Letter from Simon Halburian
Public Lands – November 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
Dear Ed,
The tourists aren’t looking past our mountains here in Central Colorado and this may be the case statewide. In the last few years I have seen a noticeable decline in hiking, camping, fishing, hunting, etc. And while I don’t have statistics, I suspect the numbers are not just flat but dropping.
I believe this decline is largely driven by government, not some unquantifiable abstraction like societal evolution. The outdoors was much more enjoyable when there were fewer government restrictions and regulations. When government taxes something, there is less of it. When government hassles citizens their participation diminishes.
For example, when I first came to Colorado, my neighbors and I were free to go to the National Forest and gather firewood whenever we wanted. We weren’t frustrated by arbitrary road closures or “designated” areas that no one could find. Neither were we stymied by permits, time constraints, inspections, etc., or directed to stands of unseasoned wood.
Doubtless we were helping ourselves but at the same time, and for many years, we were cleaning up the forest of deadwood.
This trade off didn’t suit President Ronald Reagan. When he learned that the public was taking firewood from public lands free of charge, he was outraged. He ordered the Forest Service to institute fees, and along with the fees came all manner of rules and regulations. The upshot of which was that, for a while, my neighbors and I endured the annoyances, but they only escalated.
Then, randomly, we put up our woodstoves and chainsaws, sold our pickup trucks and switched to natural gas, which we discovered was a lot less work.
The deadwood, that we formerly removed, now congests the forest and provides fuel to wildfires.
If Reagan were still here, I ‘m certain he could explain how the status quo is better.
Simon Halburian
Saguache