Citizens Alliance for Property Rights

Meets - Wednesday November 11th @ 7pm @ the Grays River Grange meeting follows the monthly meeting of the Grays River Habitat Enhancement District our flood and diking district. Please come and share your thoughts and ideas together we can save our properties.

We have the opportunity to affect CHANGE for the good
So We must try

We will not be led like sheep to the slaughter we have brains and therefore will become informed and save private property from NGOs and Government

Saving Our Farms

Grays’ River, Washington — Rerouting rivers, sloughs and drainage ditches, turning county roads into dams and making wing dikes, digging trenches through private properties, and stealing timber off these private property’s is the technique used by several “environmental groups that have descended upon the west end of Wahkiakum County. The unethical behavior and destruction of private property by these groups is beginning to raise a few eyebrows and turn a few heads. We have the opportunity to save our land from these groups. We must try or our farms, homes, and land will be nothing but swamp.

Residents of Wahkiakum County need to voice their objections to the county’s lack of support for their constituents. The county’s position on the issue has been a hands off approach. We must show opposition to these agencies being set free in the county. Ordinance 10989 has many provisions to protect private property rights and has been ignored by the county and the agencies. Many residents have voiced concern that the local government needs to stand up to the agencies.

The rights of private property owners and the resident’s way of life need to be taken into consideration. The agencies do not know or care what’s right for our community and has proven these by the several “projects” done that are causing havoc and damage in our community.

Ordinance 10989 states WHEREAS, the Board of County commissioners of

Wahkiakum County, Washington does find and declare that it is necessary for the protection and preservation of

the public peace, health, safety, and general welfare in regard to control of the

floodplain within Wahkiakum County, that certain rules and regulations, laws, and conditions established under the police power of the County, and pursuant to the laws of the United States of America and of the State of Washington.

The ordinance prohibits the intentional flooding to private properties which is what these agencies are doing. Such an ordinance is supposed to serve a valid public purpose and to otherwise serve to promote the prosperity, public health, safety and welfare of the residents of the county.”

Raven Webb, a local farmer and member CAPR, states the county cannot let the agencies under the guise of “environmentalists” overrun our lives and the production of food, destroy our farms, homes, property, and lives. There needs to be concern for the safety of the residents Webb says.

Section 1.4

METHODS OF REDUCING FLOOD LOSSES.

In order to accomplish its purposes, this Ordinance includes methods and provisions for:

(1) Restricting or prohibit uses which are dangerous to health, safety, and property due to

water or erosion hazards, or which result in damaging increases in erosion or in flood heights or velocities;

(2) Requiring that uses vulnerable to floods, including facilities which serve such uses, be

protected against flood damage at the time of initial construction;

(3)Controlling the alteration of natural flood plains, stream channels, and natural protective barriers, which help accommodate or channel flood waters

(4) Controlling filling, grading, dredging, and other development which may increase flood damage; and

(5) Preventing or regulating the construction of flood barriers which will unnaturally

divert flood waters or may increase flood hazards in other areas.

It is unlawful for any person, firm or entity to cause flooding upon other people’s property within the boundaries of Wahkiakum County. Penalties are required to be placed upon any firm or entity convicted of a violation of the ordinance. Parties found in violation would be guilty of a misdemeanor and would be “fined $1,000 per day and/or imprisonment of up to 90 days.

Wahkiakum County Sheriff, DANIEL L. BARDSLEY, Prosecuting Attorney DANIEL BIGLOW, and the Wahkiakum County Commissioners refuse to uphold the County Ordinance, State and Federal laws. Webb states, Property rights need to be defended.

The federal and state governments need to look at what the agencies are doing to people in rural areas; Webb also states that livestock are killed by the enhanced flooding caused by these agencies.

Redirecting, rivers, streams, sloughs, building obstructions in floodways has been allowed to continue since 2004 through present and had caused an uncountable economic hardship to the residents of Wahkiakum County. This is not been about Salmon recovery it about the large amounts of grant dollars given to these agencies our tax dollars. In a time when schools and parks are being closed, lack of funds for health care and elder care this year in Washington State the “environmentalists” were granted an extra 45.6 million to destroy rural America. Farm lands are becoming a thing of the past. Will we import all our food and how safe is that?

