Commissioners urged to ask:
Are feds coming to take our land?
Staff writer
County Commissioner Kent Becker was so impressed with Angel Cushing, who spoke at a Patriots for Liberty meeting Sunday, he hyped her up to commissioners Monday and wanted her to talk to them about a federal plan to “grab” 30% of the nation’s land.
Becker said he was interested in the county passing a resolution, such as one passed last year by Butler County, that opposes the so-called 30 x 30 Program.
Cushing distributed booklets by American Stewards of Liberty that say the 30 x 30 Program is “a radical environmental agenda” that aims to take 30% of America’s land by 2030.
American Stewards of Liberty bills itself as a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting property rights.
“Proponents argue climate impacts are human-caused, and permanently preserving 30% of America’s land and oceans is necessary to reverse climate change,” the booklet says. “However, the science and data do not justify these extreme policy measures.”
The booklet claims the plan is “being aggressively pushed by the Biden Administration using the politically motivated climate crisis agenda to gain control of American’s land.”
It further claims that no credible scientific reasoning supports the need to preserve any specific amount of land to “cure” climate change, and that the government merely is seeking “to place other people’s land and property rights under the control of the administrative state.”
The booklet claims that 30% is only the first goal, and that 50% is an international goal known as the “half earth” agenda.
Becker said Cushing told Patriots for Liberty that the plan would be enacted using conservation programs, conservation easements, and historic trail development.
The Pike National Historic Trail, when developed, will pass through Marion County, Becker said.
He said the government uses trails for eminent domain.
“While there is language in the executive order stating the intent is to work with landowners and local representatives, there is no direction on how this well be carried out,” the booklet says.
The 30 x 30 plan is supported by Conservation Corridor, Center for American Progress, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club, Land Trust Alliance, and other organizations.
It is intended to conserve 30% of the nation’s land and waters by 2030. Signed by President Biden Jan. 20, 2021, it laid out principles but few details.
Butler County’s resolution opposing the 30 x 30 program states that the commission “opposes the designation and use of lands in Butler County to be included as a part of the 30 x 30 program, whether these be through conservation programs, easements, national heritage areas, wildlife preserves, wildlife corridors, open space, or other federal designations preventing the development and productive use of the resources on or within such lands.”
In other business Monday, commissioners gave a nod of approval for an agricultural equipment sales business to be developed east of Hillsboro.
They also voted to sell the county’s Florence ambulance sooner than planned.
“The ambulance has gone on two calls last year — when other ambulances were having work done,” ambulance director Chuck Kenney said.
State inspectors want work done on the ambulance, he said.
“I just don’t see the thought process of getting that work done before we sell it,” Kenney said.
Kenny said he would want to get another ambulance on order quickly.