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Public Lands Quotes

Browse 31 quotes about Public Lands.

Public Lands Quotes

“DeVoto observed in the 1940s that no rancher in his right mind wanted ownership per se of the public lands. That would entail responsibility, stewardship, and worse, the payment of property taxes. What the rancher who is farsighted has always wanted, and what extractive industry wants in general, is private exploitation with costs paid by the public.”

RanchersPublic Lands
Book:This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West
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“Attack the value of public lands as a national birthright, reduce their worth in the public eye, diminish the institutions that protect the land, cut down their authority, bring them into disrepute, undermine public confidence, neuter enforcement, create a climate of uncertainty and disorder, demoralize the land managers--this is the long game now being played.”

Public Lands
Book:This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West
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“Public lands seizure, conceived as a fell swoop of the sword, will likely never come to pass. The law bars it, precedent bars it, and the Supreme Court has spoken to this effect repeatedly. FLPMA, unless amended by Congress, establishes that the land shall remain in the hands of all citizens in perpetuity. I think the seizure will require more delicate schemes, slowly moving and imperceptibly violent. In Congress it starts with an amendment to an appropriations bill here and there. A rider or two or three to bills that otherwise must pass to maintain the budget. It’s easy to curtail the protection of seeming irrelevancies like grass, soil, water, air, and wildlife when the public is distracted with the question of whether the government will go on functioning.”

GovernmentEnvironmentPublic Lands
Book:This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption are Ruining the American West
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“The acreage of our federal public lands is equivalent to the entire country of Germany seven times over. These lands provide space for hunting, fishing, and leisure activities; wildlife habitats; clean-water protection; sustainable industry; and much more. All for the public. It's about as profoundly American an idea as you can find: the democratization of land and resources and food and recreation and wildlife and scenery and space and solitude.”

RecreationPublic Lands
Book:That Wild Country: An Epic Journey through the Past, Present, and Future of America's Public Lands
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“It was easy to see what Bundy and anti-public-land politicians really wanted: for public lands to be given to certain people. People who want land for their own gains--to mine it, graze it, drill it, or sell it--people who want to exploit it.”

Public Lands
Book:That Wild Country: An Epic Journey through the Past, Present, and Future of America's Public Lands
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“Maybe you weren't born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but like every American, you carry a deed to 635 million acres of public lands. That's right. Even if you don't own a house or the latest computer on the market, you own Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and many other natural treasures.”

IfsHouseBornNaturalMillionsLandComputerMouthsAreasDeedsTreasureGoldenSilverGatesRecreationSpoonsAcresCanyonsGrand CanyonYosemiteYellowstoneSilver SpoonsPublic Lands
Author:John Garamendi
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“To the Baptist Churches on Neal's Greek on Black Creek, North Carolina I have received, fellow-citizens, your address, approving my objection to the Bill containing a grant of public land to the Baptist Church at Salem Meeting House, Mississippi Territory. Having always regarded the practical distinction between Religion and Civil Government as essential to the purity of both, and as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, I could not have otherwise discharged my duty on the occasion which presented itself”

StatesGovernmentReligionHouseBlackChurchUnitedUnited StatesLandDutyCitizensEssentialsConstitutionFellowsBillsMeetingsPracticalsOccasionsGreekPurityDistinctionAddressesGrantsTerritoryBaptistsObjectionsMississippiCarolinaContainingNorth CarolinaConstitution Of The United StatesCreeksApprovingSalemPublic Lands
Author:James Madison
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“The Federal Government has a responsibility to manage wisely those public lands and forests under its jurisdiction necessary in the interest of the public as a whole. ... In the utilization of these lands, the people are entitled to expect that their timber, minerals, streams and water supply, wildlife and recreational values should be safeguarded, improved and made available not only for this but for future generations.”

PeopleShouldMadeWholeGovernmentValuesInterestWaterResponsibilityGenerationsLandEnvironmentalAvailableForestsManageStreamsSustainabilityEntitledFederal GovernmentFuture GenerationWildlifeMineralsTimberJurisdictionUtilizationPublic Lands
Author:Dwight D. Eisenhower
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“Wherever wolves run free, indigenous cultures have revered them as symbols of loyalty, free will, fearlessness and unity. But wolves haven't had it easy in North America, where negative myths prevail. Fear-based stereotypes and use of public lands for cattle ranching have resulted in Mother Nature's dogs being aggressively persecuted to the point of near extinction.”

UseRunningAmericaMotherCultureEasyLandDogHavensNegativeUnityMythLoyaltySymbolsFree WillStereotypeExtinctionIndigenousFearlessnessMother NatureCattleNorth AmericaPersecutedPublic LandsIndigenous CultureRanching
Author:Zoe Helene
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“Some corporations don't want free markets, and they don't want democracy. They want profits. And they use our campaign finance system to loot our commons, to steal from our treasury, and the other shared resources of our community - the air, the water, the public lands, the wildlife, the things that belong to all of us that are held in trust for future generations. Corporations cannot act philanthropically in America.”

WantUseAmericaWaterCommunityDemocracyGenerationsAirLandResourcesProfitCampaignsStealingFinanceCorporationsFree MarketFuture GenerationWildlifeOur CommunityTreasuryCampaign FinancePublic Lands
Author:Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
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“You'll have to have the governments sell off all of their public domains; sell off their railroads, sell off their public land. You'll essentially have to introduce neo-feudalism. You'll have to roll the clock of history back a thousand years, and reduce the European population to debt slavery. It's as simple a solution as the Eurozone has imposed on Greece. And it's a solution that the leaders and the banks are urging for responsible economists to promote for the population at large.”

YearsGovernmentSimpleLeaderLandThousandSolutionsResponsibleSlaverySellsPopulationDebtClockIntroducingThousand YearsEconomistDomainGreeceRailroadsFeudalismEurozonePublic DomainPublic Lands
Author:Michael Hudson
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“The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.”

PeopleShouldPoliticsWorkFreedomPovertyLandDebtBudgetsWelfareArroganceControlledRomeBalancedAssistanceLiving OnTreasuryGovernment SpendingSubsistenceForeign LandsBalanced BudgetPublic LandsGovernment AssistanceGovernment Welfare
Author:Taylor Caldwell
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“I have ever been opposed to banks, - opposed to internal improvements by the general government, - opposed to distribution of public lands among the states, - opposed to taking the power from the hands of the people, - opposed to special monopolies, - opposed to a protective tariff, - opposed to a latitudinal construction of the constitution, - opposed to slavery agitation and disunion. This is my democracy. Point to a single act of my public career not in keeping with these principles.”

PeopleStatesHandsGovernmentPrinciplesCareersDemocracyLandSpecialConstitutionSlaveryImprovementInternalsConstructionDistributionMonopolyProtectiveAgitationTariffsPublic Lands
Author:Sam Houston
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