Federal Lands

The Mountain States Legal Foundation is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the (un)wise (ab)use movement (Nov. 29). It is anything but real grass-roots. Any organization that gets the vast majority of its funding from corporations with an economic interest in raping the Western landscape (mining, grazing, off-road vehicles, etc.) obviously is not a people movement.

This whole “property-rights” movement is a sham sponsored by some of the most welfare-dependent industries in the nation. If they are so against the federal government, then why do they continue to cry every time there is an effort to curtail their federal subsidies? The double standards contained in their rhetoric are pathetic. Public lands belong to all Americans and it’s time to end the destructive favoritism given by the Feds to the unwise abusers.

TOM JONES

Communications Director

Mojave Earth First!, Barstow