January, 27 2020, 11:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Yetta Stein, Communications Associate
Western Values Project
yetta@westernvaluesproject.org
(406) 529-1682
Utah: Tax Dollars Fund Anti-Public Lands Group, Research Released Highlighting Influence
MoneyTrails.org Focuses on Monied Influence on Western State Public Lands and Policy
Helena, MT.
With the start of Utah's state legislative session kicking into gear, Western Values Project (WVP)--an Accountable.US project based in Montana, defending America's public lands--is making public their in-depth research concerning special interest monied influence on Utah's and other Western states' public lands and natural resources available on their MoneyTrails website.
"One of Utah's most insidious groups, the Foundation for Integrated Resource Management (FIRM), is burning through taxpayer dollars while espousing a dangerous anti-public lands agenda. The front group opposed designating Bears Ears National Monument and was poised to file suit until President Trump illegally reduced its boundaries. Simply put, they shouldn't be trusted nor sucking up tax dollars given their mission to sell off our Western way of life," said Jayson O'Neill, Deputy Director of Western Values Project. "With special interest influence relentlessly trying to upend public lands protections, MoneyTrails is a resource for the public, as well as decision-makers, in our continued fight to keep public lands in public hands by exposing front groups seeking to undermine our outdoor heritage for their narrow interests."
The Foundation for Integrated Resource Management (FIRM) was supposedly created to localize public lands into the hands of the state -- an insidious idea heard as a dog whistle to public lands users and advocates alike because it is a precursor to the sale and privatization of public lands.
However, while FIRM claims to be dedicated to fighting for "reasonable access to public lands," the group has conspicuously become a leach on taxpayer wallets. The group receives over 90% of its funding from taxpayers. In turn, FIRM has plans to litigate against the federal government on behalf of Utah, specifically around issues tied to public lands management. But the group instead just seems to reap major profits, continually asking for more money, without any tangible advancement of their radical agenda.
Though their action is mute, their rhetoric remains dangerous. FIRM is strongly opposed to national monuments and planned to file a lawsuit over the creation of Bears Ears National Monument. The group went as far as to support naming a Utah highway after Pres. Trump to thank him for illegally reducing the national monuments. Read the Foundation for Integrated Resource Management report here.
Public lands are a critical part of Utah's tax base, recreation economy, and employment rate, supporting 110,000 jobs, generating $12.3 billion in consumer spending and $737 million in state and local tax revenue.
MoneyTrails highlights research on three special interest groups operating within Utah and a multi-state group also trying to influence public lands policy in the Beehive State. Look for more reports as the Utah legislative session continues.
MoneyTrails was created by WVP to document the influence that special interest groups, industry executives, and anti-public lands front groups exert on public lands issues throughout the West. The taxpaying public deserves to know how these monied groups are attempting to affect public lands decisions to benefit corporations and special interests and MoneyTrails is a resource intended to shed light on these critical issues.
Western Values Project brings accountability to the national conversation about Western public lands and national parks conservation - a space too often dominated by industry lobbyists and their allies in government.
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Biodiversity defenders on Tuesday welcomed a "long overdue" move by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service toward protecting the monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act—the result, the Center for Biological Diversity said, of a lawsuit filed by several groups to safeguard the pollinators and their fragile habitat.
The FWS proposed designating the butterfly as threatened with extinction, four years after monarchs were placed on a waiting list for protection.
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This is a breaking story… Please check back for possible updates...
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To the Feds, I'll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn't working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.
Common Dreams has not independently verified its authenticity.
Klippenstein
said on social media that the manifesto he published is "the real one, not the fake one circulating online."
NBC News deputy technology editor Ben Goggin noted that language shared by Klippenstein "matches what NBC has reported here as real."
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