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This article from the February 2000 Rocky Mountain Federation News, are especially timely in view of the two new "National Monuments" just designated in Arizona,which will probably result in lands being made off-limits to mineral collectors. Thank Lois Splendoria for bringing it to our attention!
(The following editorial is from the Western Dakota Gem & Mineral Society's Bulletin, the Ammonite, January 2000 edition.)
FROM THE EDITOR
by Don Rathert
I sat down to write but I fell asleep and then started to dream. All I could see were barricaded roads and dead and fallen trees. As I passed the trees I saw some grass but was told I couldn't pass, it was reserved for a different class. The human species, I was told, would have to go, as we were not part of nature's fold. I sat on a stump to contemplate what I was told. I started home but was stopped at the gate and was told, "you must move as the land was sold". "But it is mine" I said and was told "no, individuals can't own land or home." As I dreamed on I saw a sleigh landing just across the way. The man in red looked around and seemed confused by what he found. He then was told he couldn't land on wilderness or federal ground. While trying to decide where that would be, he was cited for trespass and loitering. His reindeer were impounded because it was said he was abusing them by hitching them to his sled. As I dreamed on, I was told, the Feds know what's best for young and old. As I looked around, all I could see was old dead trees and dried up grass. Then some women and some men walked up the path and looked around, you could see their wrath. Enough is enough and they turned away only to be told "you must stay", but the Feds were swept along the way as the people were heard to say, "We're writing a new song when the government was by the people, not the other way around. We know what we want and it is not a king of old who tells us when we are hungry or cold, we know what we want and it's not a dictator. We will manage this country with an eye to the sky, not to the bureaucrats who want the whole pie. We can't save all creatures and plants on this earth. The mammoth and mastodon lived in the past as did the dinosaur and others, they couldn't last. Maybe they just couldn't adapt. To survive you must be able to change. I see a coyote go trotting by, he has made a new way to live with people, not die away." I awakened to find this was a dream, or was it?
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A year ago, I was among a group of people who met for many hours. I for one, drove over 400 miles to attend these meetings. We reached a consensus on wilderness in the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. We agreed there should be no wilderness areas designated in the grasslands and further agreed on a 600 plus acre area as back country wild area allowing motorized vehicles only for weed or fire control or fence or
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