On BLM and Liberty [update on The Wild West Ethic and the Crucible of Paranoia]

On BLM matters [update on The Wild West Ethic and the Crucible of Paranoia]

Note by Hunterbear:

Back at the very beginning of January, I posted a piece which drew much
comment:  "The Wild West Ethic and the Crucible of Paranoia."  It involved
an obviously negative report regarding me given by a suspicious neighbor to
the U.S. Bureau of Land Management which then jumped into the situation --
only to back quickly away when its field staff determined pronto that a very
weird misreading had taken place. My original piece is attached herewith.

I do want to make it very clear that we have always -- for all of my life --
gotten along extremely well with the United States Forest Service [with
which I've worked on many occasions] and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management
as well.  Thus this misunderstanding was, however momentarily, quite
unsettling.

We do not in any sense, of course, share any of the anti-USFS and anti-BLM
perceptions of the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion, the various crackpot
paramilitary groups, the survivalist types etc. et al.  Locally,  close
friends of ours are a young BLM mining engineer and his wife and children.
Recently, as concerns mounted in this area about rampant vehicular ["four
wheelers," etc] violation of BLM closure periods  to such vehicles -- e.g.,
November 15 to May 15 -- I wrote a very detailed letter, based on literally
160 substantial treks in the BLM and USFS areas during that specific period.
I attested to the fact that there have been multiple violations of the BLM
closure in the regions closest to Pocatello. There hasn't been any
particular problem 'way back in the really far up and very rugged turf into
which I regularly go.  Few trails -- if any -- exist there and in the winter
the snow and ice are profoundly inhibiting to anyone except me and my dog