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The fight over preserving public land takes a twist in Montana’s mountains

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Re: The fight over preserving public land takes a twist in Montana’s mountains

#11

Post by milofeynman »

sliverstorm wrote: post #8
hellogoodbyeeee wrote: post #3

I feel pretty passionately about protecting national land. Are there any recommendations on how to best support it? I don't live near any federal lands and I'm generally don't trust lobbyist groups. Should I be donating to the Sierra Club? Or are there other alternatives?

I don't really know either. For clothing you were going to buy anyway, you can spend money with Patagonia & company, who are wading into the fray. You can try to connect with sportsmen's groups and donate or get involved; I'm not a sportsman, but they have been the most effective political force defending public land this year.

There is a great episode of How I Built This about the cofounder of Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard, and his values. http://one.npr.org/?sharedMediaId=504852483:505017995

Re: The fight over preserving public land takes a twist in Montana’s mountains

#13

Post by barsonme »

hellogoodbyeeee wrote: post #3

I feel pretty passionately about protecting national land. Are there any recommendations on how to best support it? I don't live near any federal lands and I'm generally don't trust lobbyist groups. Should I be donating to the Sierra Club? Or are there other alternatives?

Other than using the federal lands more _and_ contacting your representatives (via phone!!) to express your support for keeping public federal lands, yes, donate.

While your money probably won't be ill-spent with your run-of-the-mill environmental groups, I'd really recommend searching out right-leaning groups that support public federal lands, like the American Conservation Coalition (https://acc.eco).

Sadly, the right has—for a variety of reasons—all but abandoned environmentalism and that's been a major hurdle for those of us who want to protect the environment. Eco-right groups have a _much_ better shot at changing the opinions of right-leaning folk than progressive groups like the Sierra Club do.

Full disclosure: I'm one of ACC's 42 unpaid volunteers.

Re: The fight over preserving public land takes a twist in Montana’s mountains

#14

Post by jacobwilliamroy »

hellogoodbyeeee wrote: post #3

I feel pretty passionately about protecting national land. Are there any recommendations on how to best support it? I don't live near any federal lands and I'm generally don't trust lobbyist groups. Should I be donating to the Sierra Club? Or are there other alternatives?

Phoning your government officials works well.

This website takes an address, and returns names and phone numbers belonging to your government representatives. I don't use my home address. There's a grocery store a couple blocks away whose address I use:

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/take-action/contact-your-...

Tell them your name and what city you live in. This is so they can decide whether or not to write you off; if you're not a resident in the district which they were elected to represent, your opinion really doesn't matter.

Tell them specifically, in plain english what it is that you are FOR or AGAINST. All they want to know is "When I am asked to vote 'yes' or 'no' on this issue, which binary response will get me more approval from my constituents?" So all you have to say is:

  "My name is . I live in . I am | ."
If you're unsure what language to use, or what legislation is related to your cause, try visiting university campuses, national parks, or local conservation groups. Attending meetings and talking to professionals in the field is a good way to get informed about what you care about.

Re: The fight over preserving public land takes a twist in Montana’s mountains

#15

Post by megaman22 »

drewnick wrote: post #4
dredmorbius wrote: post #2

By coincidence, "Freedom to Roam" came up in a recent HN thread: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam the general public's right to access certain public or privately owned land for recreation and exercise. The right is sometimes called the right of public access to the wilderness or the "right to roam". In Scotland, the Nordic countries of Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, the Baltic countries of Estonia…

New Hampshire also has a pretty unique culture regarding hunting on others' and public land: "Based on long-standing tradition, nearly all lands in the state of New Hampshire are open to hunting. The "rule of thumb" in New Hampshire is: all state, federal, municipal, county and private land is open to hunting unless it is posted against hunting." http://www.wildlife.state.nh.us/hunting/where-hunt.html

I know that it is the same in Maine (or it was), and I believe Vermont. It's generally considered common courtesy to get permission from the landowner first.

