Natural Resource Management

 

The freedom to own, use, protect, and market private property is a natural extension of the individual’s unalienable rights. We oppose federal interference in that right. The government does not grant private property rights. It is charged with protecting the rights of private property owners.

American citizens are also shareholders in our state and federal land.

The 1997 National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act added several new goals and mandates to Refuge System Law. Among them is the requirement that each refuge must first achieve its original establishing purposes, and then must contribute to purposes of the Refuge System.

This Act left no doubt that management of the NWR System, 542 individual Refuges encompassing more than 95 million acres, is inherently a federal responsibility.  However, those charged with that responsibility are answerable to the people.

‘Dakotans for Honesty in Politics’ supports public use of Natural Resources for personal sport fishing, hunting, and general recreation, as well as wise use by local families for grazing and other purposes that benefit the American bread basket and economy.

‘Dakotans for Honesty in Politics’ oppose any attempt to designate private or public property as United Nations World Heritage sites or Biosphere reserves. We oppose environmental treaties and conventions such as the Biodiversity Treaty, the Convention on Climate Control, and Agenda 21, which destroy our sovereignty and right to private property.

‘Dakotans for Honesty in Politics’ believe:

  • Proper natural resource management requires a focus on long-term economic and environmental goals for the benefit of all. Requests to the State for special access by private corporations should include a long term benefit to the citizenry and an open bid.
  • All environmental law, including the Endangered Species Act, Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act, must include complete assessment of all germane and peer-reviewed scientific data. These assessments must give equal weight to all possible human distress that might be caused by limitation or elimination of jobs, energy and quality of life.
  • The federal government must cease to take private property through rules and regulations that substantially reduce the productive use of property without fair compensation.
  • American citizens have a right to protect their personal property from destruction by wildlife in any humane but necessary way.
  • The people of the United States have a right to decide how our federal and state lands are used, as well as the right to equal opportunity for available jobs on federal and state lands without regard to heritage or race.