Wahkiakum County Commissioners have done nothing to protect their constituents. Wahkiakum County Commissioners have aided and abided and just allowed these agencies to ruin the lives of people trying to live in Wahkiakum County. Wahkiakum County Commissioners refuse to support Ordinance 10989 adopted May 9^th, 1989.

Let your voice be heard contact a commissioner today and every day. Let them know you do not support the taking of private property.

Join CAPR, be a bigger voice. Help yourselves before your property rights are just a memory. Join us to protect your property and ours. Be part of the solution. You have an opportunity to affect change, one must try!

saving private property

Action:

We are forming a new Chapter of

Citizens Alliance for Property Rights !

If you are not satisfied or have concerns with the decline in private property rights come join us for community involvement. Sharing concerns and ideas as to how to make this country better and save our property.

Attend and be added to our growing numbers.

Several Salmon have been swooshed into hay fields on Kandoll Road. Compliments of the alterations made by Columbia land Trust and Ducks Unlimited, without permits.

(This is not salmon recovery)

Several private property owners are suffering the adverse effects in loss of private property from these alterations. Several other private property owners are suffering from other Non Governmental Organizations that receive big bucks from governmental grants (your tax dollars).

Be there Wednesday, October 14^th @ 7pm Grays’ River Grange! This is A New Chapter of Citizens Alliance for Property Rights we will be holding elections.

Ron Ewart putting it in Perspective

The Awesome Power of the Individual,
Under Freedom!"
By Ron Ewart, President
National Association of Rural Landowners
© Copyright September 6, 2008 - All Rights Reserved

In spite of all of our individual and collective faults, there is a "great good" that exists in a very large number of us. That good is personified in a wide range of human traits and behavior, including private and public achievements, sacrifice, industry, creativity, empathy, generosity, spontaneous volunteerism and our can-do spirit. Unfortunately, due to the "distorted window" through which we view our information, that "great good" in us seems to be eclipsed by an over-zealous emphasis on that which appears to be "bad" within us. That over-zealous emphasis on what is apparently bad within us, is then used against us to tear us down and destroy our individual pride and spirit.

In all of life's creatures, nothing is as awesome as the goodness, beauty, strength, power, creativity, spontaneous generosity and spirit of the human individual, man, woman or child. That beauty, strength, power, creativity, generosity and spirit is manifested best, when they are allowed to flourish under the umbrella of freedom. Sure there is evil, but the goodness in man triumphs over that evil, time and time again.

To see the joy, exuberance and innocence of a little child, or watch the excitement in their eyes when they discover new things, is a wondrous sight to behold indeed. To experience the first love of a man and a woman as they grow into adulthood, that brings with that love, the gift of new life, new excitement, new achievements, new promise and new possibilities, is almost impossible to describe.

But those faces of joy and wonder turn to frowns, despondency and the loss of hope and their bodies shrivel up and become emaciated, when they are subjected to the Hell that is slavery, war, poverty or famine, or worse, a mindless collective.

Individuals, working either individually or collectively with other individuals, have been, are and always will be the movers and molders of a society, for good or evil. They are ultimately the decision makers and the risk takers, whether those decisions and risks be of the small variety covering our daily lives or the ultimately large decisions and risks that set the direction of cultures, countries, or hemispheres. Such individuals can either do so for sound, common sense motives, or for totally self-serving ones.

Most positive human achievement comes as a result of efforts of and by an individual, not a society or a culture. As a matter of fact, societies, cultures, religions and groups have generally stood in the way of most human achievements. Scientific discoveries, improvement in the human condition, or positive advances of government, come about from individuals working either by themselves or with a few others. A collective or a community didn't invent the light bulb. Thomas Edison, an individual, did. It is extremely unusual for large groups to accomplish anything. One only need look at our local, state and federal legislatures to see the truth in this statement.

