View From The Ditch Bank

FAUX---A word of French extraction, I think. I means false or fake. Many like to wear fur coats but don't like the killing of animals, so wear Faux Fur. Makes me wonder about them, but that is for another time, or not. I stated in my original post that I would give my idea of a faux environmentalist as opposed to a true one. I have been writing this in my mind for some time and don't know how it will turn out. So here goes.
May decades ago, Mine owners mined the land and dumped the waste wherever it was convenient, they also logged of the forests to feed their steam machines. Logging company's also clear cut the land at times and some ranchers over grazed their property. Yes, this happened. However, responsible ranchers realized the need for the land to sustain them and did not over graze. Responsible loggers realized the need for the renewing of the forests to have a sustainable annual harvest and did not clear cut. Mine owners, well they just mined as usual. Even though environmental ideas have been around a long time, they really took off in the 1970's.
There was a hue and cry about the environment and laws began to be passed. Farmers, ranchers and loggers were in favor of these laws as well as the general public. My family lived in a mining area and the sulfuric acid was so thick from the smelter that you couldn't breath. We were happy when the law made them install scrubbers to clean up the air. What happened, however, was that the faux environmentalists didn't just want the ranchers to take care of the land, and the loggers to harvest trees in an orderly manner and the miners to clean up the air and water and take care of the land. They wanted ranchers and loggers and miners off the public land. They got laws passed that made it so difficult to ranch and log that there is very little of either going on in the West if it involves public land. They started a campaign that showed and told false (faux) information to get the people in the East to try to regulate those of us who live in the West. And they accomplished that. While the ranchers and loggers and miners were just going about doing business and actually, for a time, supporting the passing of these laws. the faux environmentalist had a different agenda. By the time us Westerners realized what they were up to, it was almost too late. So, we began to fight back. Now, a true environmentalist realizes that a healthy forest needs to be harvested, or pruned, as it were, or it will get sick and die. That is happening, now in many of the Western forests. A true environmentalist realizes that the mines need to be, as we depend on the products from those mines, but it can be done in such a manner to protect the air and water quality. And a true environmentalist realizes that cattle will leave fertilizer on the land, and then cultivate it in with there hooves. As the rains come, this cultivation will help the land to produce good grass. Because of the Faux's, getting the cattle off the land, the streams are getting so choked with growth that they, like the forests, will soon die, as there won't be enough water to support the trees and bushes. Wild life won't be able to push through the growth to get to the water to drink. So to summarize, a faux environmentalist wants to leave the land in a pristine condition so all can enjoy. What they don't, or can't, realize is that to have the land in such a condition requires some upkeep of the land. It won't get there by itself. And the forests need harvested and the land needs help from the husbandman and people depend on those things that are extracted from the earth just to live in the modern world. Care for the land, yes. But be sensible about it, yes. And I said all this with out even mentioning the Spotted Owl. Oops, I just mentioned it. Oh Well, maybe I'll get into that on another post. Or not. Maybe I just left you all confused, but even so That is The View From The Ditch Bank