Last Thursday night, the White Mountain Conservatives held a meeting designed to introduce, inform and educate the taxpayers, of the progress being made by Otero County New Mexico, in their effort to reclaim their land, save their forest, and the communities in and around the Lincoln National Forest. County Commission Chairman Ronnie Rardin, told the audience how Otero County was using the Law, case law, state law, supreme court decisions, and the constitution to take control of their land. He explained how doing nothing, which is what the Forest Service has been doing for decades, is endangering the health safety and welfare of the taxpayers in Otero County.
Apache County Arizona , is now stepping up to the plate and preparing to take back their land , before any more of it burns up do to mis management by the Fires equals Cash agency, otherwise known as the U.S. Forest Service. Now its time for Navajo County and any county in the country, that has been plagued by the actions of this agency. The federal government is broke, counties need to step up and learn how they to can save their forests and jump start their local economies.
There are many tools besides the Constitution that Counties can use to accomplish this . First is a County Sheriff that understands that he is the top law enforcement agency in a County. Second he or she must rescind all MOU’s. (Memorandum of Understanding) that heretofore gave law enforcement authority to forest service personnel. And Never , Never sign one.
Another tool that’s being used in New Mexico is their Senate Bill (1) the text of that Legislation is below. Arizona passed similar legislation in 1980, Senate Bill (1012) .However the counties nor the state has ever acted on it. To bad, it could have saved, 1.5 million acres of timber, and scorched land not to mention the loss of local economies, jobs, watersheds. That bill is currently under review and hopefully will be resubmitted to the Arizona state legislature in the near future.
Another issue that was discussed at Thursday nights meeting was the issue of “RS 2477″ Roads. The facts of this issue are avoided at all costs by the forest service, and the statute and case law that relates to this issue are mostly unknown by county and elected officials. We will address this issue in the next post, but keep this in mind. A RS 2477 road can be as simple as a Goat Trail, a fence line, an old logging road or two track. More on this later.
We are working to put the video of Commissioner Rardins presentation up soon! Well the file is to large to load, so if anyone wants a copy of the video , we will make a copy and send by snail mail. Send your request to “arizonasentinel@aol.com” . This information is very important if your interested in saving your forest.
