Much of my career and work as a county supervisor has been devoted to solving conflict: identifying areas of agreement and seeking balance and harmony among people, agencies, and places in conflict. As you read the upcoming series, you may think I’ve abandoned that. I have not.
Until I show you how far out of balance things are, you may not see that only you – the people of Tuolumne County, California, and America – can require your elected representatives to apply the brakes and seek balance.
When you see the big picture, don’t get angry. Calmly and respectfully insist on transparency and true balance between people AND the environment.
There’s a disturbing picture I need to show you. It’s disturbing both because it’s developed while we were sleeping - without our knowledge and consent – and because it may not be the picture we want to live in.
I’ll reveal it by connecting a number of dots I’ve discovered. As you read and research what I show you, you’ll see the big picture I see.
I liked connecting dots when I was a kid. My teacher wanted to convey that numbers are sequential, but I liked discovering what was not visible until I connected the dots – puppies and burros. Dots themselves don’t reveal the hidden picture. Connected they do. Some pictures are so obvious they shout, “Look at me!” and you wonder how you missed it.
The big picture under the dots I’ll share has been painstakingly constructed by proponents of conservation biology. Theirs is not mere environmentalism. It’s environmentalism with a radical agenda. It espouses the need for balance and harmony between man and nature and with that most of us readily agree. But their brand of conservation rejects good stewardship as insufficient effort. Instead, they value wild places and things above all else – especially man. They seek a different balance.
It’s important to understand what people mean when they a word. Your meaning for “balance” may not be theirs. Conservationists say they want the best for the earth as do we, but again we have different interpretations. Why is that?
Conservation biology drives an increasing amount of conservation activities today. It’s a discipline or blueprint, a road map, and philosophy to save our earth. The theory is that balance will be restored to an earth in crisis and extinctions will slow to normal rates only by:
- Reversing and halting man-caused habitat destruction (setting aside vast protected areas like wilderness, monuments, and national parks);
- Reestablishing “connectivity” for wildlife to move between protected areas (via wildlife corridors on public and private lands); and
- Rewilding entire continents (reestablishing large carnivores like wolves, grizzly bears, and mountain lions).
If that – especially the rewilding measure – sounds too much to believe, pause to remember that mountain lions are already reestablished, the grizzly bear is on our state flag, and wolves once roamed the state.
It’s not just rural areas that will be impacted by the setting aside of protected areas, wildlife corridors, and rewilding. Conservationists are actively conserving lands (public and private) in the LA Basin and other urban areas. The big picture of where Conservation Biology is taking us is both overwhelming and advanced.
Conservation Biology has achieved a measure of credibility in the environmental community since the formation of The Wildlands Network in 1991. The Wildlands Network was formed to advocate for the creation of continental scale networks of protected lands (corridors that stretch across continents, not just counties) that are connected by wildlife corridors.
Acre by acre, dot by dot, over the years conservationist biologists, academicians, and activists have orchestrated many of the changes in the way we live and grow as communities and individuals. Some of them have been good. Others, not so much.
Seeing the big picture influences questions I ask staff and my votes as an elected official. Seeing the big picture has changed my perspective. My propensity to look for consensus on land use Board decisions has lessened.
My resistance to going where we’re being taken without our knowledge and consent and my efforts to advance policies to protect Tuolumne County’s traditional values have enraged local conservation activists.
They’ve been under the radar, actively advancing radical conservation’s big picture in Tuolumne County for years and don’t want to slow momentum. They and those they influence have attempted to marginalize and discredit me and anyone else who disagrees and stands up to them.
That tells me I’m on to something. Something big.
One of the first things a conflict resolution practitioner learns is that intimidating others into submission doesn’t end conflict. Neither does accommodating others to “keep the peace.” In this and every conflict, there are peace breakers, peace fakers, and peace makers. I am a peace maker.
Peace makers are not afraid to point out what’s wrong and insist that it be made right. They do it respectfully and firmly, but they do it. When everyone is compelled to come to the table and the balance of power is even, then and only then can conflict be resolved and balance be obtained.
Most of us want balance. We want to see thriving communities, productive working landscapes, clean water, fresh air, and healthy forests. To get there we must have local, federal, and state governments working together with each other and the public to achieve balance and harmony between people and the environment.
As you read this series, please check, double check, and triple check everything I tell you. Read books on conservation biology and visit the many websites devoted to it. Educate yourself. If I’m wrong, tell me.
I can place evidence in front of you, but you have to decide what to do with it. Act now or live with the consequences? Stand up for balance and what is right or carry on with your life while the conservation activists carry on with theirs? It’s up to you.
I’ll do what I can as a county supervisor and finish my term in December. In the future, I plan to keep connecting dots, looking at the big picture, and seeking balance and harmony between man and environment.
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