If we must emulate someone, let us emulate the individual achievers. If we must follow, then let us follow in the footsteps of those that pioneer and forge ahead no matter what the odds or what peril lays in front of them. Intelligent, wise men and woman of vision forged the constitution of the United States. Courageous, individual pioneers settled the West against all odds. Now today, the individual spirit of thousands of entrepreneurs commence new businesses every day, risking their relationships with each other and their personal fortunes, no matter how large or small. They put up with every conceivable obstacle thrown in their path, not only from market forces but also by government regulation and edict.

Nevertheless, individualism is the engine that keeps the wheels of a free economy turning. Sixty to seventy percent of all jobs in the United States are created by individuals running their own businesses. What a country we live in. What a tribute to its resilient peoples. We are people of guts, courage, intellect, enterprise, fortitude and compassion. We are individuals in a sea of individuals and there is no strength on Earth that can match ours, in spite of our perceived troubles. That strength and power is a direct result of individuals and individual expression, living free.

But individual achievement in the United States today is getting a bad rap. As we move towards the collective, we either have to be part of some group to get accepted and our individual beliefs, goals and motives must be subjugated to the needs of that group.

The doomsayers will tell us that we are going to run out of power. We are going to run out of oil. We are going to pollute the environment and destroy the Earth with our cars and our industry. Our automobiles are going to quit running and our airplanes will quit flying and our ships will no longer ply the open seas. They con us into believing that it "takes a village" to raise a child. Poppy cock! These are the words of the quitters, the losers and the fear mongers. These are the words of those who wish to dominate the individual and break his spirit.

Ever since man first burned himself with fire and realized he could use it to his advantage, or transported some object by rolling a log and converted that idea to the wheel, he has been forever driven towards more knowledge, more understanding and a wider, larger, broader world in which he can explore. To do that he simply must go faster and he must develop the machines to achieve the ever-increasing speeds he will need to reach his goals. Man is driven by the one unique human trait that apparently does not exist in other creatures that share this planet with us. He is driven by that all-present, individual, joy of wonder and to go where no man has gone before. We are going to the stars one day and nothing anybody can do will get in our way. No amount of fear of the unknown, or nay saying about financing will stop us. The strength, power, creativity and spirit of the incomparable individual will carry us there.

Some day in the not to distant future, we are going to develop power sources that will literally boggle the mind. Our vision is that each home, each office, each business or building will have its own centralized power unit. And in that unit will have the source of energy to purify our drinking water, destroy our raw sewage and gray water, heat and cool our homes and offices and provide the electrical power for our lights and appliances. All these uses will be provided by one small or large unit within our homes, office buildings, or factories.

Think of it! Those in your twenties, watch how our planet will shrink in your lifetime. In ten to twenty years there will be airplanes or space ships that will leave the United States, rise into the stratosphere or higher, glide at two to five times the speed of sound and land in Russia in a couple of hours. At 3,000 MPH we can go halfway around the world in 4 hours, when a little over 150 years ago, we were limited to one or two horse power.

Personalized transportation will change dramatically. There will be air corridors for small, personal air units, whether they use the principals of helicopters and small aircraft, or some strange new power yet to be discovered. Maybe we will find a way to offset or neutralize gravity.

What an absolutely exciting time we live in.

There is no crisis here. There are just problems to solve and challenges to meet. Challenges are met by enterprising individuals working together with a common purpose, within the framework of sweet liberty.

We, as individuals, have a significant obligation to ourselves and to our children. We have the obligation to defend our freedom and to learn everything we can about everything we can know in our lifetime that we can document and prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and then pass as much of that information on to our offspring. We have an imperative to do no less. We have a responsibility to not abdicate this task to others. We shouldn't let our doctor, our teacher, our lawyer, our priest or clergy, much less our government, make decisions for us. They can be a source of information or counsel, but the ultimate decision maker is us, that is, if we value our freedom as individuals.

What we need to do, more than anything else, is to educate our people in all of the true knowledge we have discovered over the last 5,000 years and to foster unabashed individualism. Knowledge is the great equalizer among men. If all individuals possess the same knowledge, it is much more difficult, if not impossible, to “Lord” over the other, thus muting the necessity of war.

