JoseCuervo
New member
"Access" and "Be Prepared" Boogie Men and Public Lands Transfer Legislation
Spent last Saturday at a "townhall" type of public meeting for 3 Idaho legislators.
They were having a series of meetings in 3 small towns, to "hear" constituent concerns.
The first meeting was up in Council, a small, former timber town, that is now mostly just a rural ranching town. I understood the meeting was a "disaster" from the standpoint of the legislators being unprepared to deal with a bunch of hunters/public land advocates. Quite a few of the Conservation groups and BHA had publicized the meetings and encouraged people to attend.
The second meeting was in Fruitland, a suburb of New Plymouth, and ended up with a standing room only crowd at the City Hall.
Ryan Kerby, one of the Representatives circulated around the room before the meeting, “introducing” himself, and asking people where they were from. They obviously were tuned into the audience being full of people from the “Republic of Ada” (their words) and not being their locals.
The meeting started with each of the three legislators (Ryan Kerby, Abby Lee, and the infamous Judy Boyle) attempting to give long, drawn out introductions, hoping to run out the clock so they could move on to their next meeting, and duck any questions from the crowd.
Then, the Fruitland Mayor, hosting the event, opened it up to questioning, but wanted to have locals ask questions first, and, then if time permits, the people from Boise could ask questions.
That didn’t happen, but it was his goal.
First question was Public Lands, and the floodgates were open
.
The first questioner actually referenced the term “snake oil” in respect to a comment by Judy Boyle, and Kerby tried to admonish him to “not use language like that”, so, apparently all the efforts of calling the ALC scam as “snake oil” has worked, and hit a nerve.
The meeting went on, questions kept coming in support of Public Lands, deflections kept being volleyed back.
Two things came to light, to me.
The GOP is promoting the legislation for the Transfer of Public lands under two false pretenses.
First, “We need to be prepared”, you just never know what those crazy congress people in DC will do, and we might find all the land suddenly transferred to Idaho, so we need lots of laws dealing with how Idaho will manage the land much better than the Feds ever could.
And, Second, all of these transfer ideas are pro-hunting because of “Access”. The Federal government has shut off the access for hunters, and that is one of the benefits of Idaho owning the lands, we will have access to the lands. Just look at how many FS gates there are, how many roads have been closed. We need the access.
(Now, lest you think these were the only two arguments, Judy Boyle brought up the “constitutional” aspects and how the Federal Govt can’t own property, etc… and how Idaho needs to be on the same level playing field as eastern states. For those wondering, Judy Boyle was one of the Idaho legislators who travelled to Burns last year to hang out with the Bundy Brothers.)
Spent last Saturday at a "townhall" type of public meeting for 3 Idaho legislators.
They were having a series of meetings in 3 small towns, to "hear" constituent concerns.
The first meeting was up in Council, a small, former timber town, that is now mostly just a rural ranching town. I understood the meeting was a "disaster" from the standpoint of the legislators being unprepared to deal with a bunch of hunters/public land advocates. Quite a few of the Conservation groups and BHA had publicized the meetings and encouraged people to attend.
The second meeting was in Fruitland, a suburb of New Plymouth, and ended up with a standing room only crowd at the City Hall.
Ryan Kerby, one of the Representatives circulated around the room before the meeting, “introducing” himself, and asking people where they were from. They obviously were tuned into the audience being full of people from the “Republic of Ada” (their words) and not being their locals.
The meeting started with each of the three legislators (Ryan Kerby, Abby Lee, and the infamous Judy Boyle) attempting to give long, drawn out introductions, hoping to run out the clock so they could move on to their next meeting, and duck any questions from the crowd.
Then, the Fruitland Mayor, hosting the event, opened it up to questioning, but wanted to have locals ask questions first, and, then if time permits, the people from Boise could ask questions.
That didn’t happen, but it was his goal.
First question was Public Lands, and the floodgates were open
.
The first questioner actually referenced the term “snake oil” in respect to a comment by Judy Boyle, and Kerby tried to admonish him to “not use language like that”, so, apparently all the efforts of calling the ALC scam as “snake oil” has worked, and hit a nerve.
The meeting went on, questions kept coming in support of Public Lands, deflections kept being volleyed back.
Two things came to light, to me.
The GOP is promoting the legislation for the Transfer of Public lands under two false pretenses.
First, “We need to be prepared”, you just never know what those crazy congress people in DC will do, and we might find all the land suddenly transferred to Idaho, so we need lots of laws dealing with how Idaho will manage the land much better than the Feds ever could.
And, Second, all of these transfer ideas are pro-hunting because of “Access”. The Federal government has shut off the access for hunters, and that is one of the benefits of Idaho owning the lands, we will have access to the lands. Just look at how many FS gates there are, how many roads have been closed. We need the access.
(Now, lest you think these were the only two arguments, Judy Boyle brought up the “constitutional” aspects and how the Federal Govt can’t own property, etc… and how Idaho needs to be on the same level playing field as eastern states. For those wondering, Judy Boyle was one of the Idaho legislators who travelled to Burns last year to hang out with the Bundy Brothers.)