Say It Again George

THAT WARM FUZZY FEELING

We Pay More -- You Pay Less

be green ?
It snowed last night and this morning
opening day prognostication - tomorrow

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.. George Wurethner in NEW WEST points us to the need for careful scrutiny in the expenditure of public funds for conservation easements.
.. He argues for more transparency in the process and an explication of the "good" being done in both ecological and fiscal terms. It's well worth a read if you care about the increasing trend of land trusts subsidizing grazing on public lands. If you don't care about that, how about the price for 100 bison to graze outside Yellowstone National Park -- $1,500,000. Yes that's one point five million dollars, (this time.)
.. This comes close on the heels of our post about the Nature Conservancy adding a 4,682 acre easement to a growing easement around the Blackfoot River. It gives one pause.

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Background:

-- Ascended Masters are persons who once lived on earth. By the experience of Reincarnation, they have, through trial and testing, rid themselves of negative Karma, have become perfected, and have ascended back to their divine source or “God.” The Ascended Masters belong to a larger order consisting of Eastern Masters and Western Saints known as the White Brotherhood. White refers to the aura of white light that surrounds these ethereal beings.

When Ascended Masters find sensitive persons like Mark and Elizabeth, they use these individuals to convey their messages to others. The hearers are thus transformed and placed on the road to ascension.

When Mark Prophet was “called” to be a messenger, he distributed the Masters’ teachings in letters known as Pearls of Wisdom. When he died in 1973, Elizabeth Prophet carried on his works. She renamed the organization from Summit Lighthouse to Church Universal and Triumphant. Elizabeth now receives messages or “dictations” from the Masters and through classes, sessions, and writings, she transfers the “truths” to her hearers.

-- The Royal Teton Ranch, owned by a religious cult the Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT), is located within North America's largest wildlife migration corridor directly adjacent to Yellowstone's northern boundary.

In 1998 U.S. taxpayers spent $13 million on conservation easements to allow wildlife, including wild bison, to access these lands. The government never finalized the deal.

"Hundreds of bison are being captured and slaughtered at Yellowstone's northern boundary exclusively because of the CUT's refusal to honor the intention of the land exchange to provide needed winter range habitat for migrating bison," stated BFC's Josh Osher.

-- The violet flame works a little like soap. Soap gets dirt out of your clothes by using the positive and negative charges of atoms. It works because each of its molecules has two sides-a side that is attracted to dirt and a side that is attracted to water. The dirt-loving side attracts the dirt, like a magnet attracts paper clips when it is dragged through a box of them. The water-loving side sticks to the water, carrying the dirt with it.

When we invoke the violet flame, it sets up a polarity between the nucleus of the atom and the white-fire core of the flame. The nucleus, being matter, assumes the negative pole; the white-fire core of the violet flame, being Spirit, assumes the positive pole.

-- Although too small in landmass to provide the title “Free-ranging Yellowstone bison,” the range is released through a pact agreement and collaboration between three federal agencies, two Montana agencies, one private landowner and a coalition of four non-profit organizations. Officials announced the agreement Thursday.

-- “If everything goes right over the years and all the bison ‘behave,’ the best-case scenario will take us to Step 3 of the existing IBMP where only 100 untested bison will be allowed to use the corridor and the small acreage of public land in Zone 2 west of the river and south of Yankee Jim Canyon,” Hockett says. “Thus in a year like this one, instead of 1,300 bison being captured by the government and sent to slaughter, the government would capture 1,200 bison and dispose of them accordingly.”

-- The 2000 Interagency Bison Management Plan provided $2.8 million for the 30-year grazing lease on the Church Universal and Triumphant’s (CUT) Royal Teton Ranch, but APHIS Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Bruce Knight says his agency will not be able to provide the $1.5 million needed to meet state and private funds. APHIS currently has a $9 million budget to manage the disease brucellosis. The lease was intended to allow increased bison tolerance by allowing animals exiting the park to access winter forage on the CUT’s property.

-- The combination of continued population growth in Montana’s valleys and insufficient legal regulations for rivers has county governments across western and southwestern Montana, including Missoula, wrestling with potential streamside setback regulations. Last year the state legislature briefly considered a state-wide setbacks bill before deciding the issue should be handled at the county level.

-- The grazing association has leased the Plum Creek land for grazing for 45 years. “That ground was an important part of our operation,” according to Stew Schwartz of the grazing association. “If the Plum Creek land was subdivided, it would have put a lot more people and houses in the middle of our cows and that doesn’t make running cows any easier. We’ve all had to give a little to make it work, but I think it’s going to be great,” added Schwartz.

.. Say it again George. There seem to be concerns here that have very little to do with bison or trout. It's America; its $$$$$.