The problem in this country and every other country for that matter and every other people that exist on this earth, is not poverty. It is not the disparity between poverty and wealth. It is not pestilence or flood, famine, earthquake or any of these things. What it is, is the absence of freedom and property rights, pandemic ignorance and by the efforts of a few to break the backs and spirit of the individual. The power of the individual is a dictators worst nightmare.

What we need is a way to get more people motivated to seek that truth and their own "point of reference" and the solid basis of why their particular "point of reference" is relative to them. And we must resist with all of our might, government and special interest group's relentless perversion of the truth for their own ends.

We need to eradicate mysticism, propaganda, lies and distortion and replace them with the truth and universal, provable realities. And then we must teach our children to question even the provable realities and always leave room for a different perspective, a different view, or new information.

There are some real basics here and the hard cold truth of the matter is, we are individuals and no matter what the mechanism for getting here, we come into this world absolutely alone. No other person can live with us inside our bodies. Nobody else can be part of our soul. We are here unequivocally, irreversibly alone. As individuals, we must face all the trials and the joys and the sickness and the sorrow and death absolutely alone. Sure, others can hold our hands and stroke our brow, but nobody will die with us and although we won't say it out loud, most of us know it instinctively. In every sense of the word, we are totally unique individuals and only we occupy our "space" and our "time". But that individuality is the true source of our strength, power and creativity.

The stark reality is that if we destroy our God-given, natural freedom that allows our unique individuality to blossom and be all that we can be, we will descend into the Hell of the collective and it will take a bloody revolution to restore freedom and liberty so that the individual, once again, with all his strength, power, beauty, compassion, spirit and the joy of wonder, will lead man on the never-ending, exciting journey to explore our Universe. The Universe is waiting, if we don’t stumble and get in our own way.




Ron Ewart, President
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS
P. O. Box 1031, Issaquah, WA 98027
425 222-4742 or 1 800 682-7848
(Fax No. 425 222-4743)
Website: www.narlo.org

Citizen's Alliance Be There!

Donations to Columbia land Trust and Ducks Unlimited destroy habitat.

Pictures speak volumes. Beware when you donate to any environmental organization you could be helping destroy what you thought you were saving.

Once Upon a time life in the Grays' River Valley was Bliss. Children learned about how food is grown. They helped their Nanny plant vegetables to share with many.

Life was good, organic vegetables grew, children ate as they wandered among the wonders of growing things.



Gibzyn showing off his Pumpkins before we give them away to others.



Along came Columbia Land Trust partnering with Ducks Unlimited infiltrating the valley. Spewing smoke into the air, burning buildings (old homesteads) with lead and asbestos filling the air with toxins.






CLT and DU bring in the Monsters to destroy more.

This is the company who helps destroy peoples lives, farms, agriculture, habitat, and homes.

Big River Rock destroying hundred year old orchards and building a wing dike without permits to divert water into homes and private property.







This guy after talking with him and telling him no permits exist seemed concerned. He seems to be only trying to make a living. He is being used to destroy.



Another approach to destroy lives is theses culverts placed under a county road.

Columbia Land Trust removed a 36inch tide gate and replaced it with two - 13 foot culverts redirecting the Seal Slough, which increase the velocity and speed of water eroding several private properties. These culverts also flood a county road.




Salmon (fall Chinook endangered fish) are being redirected into hay fields where they are unable to spawn, the fish become coyote and bird food. This salmon is in my hay field. How does this benefit salmon?

This was once a county road that led to the Grays' River, many people in the community enjoyed walking, biking and picking wild berries, territorial apples, and plums along this picturesque tranquil road.

That was before Columbia Land Trust without permits destroyed the road by turning it into a wing dike. The road was built up seven feet, then eleven feet, and now is being built up thirteen feet. This decreases the flood way from several thousand acres into a mere 80 acres causing water from the Grays' River to funnel into private property, destroying farms, agriculture, homes, and lives, the water then floods SR4 closing the state hwy for days.

