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Below is the text of yesterday's feature article from ENN.COM, titled: "Land Privatization Sets Off Alarms".
In that article, George W. Bush's public lands advisor Terry L. Anderson gets to eat a triple helping of crow!
When you read this, please remember that Anderson and his organization are amongst the chief proponents of the Recreation Fee Demo Program!
Scott
---begin quoted---
March 13, 2000
Land Privatization Sets Off Alarms
By Pat Murphy
All along the watchtowers in the environmental community, alerts went
out last December when the Washington-based Cato Institute published a
25-page document with the chilling headline, "How and Why To Privatize
Federal Lands."
Terry Anderson's privatization proposal is alarmingly simple: Give each
American a deed to a proportionate share of the 600 million acres of
land now managed by the federal government over the next 20 to 40
years, and let deed holders keep or dispose of their shares as they see
fit.
Anderson, 53, is quick to concede the plan isn't politically viable and
won't be considered anytime soon. "It got more attention than they
(Cato Institute) dreamed," Anderson said. "The main reaction from the
environmental community is that 'this bodes terrible for the future of
conservation in the United States.' "
The proposal also raised flags when one group, the Southwest
Biodiversity Center in Tucson, identified Anderson as "environmental
adviser" to Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
Anderson said he and others met once with Gov. Bush and did not discuss his plan.
"I don't anticipate this will come up at all with Gov. Bush, and it's
not something that will rise up in his platform, nor is it something a
presidential candidate will run with," he said.
Scott Silver, director of Wild Wilderness, is quick to denounce
Anderson's plan. "As soon as we turn the wilderness into a cash
commodity, it will evaporate," he said.
Both the Cato Institute and Anderson, who directs the Political Economy
Research Center in Bozeman, Montana, identify themselves as "market
liberals." Anderson's nonprofit group, however, confines its work to
environmental matters and policies involving "enviro-capitalism."
The only second thoughts Anderson has about the document is that he
would have acknowledged the political improbability of his proposal,
and then focused on "rethinking public land management policies," which
Anderson says have been costly and inefficient.
Although his plan for privatizing public land is pure in libertarian
theory, its implementation would be a practical nightmare, critics say.
According to Anderson, each American man, woman and child at some point
in time would be issued a lottery number that would coincide with a
plot of federal land.
Numbers would be drawn, and deeds to slightly more than two acres each
would be awarded to those holding corresponding numbers, he explained.
The land might be anywhere. A resident of New York might receive a deed
for public land in Arizona. An urban homeless person might receive a
deed for a rural plot in North Dakota.
What deed holders would do with their newly found property would be
their choice: homestead, sell, trade, donate or organize adjacent deed
holders into a community.
Deeds could even be sold to land developers, mining firms, timber
corporations, ranchers, agri-syndicates and other businesses that might
scout deed lists for names of owners of parcels in one area.
Anderson admits some covenants might be necessary to restrict uses. But
he believes corporations share the values of environmentalists in
matters such as stewardship of land.
Anderson also said:
"There's nothing to guarantee that private owners will always get it
correct, but at least owners have a long-term stake in the sustainable
value of the (land)."
"If all lands could be privatized, there would be no need for agencies."
"I don't expect Congress (to champion my idea) because there are too many interest groups that benefit from the status quo."
Books published by Anderson's PERC include "Free Market
Environmentalism," "Wildlife in the Marketplace," "Enviro-Capitalists,
Doing Good While Doing Well," "Water Marketing: The Next Generation."
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- Privatization 
