April 2004     

TNC comes to Tennessee and Alabama...

Buy A Little, Steal A Lot

By Ken Freeman

Alabama voters have resolutely rejected higher taxation and are stridently demanding smaller, more efficient state government. Yet, Governor Riley's 2004 budget proposes that almost 17.5 million dollars of our oil and gas revenues be allocated for the removal of thousands of acres of privately owned lands from our state's tax rolls and that they be placed under government ownership in a program called "Alabama Forever Wild." This is not only a misuse of our tax dollars, and a loss of future revenue for the state, but it also poses a serious threat to property owners in Alabama.

This Spring, Alabama Forever Wild, in collusion with The Nature Conservancy, is planning to purchase 12,400 acres of land along the Alabama and Tennessee line in an area known as "The Walls of Jericho." The Nature Conservancy (TNC), eventually intends to buy 50,000 acres using revenue from Alabama's oil and gas leases, and other revenues from Tennessee state grants. This is just the beginning. These 50,000 acres will only form the "core area" for a massive 3,000,000 acre tract (that's right, three million acres), under the control of Forever Wild, TNC, and other radical environmental groups.

These radical environmental groups' greed and lust for land has exceeded even their considerable financial abilities. They now lust for sixty percent (60%) of all land in America. Even they cannot buy this much property. Solution: don't buy the land, just steal the rights to it.

In his article in the Huntsville Times (12/07/03), John Ehinger says,

"...working with state and federal agencies. The Nature Conservancy...is trying to preserve 3 million acres. But unlike the purchase-and-protect strategy The Nature Conservancy has used in the past, these days, it takes a different approach. It purchases some land, and then works with landowners to make sure other adjacent lands are used wisely, and in an earth-friendly manner. Call it, buy a little, save a lot."

Think about his statement. What does this really mean to the landowners of Alabama? How does TNC propose to "make sure" this privately owned adjacent land is used "wisely" if they do not own it? Who determines what "wisely" means? Who decides what is "earth-friendly?" Obviously, the TNC intends to determine all these things about someone else's property - your property!

Ehinger's article should have really been entitled "Buy A Little, Steal A Lot," or "Non Profits make Huge Profits as they Buy A Little and Steal A Lot." Look at the numbers. According to Mr. Ehinger's article, and another written by Thomas Spenser of the Birmingham News dated 01/07/04, the purchase price of the first 23,000 acres of this property is 13.9 million dollars. Yet, Forever Wild will purchase the land on the Alabama side for 9.1 million dollars, and the land on the Tennessee side will be purchased with Tennessee money for 8.5 million dollars. This totals 17.6 million dollars, but the Nature Conservancy only paid 13.9 million dollars originally, leaving TNC with a cool profit of 3.7 million dollars; not bad for a so-called non-profit organization. With a sweetheart deal like that, no wonder the Nature Conservancy is worth billions.

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says in part, "Private property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation." As Shakespeare said, "Aye, there's the rub," - paying just compensation. These radical environmental groups' greed and lust for land has exceeded even their considerable financial abilities. They now lust for sixty percent (60%) of all land in America. Even they cannot buy this much property. Solution: don't buy the land, just steal the rights to it. The stealing document required to make this happen is called a "conservation easement." How will these environmental groups gain control over three million acres of land surrounding this purchased tract? The answer is by forcing conservation easements on to private landowners.

Every thief thinks he has a good reason for stealing. But it is still stealing!

They can't take my land; this is America, you may say. But these groups have done so in the American West, and now they intend to do so here. This is how it is possible. First, you must understand what property really is, in the legal sense. Most people think of property as simply a thing or an object that they own, i.e.: a piece of ground or a home. But, in fact, what you actually own is the use of that property. A property's value is determined by what someone is willing to pay in order to use it.

One piece of property can have many potential uses and, therefore, many different valuations. To a farmer, a rocky mountaintop may be virtually worthless as farmland, but to a potential homebuilder, who likes the view from that point, it may be extremely valuable. When you own something in "fee," or "fee simple," it means that you own all rights to that property exclusively. You, alone, decide how, and by whom it is to be used, and its true value is determined by its highest valued usage.

But, if in the example above, a restriction or easement is placed on your ownership, such as "no home building permitted," then you have just had the highest valuation stolen from you. Your land was worth thousands of dollars per acre as home sites, now it is basically worthless, barren land. Although you still hold the deed, these restrictions have just stolen many thousands of dollars worth of usage options from you and your descendents.