As you can see the velocity of water is so great that it washes the wing dike out each year. This year Wahkiakum County is using FEMA funds to help Columbia Land Trust raise this road again. Blair Brady a Wahkiakum County Commissioner in this district has sought the removal of Columbia Land Trust's "project" sighting hydrologists reports and CLT's own model which proves the "project" is destroying private property, Dan Cothren one of the other county commissioners is a Ducks Unlimited guy and Lisa Marsyla thinks CLT and DU are just so nice..


Columbia Land Trust's alterations, redirecting of Seal Slough and channeling the Grays' River into my home causes three foot waves to hit house. The house sits seven feet above the driveway water is 13.6 feet deep on the driveway when the water crested there was four feet in the house.

My home is 72 years old, CLT has lied and said this home has always flooded, if that were true the home could not be still standing, in fact the home is in better shape then some. I have a letter from the grandson of the people who built the house saying water was never in the house. My home as have many in this valley suffered greatly since CLT came to destroy our lives.

Six inches of mud is left to shovel after intentional flooding of my home.

1946 Willy's was completely mechanically restored in the loafing shed what was a safe area before CLT. This is just one of the many restored classics destroyed by CLT.

Floating vehicles, the blue is/was a 79 Mercedes Benz. Three foot waves come from CLT's "project".


Agricultural fields lay wasted, gardens are no longer an option, cattle have been removed as they can no longer graze as they had for over a hundred years. Farm animals had to be given away for their safety.

The ecosystem has been compromised that not even snakes dwell as they once did. Coyotes are thriving on salmon diverted into what was once hay fields.

This beautiful valley is under siege without any checks and balances. The officials refuse to come out and look at what has been done. David Martin, Army Corps of Engineers stated on 8-09-09 at 10:20am that these people have a stellar record, how does he know this, he gets his information from the agencies doing the damage. Everyone refuses to see what has been done.

Columbia Land Trust Destroying America by Land acquisitions, Lies, and Greed!

Columbia Land Trust can NOT be trusted.

Rural Genocide

Do you have common sense or not?

This is the question of the decade. People everywhere are coming to terms with the reality of “Rural Cleansing” and the goals of Agenda 21.

If you have common sense then you are aware or are willing to learn that Government, Non Governmental Organizations, and the UN have joined forces in a plot so obvious, yet so subtle, so seemingly benevolent, in reality NGOs like Columbia Land Trust are fundamentally evil. Some call this movement rural cleansing, I call it Rural Genocide.

Ian Sinks of Columbia Land Trust based on Officers Row in Vancouver, Washington has been procuring the Genocide of Wahkiakum County since 2004. Public statements made by Sinks include “people who live in rural areas are wasting the land; no one should own rural land”. Columbia Land Trust has opened an office in Astoria, Oregon to promote the Genocide in Oregon, headed up by Nadia, a Sinks clone.

These statements are not made lightly; they come from five years of West Wahkiakum County under siege, terrorized by Columbia Land Trust in partnership with Ducks Unlimited and Funded by the Salmon Recovery Board. “Willing Sellers” are made by alterations of waterways, dredging and filling, removal of tide gates, breaching dikes, erection of structures channeling rivers into homes, impoundment of water, and destruction of farm land and homes. This is the effort made by CLT to enact Genocide in Rural Communities. It is not just the people who live here, it is the animals CLT has flooded grazing grounds of countless deer, elk, prairie critters, and has diverted salmon into hay fields where they die. On the CLT web site Ian Sinks notes salmon like to graze and lay eggs in grass, I suppose deer now eat salmon how far we have come in “evolution”, stupidity is more like it.

The efforts of Columbia Land Trust has caused State Infrastructure damage, State Highways have been shut down for up to five days due to CLT “projects”. County Roads have been washed out and gravel embedded in streams, fill dirt and materials placed in navigable waters decreasing depth from 21 feet to a mere 9 feet, that is a fill of 11 feet in navigable waters.

