Private landowners’ role in preserving wildlife
Re: “Meetings, months pass with wildlife issues still alive,” Sept. 14 Charlie Meyers column.
The Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, of which T. Wright Dickinson is a member, has worked toward uniting disparate interests on wildlife management, while enhancing landowner incentives, to encourage contributions to wildlife habitat. Maintaining agricultural open space is critical to providing that natural wildlife habitat. This is the point Charlie Meyers missed in his column.
It would be nice to see The Post give some equitable recognition to the substantial contribution of private landowners in sustaining the wildlife of Colorado.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife created a group to review the license allocation process and make improvement recommendations. The group – comprised of landowners, sportsmen, outfitters and community representatives – presented thoughtfully balanced majority solutions after months of studies and discussions, using state statistics.
In bypassing the committee’s recommendations, the DOW missed the point: To ensure future wildlife sustainability, landowners must be rewarded for their contributions to wildlife. To do that, license allocation solutions for residents, non-resident hunters and landowners must be handled as a package.
An influx of 1.5 million people and a loss of 3.5 million acres of wildlife habitat are projected to impact Colorado in the foreseeable future. Most of this loss will come from agricultural land. The question Meyers forgot to pose is: Without private land, how does the DOW plan to provide for the growing population of deer and elk?
Bill Gray, President, Colorado Cattlemen’s Association, Arvada
Economics and wages for rebuilding Gulf area
Re: “Suspension of prevailing-wages law in Gulf,” Sept. 20 Open Forum.
I am guessing that those who have complained of the suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act in the Gulf region were well-meaning, but do not understand economics.
If the companies that hire people to do their work are required to pay higher “prevailing wages,” wages of experienced professionals, they are going to demand the higher- skilled laborers that may be in short supply in the Gulf region at this time. They will wait to bring in workers from other states (or even other countries) who have the experience and skill that make them worth the higher wages. That will hurt the local population, as the need for workers is more than the Gulf area can provide. Being able to pay slightly less will make it worth hiring workers who do not have the experience or skills of those who are paid at the prevailing wage.
With the suspension of this act, the companies working to rebuild New Orleans will be more than happy to hire locals, even inexperienced locals to help with the restoration. This will not only give these local folks needed work, but will also give them the experience they need to demand the higher wages on other projects in the future when all of this rebuilding is done.
This is not being done to help the companies; it is being done to help make sure the maximum number of locals are working in the restoration, and to make sure the work gets done as soon as possible.
Shane Sokol, Denver
Pledge of Allegiance
Re: “New ruling may resend school Pledge to high court,” Sept. 15 news story.
Rather than taking up our courts’ time deciding if the Pledge of Allegiance should be recited in our schools, why not simply remove the divisive phrase “under God” and return the Pledge to its original form? “Under God” was not added until the ’50s, when our country, panicked by the threat of communism, added the phrase to claim God for our side. Whenever this country feels threatened, it slaps the word “God”‘ onto something so that we feel protected. It was during the Civil War era that “In God We Trust” was added to our money.
Our Founding Fathers, Christians though they were, made a point of keeping church and state separate. It has only been in times of national fear that we add the G-word so that we can sleep at night, safe in the knowledge that we are the chosen people. We are afraid these days, and rightly so. But this is a time to stand united. Our Founding Fathers recognized that religion would divide, not unite, us. Turns out they were right.
Carol Bryant, Centennial
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