Those imposing these restrictions have robbed you, as surely as if they had used a gun and taken money from your pocket. If the restrictions are severe enough, say, "no human habitation allowed," as in wilderness areas like those proposed around the "Walls of Jericho" area, you can be forced completely off your land, and lose 100% of its value.

If you already live in a city, why should you care about this? After all, it might be nice to someday go for a walk in the woods. Maybe it wouldn't bother you that the woods were stolen from their rightful owners, or that a government agency will not care for them as well as the people who love them. Well, first of all, where do you think all these people living in the countryside, and all those thousands of small towns are going to live when they are forced off their property?

The answer, of course, is that they are coming to live with you. They are going to be crowded into the same space already occupied by you and your neighbors, inside "the urban growth boundary," or "UGB." This influx of population will escalate housing costs, create over-crowding and traffic congestion, and drastically reduce your quality of life. Second, what is happening here is dishonest and un-American. To understand how rural America feels about this invasion, think: total strangers occupying your home, or forbidding you to enter your own back yard.

For most of us in rural America, our lives and our financial worth is directly tied to our property. Not many of us have stock options or mutual funds; we rely instead on our land as an additional, and sometimes the only source of food and income. The land is our investment for the future. It is our heritage. Most of our hard work, most of our efforts, and most of our money is tied up in the land. If you steal the value of our property, you have robbed us of practically all that we hold dear, all that makes us free. Our land nourishes us through the years, and it is the last great gift that we can give to our children. Because of these, and many other reasons, Southerners deeply love the land. We have always been willing to fight, and if necessary, to die, to defend it.

The time has come for the people of Alabama, and Tennessee to rise up once again, for we are under attack. Enemies have come in the night, not with a gun, but with a smile and a lie to steal all that we have, and deprive us of our independence. Their armies are not soldiers, but hordes of lawyers and real estate agents with promises of government money and seductive stories about protecting "the least of these."

Make no mistake. They do not love nature; they do not protect God's creatures, they hate the common man, and they hate your freedom to decide where you live and how you would use your land. They lust for power and control, and they intend to impose their "one world socialist view" upon us all. These elitists of our universities, the Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy and Hollywood, in league with government gone wild, believe that only they know what is best for us, the ignorant masses. They intend to lie, cheat, and steal (the end justifies the means), until rural America, both farms and rural communities, are just a footnote in history. They intend to force us off the land into their "sustainable" utopian cities where they, the enlightened, will lead, and everyone else has only to obey.

Environmental groups and federal agencies, dangling huge sums of federal money as bait, will try to entice local and state governments to sell us out. They will justify this stealing of our property in the name of preservation for future generations. They will promise that it is for hunting, fishing, hiking and sustaining beauty for people to enjoy forever; but it is not. As almost everywhere else these groups have gained a foothold, ever-increasing restrictions and controls will gradually remove people and restrict human incursions. This is an attempt to rewild America, to destroy private property owners and their rights to the land. This is pure socialism.

How do we stop this giant theft?

First, stop the money. If environmental groups had to actually use their own money and legally buy these properties, their profit motive would disappear. We must stop letting them use our own tax dollars to destroy us. We must de-fund "Alabama Forever Wild," and refuse to fund any further property confiscations under their socialist agenda.

Second, we must educate the public, and especially land owners, about the truth of environmentalism and conservation easements. These groups seek not to save the land or the animals, but to diminish the value of human beings, and destroy our ability for self-government. Private property is the basis of all free governments. If we allow the loss of our property rights, then the loss of all other freedoms will follow.

Third, call your Congressmen and your State Legislators. Educate them on the truth of the "Wildlands Project." Tell them that Alabama citizens are not willing to sell their birthright for thirty pieces of federal silver. Tell them to do the job we elected them to do.

We, the citizens, can defend Alabama best by not allowing our taxes to be used against us. We must fight against conservation easements, zoning, and other land use restrictions. We must stand firmly on our own ground, for to save ourselves, we must first save our land. If we sit silently by, our way of life shall surely perish. Our lands and our freedoms will be gone ... gone with the wind.

Kenneth L. Freeman is Chairman for the Alliance for Citizens Rights.