Rural Cleansing – Rural Genocide plain and simple with devastating results to farms, Eco-system, and people. Columbia Land Trust, Ian Sinks and other NGOs are not hesitant in the least to evoke the widespread rape and murder that defines “ethnic cleansing” getting rid of the rural population. Raven Webb an unfortunate neighbor to a Columbia Land Trust “project” states she is not about to dig her own grave and be shot into the grave quietly, she will continue to cause a thunderous movement to stop Rural Genocide.

People are so naive, living in the city, not experiencing the reality of what NGOs are doing to the earth and only hearing the talk of NGOs and how they are “saving the environment” is the lie of the century. If people refuse to wake up, ask questions, get facts, of the true meaning behind NGOs we are all doomed, animals and fish included. The evil perpetuated by Columbia Land Trust has been unstoppable, donations continue, and tax dollars flow into their pockets. Facts would shut them down, people are unwilling to see the truth or stand for what is right; being honest can be a lonely place, it is the only place to be, I know no other.

One could say Columbia Land Trust has not fired a shot or forcibly made Wahkiakum County Residence dig their graves but the result has been the same. Many Residences lives, finances, homes, and retirement benefits lay in ruin due to the efforts and “projects” of Columbia Land Trust. Wahkiakum County is under siege by extremely well financed NGOs. In this small Rural Community there are over 7 NGOs making “willing sellers” Columbia land Trust is the biggest land holder in Wahkiakum County they own 1/3 of the County bought and paid for with your tax dollars.

The Endangered Species Act is the process used to expunge humans from their homes. Using the ESA, Columbia Land Trust is flooding people out of their homes. Older farmers and rural dwellers are easy targets for CLT they are offered buyouts at elevated prices and these struggling farmers after a few years of being flooded by CLT’s alterations become “willing sellers”. The “willing sellers” are lied to and told their land will be preserved; this has never been the case the land has always been altered to cause flooding to more neighbors thus making more “willing sellers”.

It is not about saving the environment. It is about Greed, Power, and Rural Cleansing which is a nice term for what it really is Rural Genocide, which means; Murder of an entire ethnic group (Rural private property owners): the systematic killing (destruction) of all the people from a specific group, (people who love the country) national, ethnic, or religious group, or an attempt to do this.

The environmental vultures insist on gobbling up rural private land. At least real vultures allow their victims to die before they consume them. Our private lands are not near death, they were abundant in wildlife before CLT, however, NGO's are anxious to divest them. If willing buyers are not to be found, they will be made. Many environmental groups and governmental agencies are so anxious to acquire private rural land, the only plausible explanation is to increase their already massive power and control. They have the insatiable appetite to add to their kingdom and further oppress the people and have a fanatic need to exert their influence over everything that moves or does not, or whether or not a problem exists. They will however, manage to create many problems in the process. And, it must be borne in mind that history has shown big brother to very often be a lousy steward of the land. The populace must wake up and recognize the monster, Hitler (NGO's) for what it is Rural Genocide.

Rural Cleansing

Michael S. Coffman, Ph. D.

For American Land Foundation

Our view of reality and the role of government in our lives greatly influence how we view property rights. Americans no longer have the opportunity to learn the foundations of freedom and to understand what it really means to have the God-given right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as penned by Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independ­ence. Since the 1970s, we are increasingly following another system of governance that is systematically destroying the very principle that has made America the greatest nation in the history of the world.

America is in a war of world views between the principles of freedom laid down by John Locke (1632-1704) in his Two Treatises on Government (1689) and Jean Jacques Rousseau in his Social Contract (1762) and Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (1754). Govern­ment’s purpose, accord­ing to Locke, is to join with others to “unite, for the mutual preservation of their lives, liberties and estate, which I call by the general name, property.” According to Locke, the primary reason for government “is the preservation of their property.” (Italics added) This fundamental principle became the cornerstone of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.

Rousseau attacked Locke’s model, arguing that individuality and property rights divide man by focusing on self-interest and greed rather than the good of society. He claims that property rights bind the poor thereby giving “new powers to the rich” that destroys “natural liberty” and equality and converts “usurpation into unalter­able right.” He argues for the creation of the common good as embod­ied through an abstract, public will he called the ‘general will’. In his model, the enlightened state deter­mines the general will of the people through the force of law, including how property will be used. Rousseau provided the foundational philosophy that spawned the bloody French Revolution and inspired the writings of Immanuel Kant, Georg W. F. Hegel and Karl Marx and many others, thereby planting the seeds for the European model of socialism and Russian communism.

