Libertarian - Mike Plylar For Colorado House of Representatives - District 57 - Nov. 2002

Considering the recent devastating fires throughout our state and the dead timber and undergrowth allowed to accumulate across over 20 million acres of federally owned forest land, it's time for a new direction in Colorado land management, implementing, locally driven, logical and sustainable environmental solutions.

The "Routt Divide Blowdown" encompassing about 13,000 acres and an estimated 4 million trees is but one example of the gross mismanagement of Colorado's natural resources and our local environment. Insects and disease are currently destroying over 500,000 acres of Colorado timber and the acreage impacted is increasing at an alarming rate. It's absolutely time for a new direction, where those closest to the land, have the most powerful voice in how these resources are managed, and our healthy environments maintained.

I support local control of all public lands and will work to defend western interests against the one-size-fits-all dictates, largely based on urban public opinion polls, conjured by far removed eastern bureaucrats in Washington.

It's time to remove federal and urban politics from rural land and resource "management", and return to a common sense, hands-on approach, instead of relying on bean counters, federal "forestry experts" and self-serving bureaucrats for more of the same failed policies.