First, I thank Andi and Nathan Bourne for making the Pathfinder an award winning newspaper that in a sense belonged to all of us.
And I thank Andi and Nathan for inviting me several years ago to be a contributor to the Place For All column.
My latest submission to that column in the 14 December issue was more an introduction to who and what I am, and it may be my last contribution.
Most of my previous submissions dealt with our public lands and wildlife, and for my latest I had intended to write about our federal lands, my first and foremost concern yet again. There is renewed talk about transferring our federal lands to the state. Consider the approximately 160,000 acre Rice Ridge Fire of 2017. Total suppression cost for that fire: between $33 million and $40 million. That year our state land management agency had run out of funds. We know what will happen if our federal lands were to be transferred to the state. Much of those lands, our public lands, would be sold to the highest private bidder. So I ask everyone, never give up on our federal lands.
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