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Challengers do not grasp public lands

Republican Lyle McKnight is all for transferring federal public lands into state or even local control. But when he was asked at a recent forum what would happen during a Missionary Ridge-type fire if the state or county “owned” that land, he was quite literally speechless. He hadn’t thought it through. The entire La Plata County budget is just over $70 million, so $40 million for suppression alone of one wildfire would burn us out.

If the state or county took over the San Juan National Forest, La Plata County would “own” about 21 percent of the acreage; can we really afford the roads, maintenance, beetle-kill remediation, and yes, potential forest fires on this much real estate? Or would we have to sell it off to people like Red McCombs, who still wants to put 8,000 condos in above timberline at Wolf Creek?

Similarly, when Republican Kayla Patterson was asked about public lands access, her reply was that yes, she loves hiking. To me, that does not reflect a deep understanding of public lands’ issues. Don’t fall for uninformed talking points by McKnight and Patterson.

Let’s re-elect the two women who have both the experience and the deep understanding to see this county through a more realistic lens of what we can do and what is out of our control. Join me in re-electing both Gwen Lachelt and Julie Westendorff as La Plata County commissioners.

Terra Anderson

Durango



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