Editorial
Debate in the county has drifted away from an honest discussion of the issues to a use of the basic magician's tool - distraction. Instead of using facts to support an arguement, people pull half-truths, or down right falsehoods out of their hats and use them to pull attention away from the actual issue before the group.
For example, several people have organized to stop the council from signing a letter supporting the protection of Bureau of Land Management Land in San Juan County.
Government bureacracy is the false bugaboo used as the distraction here. The fact that the land is part of the federal Bureau of Land Management is not mentioned. There is not an additional layer of bureacracy. The management of the land is just moved to a different part of BLM. The National Landscape Conservation System whose mission is conservation.
Those opposed to increased government bureacracy should focus their attention elsewhere - somewhere where it applies.
For the record:
If the 1,000 acres of BLM land becomes a National Conservation Area or a National Monument:
It will not affect fishing
The BLM is not going to purchase more land
Resources will be provided to protect the land
If a visitor's center is created, it would be in an urban area.
Without the protection, there is the possibility the land could go out of the BLM at some point in the future.
The above facts are based on testimony during a subcommittee hearing Senator Maria Cantwell's subcommittee hearing
part of it can be viewed here click here.
The Presidential proclamation would incorporate the same language Senator Cantwell and Representative Larsen have proposed.
Salazar said all of the above facts at the meeting held in Anacortes.
