some significant abuse with syndicated conservation easement but the IRS appears to be on the move to stop them albeit at molasses sped.These cases involve a few greedy individuals compared to the many others that have made these easements work for over 3 decades.If this proposed bill becomes law without the private sector involvement it will be another big government boondoggle ——a fancy truck with no gas money.
Delbert is right on this one too!
Post a Comment