Rousseau’s model of forced compliance has formed the basis of social and environmental laws in America since the 1970s. This is causing a hemorrhage in individ­ual liberties once taken for granted by all Americans, including property rights. Without private property, individuals are powerless to oppose any infringe­ment on their rights due to government control over the fruits of their labor. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the old Soviet Union, where all property belonged to the state. No one could speak out against the government for fear of their family being evicted, or their job taken away, by the local communist commissar.

Environmentalists claim that private property rights and greed are the root problem of pollution and environ­ment­al degradation. Yet, the worst pollution and environ­mental degradation has been on public land, water, or air – not private land. Since no one “owns” the land, water or air, pride of ownership or sense of responsibility to care for these entities is lost. It is called the Tragedy of the Commons. Again, the worst examp­les of this phen­omenon were the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe where there was no private property, yet they had the worst environmental record in the history of mankind.

Locke’s model recognizes and uses the human trait of self-interest to better oneself. Unencumbered private property provides the catalyst to stimulate individuals to be creative and take risk in finding a better way, product, or service to meet a human need – including protecting the environment. In Locke’s approach property owners would be restricted only by laws and regulations that keep them from activities that clearly cause harm to their neighbors or their property. If property is taken for the public good, the public pays just compen­sation.

Conversely, the Rousseau model places control in the hands of unaccountable, unelected government bureaucrats. Their primary incentive is to make their regulatory jobs easier and more efficient so they can build bigger empires at the people’s expense. Nothing is produced. Unless there is strong oversight of bureaucrats — something politicians rarely do — there is no account­ability to keep them from administering laws in a corrupt, arbitrary and capricious manner. While Rousseau social­ism does not destroy prop­erty rights as effectively as totalitarianism or communism, it nonetheless opens the door to corruption and dampens economic and personal freedom in proportion to the amount of regulation imposed.

In his compelling book The Mystery of Capital, Hernando de Soto accurately identifies private property rights as the key to reducing poverty and producing wealth. Legal title to use property represents equity. This equity can be used as collateral for a loan to create the capital needed to start, expand or buy into a business which then yields income and wealth. If strangling regulations encumber property rights there is little to no equity and therefore little to no capital with which to create wealth. Without wealth, the environment cannot be protected. A family whose primary focus is to put food on the table is not going to be interested in protect­ing the environment.

The most striking example of how socialism destroys the wealth-building capability of property is found in the developing nations of the world. In these nations the simple act of legally transferring the title to property can take years, even decades in a sea of corruption and regulations. Few people have the time or resources to legally own property and therefore the property has no legal asset value. Hernando de Soto has shown that the total value of property held, but not legally owned, by the poor of the developing nations and former communist countries is at least $9.3 trillion! This is ninety-three times as much as all development assistance to the developing nations from all advanced countries during the past thirty years. There would be no need for foreign aid if these poverty-stricken people could have access to the asset value of their presently dead capital.

The Endangered Species Act, wetlands regulations, the Clean Water Initiative and a host of other environ­mental laws have one thing in common. State control of property rights based on the Rousseau model which strips or plunders the value of property from rural landowners. It is harming, even destroying the economic foundation of rural communities and counties as tens of billions, perhaps hundreds of billions of dollars of property value has been transferred to the government via regulation.

The plundering of rural America has gotten so bad that a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) editorial on July 26, 2001, called it “rural cleansing.” The WSJ claimed that this is the intent of the environmentalists, “The goal of many environ­mental groups…is no longer to protect nature. It is to expunge humans from the countryside” by suing or lobby­ing the “government into declaring rural areas off-limits to people who live and work there.” This can be done outright or by having “restrictions placed on the land that either render it unusable or persuade owners to leave of their own accord.”

