September 2004     

Sawdust & Splinters...

Green Utopia - Rural Ruination

By Douglas E. Carlson

This article is written from my own local perspective, but applies to all America where National Forests, National Parks, Bureau of Land Management lands, and any number of other federal designations exist. Where Federal ownership occurs, local people suffer impacts that are unjust, yet are justified, with the phrase "societal good." Rural citizens and rural lifestyles are fast becoming the newest endangered species. When reading the following, please insert your local federal landowner and you'll get the picture.

Imagine the mountain's of the Allegheny region wild, natural and protected, where man is only a visitor, and nature is given free rein.

Imagine a Tionesta Free State core area of one million acres of wilderness surrounded by a buffer zone of another 250,000 acres surrounding that wilderness, and the buffer zone surrounded by another 250,000 acres of a restricted activities zone.

Imagine dwindling populations where higher percentages of persons leave, rather than live in 100% rural Forest County.

Imagine a dwindling economy where unemployment percentages grow above 25% in the Allegheny National Forest area, and communities cease to exist.

Imagine a wilderness where endangered species thrive, and human beings become the stranger, the alien, the visitor, and the endangered species.

Imagine a wilderness where access is restricted, where roads do not exist, where animals are supreme, where only those humans who are physically able and philosophically correct are allowed to visit, "Children, elderly and handicapped need not apply!"

Imagine a region where manufacturing businesses and resource businesses cease, and where only tourism-based business exists.

Imagine the depopulation of traditional rural areas occurring, and that rural citizens are moved to urban and suburban locales to live.

Imagine U.S. Representatives and Senators who force local officials to accept federal programs such as Wild & Scenic River designation or Wilderness Designation, by working behind the scenes with radical environmental advocates in order to garner "green votes."

Imagine local autonomy, authority, and local based democracy overthrown in a quiet revolution staged by radical green advocates.

Imagine ghost towns.

Imagine betrayed displaced rural people.

Imagine a lush green natural paradise, a wilderness utopia where creation is worshiped as higher in importance than God or than human beings.

Imagine at least 50% of North America wilderness, another 15% buffering that wilderness, and about .05% available for human beings to live on.

Imagine forests not ever, ever being subjected to a chainsaw, skidder, log truck, or any other depredation visited upon it by human beings.

Imagine homes made from steel and plastic (until the oil runs out).

Imagine wood never being used for furniture again.

Imagine paper made from other materials besides wood, and costing much more, and where toilet paper costs more than gasoline.

Imagine the elimination of rural populations, concentrating people in cities, where municipalities provide water, as well as sewage service.

Imagine the extinction of rural life, custom and culture.

Imagine wolves, panthers, black and grizzly bears, wolverines roaming free in the Allegheny Mountains.

Imagine the elimination of most private property and the escalation of public (government) land ownership for use as parks, bike trails, watersheds, and thousands of other "good" societal uses.

Imagine the elimination of land management on public lands with natural behavior and systems dictating unpredictable outcomes.

Imagine radical advocates rather than experienced experts driving management activities (where permitted) of natural resources.

Imagine leaders and spokespersons being qualified because of a few college courses rather than years of experience, as well as education.

Imagine whole forest ecosystems changing toward mature forest conditions with the loss of most hardwood tree species, wildflower species, and most wildlife species, all with dramatic species population drops.

Imagine walking through the Allegheny Mountains and never flushing a grouse or turkey, seldom hearing a bird song, rarely seeing deer tracks, or seeing a wildflower.

Imagine a federal agency dictating to a few private landowners what can and can't be done on privately held property.

Imagine nationalization of all wildlands, forests, grasslands, streams, lakes, rivers, farms, fields, islands, lands bordering water, historical sites, heritage sites, wetlands, swamps, bogs, and open spaces.

Imagine Russia in 1930.

Imagine China in 1970.

Imagine Poland in 1960.

Imagine Cuba in 1980.

Imagine the United States of America in 2020.

Imagine socialism dominating the political fabric of America - elect John Kerry!

Imagine domestic terrorism burning lumber mills, SUV sales lots, fur operations, forest research laboratories, public and private property.

Imagine our elected government leaders negotiating with these terrorists to end hostilities, caving in to demands, and selling our rural folks in the process.

Imagine relocation camps and Gulags, loss of personal human freedom in favor of nature's "freedom" and nature's "rights."

Imagine the elimination of all private property, all personal rights, and suspension of the freedoms defined in the U.S. Constitution.

Imagine a world run by environmental radicals.

Welcome to the brave new green world of the Allegheny Defense Project and the Friends of Allegheny Wilderness, Greenpeace, Wilderness Society, Nature Conservancies, Sierra Club, Earth First!, Wild Earth, Audubon Society, The Wildlands Project, John & Teresa Heinz-Kerry, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, John McCain, Arlen Specter, The United Nations, Bill & Hillary Clinton, and so on and so forth!

Green Utopia?

Looks more like a nightmare for humanity!

Douglas E. Carlson is the Executive Director of the Conservation District Planning Department, Forest County, PA, and is a founding member of the Allegheny Forest Alliance.

This column will continue to be written as an individual piece not under any official standard. The contents are purely the bailiwick of the author.