Many people want to turn over all our Federal lands to the states. These people are as shortsighted as Mr. Magoo. I wrote about this danger last year in A Call to Action, that I recommend you read since it is now being discussed by some of our Presidential candidates. No need for me to retake it here.

In this article “Ted Cruz vows to sell-off or give away the state’s national parks, national forests, national monuments, and other public lands.” The article goes on to say that of the Republican hopefuls, only Donald Trump and Jeb Bush are against transferring our Federal Lands to the states. Bush is now out of the race, so at first thought, Trump would be the only acceptable Republican candidate to the millions of Americans who support setting aside and protecting our wild lands.

But is Trump truly an advocate for wild lands?

We do know trump is an advocate of eminent domain, which is taking property from citizens to develop it for commercial or other use. Hell, he’s a real estate developer. Until he states otherwise, I will assume that Trump, like many politicians see our wild lands, especially National Parks, as opportunities for economic development, creating franchises to allow special interests to make a lot of money from our Federal lands, instead of protecting and trying to keep them in their wild state – Edward Abbey called this “Industrial Tourism.”

Here is my nightmare vision of this…

I’m not saying Trump would do something like this, but it seems to be the next logical step, if past performance is any indication of where we might be headed. Oh, you say, the public wouldn’t allow this. Are you sure? We have significantly more casinos than any country in the world. I’m not against casinos or gambling either — if people want to throw away their money its none of my business. I would like to know where the only remaining Republican candidate who is against transferring Federal land to the states really stands on how we protect the national resources. The others I will not vote for.

I’m not picking on Trump, but I want to know more on how or if he will protect our public lands. I don’t think he’ll stick his neck out, he has already differentiated himself from the competition.

If he needs help with a National Park policy, I suggest he use my 10 Point Plan for Yosemite.

1. Remove all roads in the Park. This means Hwy 120 first. It does not mean barricade the road, it means remove the pavement, bridges, tunnels and all other improvements.
2. Remove all roads within 20 miles of Yosemite. See #1 for particulars. This means hikers will have to walk 20 miles to get to any Yosemite border.
3. Remove all buildings, walkways, bridges, and anything man made.
4. Clean up the backcountry. Remove trail signs, cairns, and all navigation aids.
5. Allow no one to operate a business in, to, or out of Yosemite.
6. Make it a Federal Offense to maintain any trail. This includes trimming trees and shrubs, cutting blow-downs on any trail.
7. Ban all domestic animals to include horses, mules, and dogs.
8. Ban all mechanical equipment to include drones and helicopters of any kind.
9. Adjust, jam, or scramble our satellite system to prevent any GPS, radio, microwave, cell, or communication signal from reaching any area of the park.
10. The only job for any Ranger will be to walk the backcountry and enforce these rules.

We owe it to ourselves to leave our wild lands wild for the enjoyment of all future Americans. WE CANNOT AFFORD TO JEOPARDIZE THESE LANDS BY GIVING TO THE STATES.