Heart of the West

The Nature Conservancy has embarked upon a campaign to raise money to "protect" over a half million acres of "imperiled" habitat in Colorado.  TNC is accepting cash and real estate to generate $75 million to implement conservation easements and leases, land exchanges and management agreements to make sure private property is handed over to the proper authorities.  "The Heart of the West" campaign will take the message to rural communities to "educate" the locals with the aid of government agencies.  TNC spokesmen say they must strike now before any more land and critical ecosystems are lost to development.  "We're looking beyond county, state or even national boundaries to set our conservation goals, as Colorado's ecosystems are co-dependent with other natural environments around the world."  This supports and corresponds directly with the Wildlands Project, whose stated goal is to turn 50 percent of the country back into wilderness.
Nature Conservancy Campaign Protects Colorado Wildlands
 

Stop the Presses, Garter Snake Found Dead!

A San Francisco Garter Snake was found dead at the construction site of BART’s (public transportation) extension to the San Francisco International Airport.  There are no suspects and no one claimed responsibility for the atrocity, not even the SLF (Snake Liquidation Front).  "Nobody has ever been able to find out what happened to the snake and there was no evidence of foul play," said BART spokesman Mike Healy, as reported in the San Jose Mercury-News.  The investigation did cause a two-week delay in construction of the BART line and elevated the cost of the project by more than $1 million in lost time and extra wages.  Also, an agreement with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife required the hand-removal of blackberry bushes along several waterways, boosting the price by $1.8 million, including $25,000 for idle equipment costs.
BART Change Orders Add $50 Million to SFO Extension 3.69 Million Added to BART-SFO Extension
 

Funding Our Own Destruction

The U.S. taxpayer, through the generosity of federal agencies, is providing money to fund the conservation projects of 20 major environmental groups.  In 2000, $377,000 a day went to organizations whose mission is to wrest control of property from private owners.  The biggest winner was The Nature Conservancy, which last year received $37.5 million.  The Forest Service granted $30,000 to The Lands Council, a group that favors a ban on commercial timber sales on public forests.  The Forest Service also bank rolled the activities of the National Forest Foundation to the tune of $82,700 to pay consultation fees to a retired Forest Service employee and $123,500 spent to recruit new members.  Their efforts only garnered $13,000 in new membership fees.  A Website dedicated to erasing "urban sprawl, www.smartgrowth.org ", is written and funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  The same day the National Wildlife Federation sued the EPA over water quality, it applied for a $70,000 EPA clean-water grant, which was granted.  The federation won its lawsuit and even got the government to pay its legal fees of $14,000.  The flow of taxpayer dollars is not confined to U.S. borders, either.  Last year, more than $37 million flowed to environmental projects in foreign countries to pay for sustainable farming projects and eco-tourism events.  Maybe the Bush administration needs to be asked why we are funding organizations that seek to destroy our liberty.
Taxpayer Dollars Help Fund Many Environmental Groups
 

Microsoft Gives to Green Group

Microsoft Corporation donated more than $600,000 worth of software to the National Wildlife Federation under its Microsoft Technology Leadership Grant Program.  The program helps large national nonprofit organizations improve their delivery of service (propaganda) to constituents through improved use of information technology.  NWF president Mark Van Putten said the donation will "help the National Wildlife Federation be more effective in keeping the wild alive.  Whether it's working to save pristine places like ANWR, to put wolves back on the American landscape, or to help people discover and care for nature in their own backyards, we can't get the job done today without state of the art communication and management tools."
Microsoft Donates Software to Enviro Groups