It's one of those situations where a few yahoos can ruin it for everybody else. Or on the other hand, the influx of people "from away" who are ignorant of or opposed to the mostly unspoken way of doing things.

Re: The fight over preserving public land takes a twist in Montana’s mountains

#16

Post by KGIII »

trafficlight wrote: post #9
KGIII wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not Federal and I am going to just quietly link to an option. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_Trust_Alliance

Definitely. We have a lot of different alliances around Montana. http://www.montanalandtrusts.org/memberdirectory/

One of the great benefits about living where I do (Maine) is that so much land is open for public use. I don't want to derail the thread so I will simply point out that it is really easy to cede your land to a trust, in many areas where that's actually beneficial. Some trusts are set up to accept donations in cash, as well. So, either way helps preserve land for public access in perpetuity.

Re: The fight over preserving public land takes a twist in Montana’s mountains

#17

Post by kharms »

barsonme wrote: post #13
hellogoodbyeeee wrote: post #3

I feel pretty passionately about protecting national land. Are there any recommendations on how to best support it? I don't live near any federal lands and I'm generally don't trust lobbyist groups. Should I be donating to the Sierra Club? Or are there other alternatives?

Other than using the federal lands more _and_ contacting your representatives (via phone!!) to express your support for keeping public federal lands, yes, donate. While your money probably won't be ill-spent with your run-of-the-mill environmental groups, I'd really recommend searching out right-leaning groups that support public federal lands, like the American Conservation Coalition ( https://acc.eco ). Sadly, the…

Why do you recommend seeking out right-leaning groups?

Re: The fight over preserving public land takes a twist in Montana’s mountains

#18

Post by davidw »

barsonme wrote: post #13
hellogoodbyeeee wrote: post #3

I feel pretty passionately about protecting national land. Are there any recommendations on how to best support it? I don't live near any federal lands and I'm generally don't trust lobbyist groups. Should I be donating to the Sierra Club? Or are there other alternatives?

Other than using the federal lands more _and_ contacting your representatives (via phone!!) to express your support for keeping public federal lands, yes, donate. While your money probably won't be ill-spent with your run-of-the-mill environmental groups, I'd really recommend searching out right-leaning groups that support public federal lands, like the American Conservation Coalition ( https://acc.eco ). Sadly, the…

Interesting. What kinds of things has your group accomplished?

I'm not a conservative, but the Sierra Club will never see a dime from me until they lay off mountain bikers. It seems so stupid to antagonize a group that could share about 99% of what they want to accomplish.

Re: The fight over preserving public land takes a twist in Montana’s mountains

#19

Post by francisofascii »

hellogoodbyeeee wrote: post #3

I feel pretty passionately about protecting national land. Are there any recommendations on how to best support it? I don't live near any federal lands and I'm generally don't trust lobbyist groups. Should I be donating to the Sierra Club? Or are there other alternatives?

Here is another one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trust_for_Public_Land I am having a hard time determining the difference between these organizations. There seems to be plenty of advocacy. I am particularly interested in organizations that pool money from donations, buy land from these private ranchers, and then turn around and donate it back to the public.

Re: The fight over preserving public land takes a twist in Montana’s mountains

#20

Post by barsonme »

kharms wrote: post #17
barsonme wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other than using the federal lands more _and_ contacting your representatives (via phone!!) to express your support for keeping public federal lands, yes, donate. While your money probably won't be ill-spent with your run-of-the-mill environmental groups, I'd really recommend searching out right-leaning groups that support public federal lands, like the American Conservation Coalition ( https://acc.eco ). Sadly, the…

Why do you recommend seeking out right-leaning groups?

Lots of environmental issues get tied up in a debate that usually goes like:

    Left: "Issue X is a problem"
    Right: "No it's not"
    Left: " ... "
...and repeats ad nauseam. If the right was more open to solving environmental issues, we wouldn't have these issues and the debate could be about policy, not the existence of the issue itself.

Right-leaning groups already have an "in" with the right and will naturally be better at educating and convincing the right than left-leaning groups.

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