Contrary to the popular myth that environmentalists work on a shoe-string for the benefit of mankind, the October 20, 1997, Boston Globe estimated the total funding for environmental activism to be around four billion dollars annually! Using top-dollar Madison Avenue packaging, their Rousseau-oriented environ­mental message finds willing listeners in urban America. While we do need to protect the environment, these slick, but distorted or false messages have easily manipulated the largely uninformed urban voters and politicians into believing all kinds of terrible things are happening that can only be solved with big government control. In response, Con­gress has created an inter­locking web of Rousseau-based laws and regulat­ions that usurp local and state juris­dict­ions and bestow enorm­ous powers on federal bureau­crats who have little to no account­ability to those they gov­ern.

Anti-property rights activists use Rousseau’s “per­ceive­d good result” or the “public good” to attack the basis for constitutional property rights. Since the 1970s, activist courts have been systematically ruling that the use of private property and “the rights of the individual” endanger the rights of all the people. Yet, why should the last owners of wetlands, endangered species habitat, beautiful scenery or many other environmental and social benefits, have to shoulder the entire cost of protection or provision when the problem was created by the activities of thousands of other people? Most Americans would say that they shouldn’t. Yet, that is exactly what is happening to tens of thousands of Americans.

Government intrusion into the right to own and use property under the Trojan horse of the “public good” is beginning to cause great harm to American citizens, and is undermining the very foundation that has made America the greatest nation in human history. We can blindly continue to convert to the Jean Jacques Rousseau model of governance by the whim of bureaucrats, or we can return to the model of John Locke where private property is protected by govern­ment through law.

It is clear from a myriad of examples that the Rousseau model leads to corruption in government and a decline in the human condition while the Locke model yields freedom, prosperity and environmental protect­ion. Which one would you choose?

_________________________

Dr. Michael Coffman is president of Environmental Perspectives, Inc. and CEO of Sovereignty International Corporation in Bangor, Maine.

American Land Foundation

P.O. Box 1033

Taylor, Texas 76574

It is Official

It Is Official!

Wahkiakum County Is Lawless

Today is a Heartrending Day for All Americans Who Believed in Truth Justice and the American Way

It was determined that all elected officials are given discretionary privilege as to what laws to enforce, who to or not to protect against assault, and to protect private property or NOT!

It was well noted by several Wahkiakum County Residences who sought Justice Today Against well financed Columbia Land Trust and Ducks Unlimited who have caused personal injuries, trauma, and private property damage to several that the law does not apply to them! Nor do they have to be accountable.

RECKONING

Monday, 1:30pm December 8th, 2008 is a day of reckoning, the settlement of accountability.

Tomorrow is court in Wahkiakum County, Washington where it will be determined if in fact laws must be enforced and adhered to or if Wahkiakum County elected officials will continue to ignore their constituents.

Will Wahkiakum County continue to allow the lawlessness of Columbia Land Trust, Ducks Unlimited, and several other agencies that have caused physical and mental harm, private property damage, county property damage, and eco-system damage go unaccounted for?

This is the question of the day.

Columbia Land Trust and Ducks Unlimited were proven at fault in 2006 and again in 2008 by their own Model shown to Wahkiakum County Stakeholders. Several letters from these entities were presented as evidence to fault. Letters from several legislative branches, Department of Ecology, Department of the Insurance Commissioner, Governor Chris Gregorie, and several others stating these entities were working with their victims to make restitution (which was untrue) were also included as evidence, along with pictures, and a hydrologist report. 33 violations have occurred and are backed with evidence and case law.

Is the truth going to prevail or will the fancy side steps of the attorneys prevail?

This is a case for all, it is not just about Wahkiakum County, it is about how elected officials fail us, it is about how powerful organizations armed with your tax dollars through grants under the guise of “salmon recovery” and ESA can rob, destroy, and cause absolute devastation. Private property rights are what our country was founded on, it is becoming a thing of the past, and it is now shrouded in greed and deceit by entities posing as environmentalists.

Join with us as we demand JUSTICE for all!

The truth shall prevail. As justice, sanity, and common sense is a victory for all.

Raven Webb