An appropriations bill, under the Land and Water Conservation Fund to buy land in the Pine Barrens is moving through congress. Some folks hope that some of the money could be use to fund the aquisition of the DeMarco deal with the New Jersey Conservation Foundation that's been pending.
I think aquiring the property to use as a nature park the public can enjoy is a good idea. But the reasoning of some conservationists, that I read in the article below, that the funding is needed to protect the property from logging needs further exploration. Now I think that the land should not be used exclusively for logging, and that much of the property should be park-like, in that there is a scenic tree cover throughout much of the acreage. Where siliculturally and ecologically appropriate, only selective cutting should be used so the public can have woods to enjoy. Any clearcutting should be very limited. But I think the Sierra Club philosophy of not cutting any trees under any circumstances and just letting nature take it course is dumb.
Notice in the artical that money from the federal Land and Water Convervation Fund come from fees from natural gas and oil exploration.
http://www.southjerseynews.com/issues/july/m071803k.htm
As the conservationists who want to aquire the DeMarco property have found, it takes money to do this. In his column on protecting the environment, Walter Williams cites a conservation group that sells the rights for drilling on their property And as early conservationists, such as Aldo Leoopold and some of today's conservationists, such as Steven McCormick of the Nature Conservancy point out, land not only has to be acquired. It has to be maintained.
We can use our natural resources and protect the environment too if we do it wisely.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/col...iams061803.asp
http://www.sacbee.com/static/archive.../20011229.html
Bookmarks