PUBLIC LANDS -- Twenty years ago, before the Bundy's became icons of public land grab selfishness, the Forest Service Chief penned a thoughtful heads up to hunters in a story published in The Bugle by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

The late Jack Ward Thomas, the first wildlife biologist to rise to the head the Forest Service, helped bring national forest managers to understand the concept of ecosystem management.

In 1996, as he was about to retire from the agency and as chief, he pointed out:

If you love elk, you’re a fan of our national forests, whether you know it or not. Eight out of every 10 wild,

free-ranging elk spend all or part of the year on national forests and grasslands. Yet there is a growing movement calling for the Forest

Service and other federal agencies to sell off public lands or turn them over to counties.

Let me admit a bias. I have a long-lasting love affair with the national forests. I was a Texas boy. I hunted and ­ shed and roamed around on private lands, begging access or sneaking in and out.

When I grew up, moved away and discovered public lands, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven....

Can we afford to own public lands? The better question is, can we afford not to? For more than 100 years, during good economic times and bad, public lands have been the haven for the common man and a firm basis for local and regional economic growth and diversity.  Public resources have supported America in peace and in war. Public resources have helped build a nation with

inexpensive recreation, wood, energy and water. They have been the basis for environmental health, offering clean air and water for generations. They remain so today. The national forests are still operated with Gifford Pinchot’s maxim, “the greatest good for the greatest number in the long run,” in mind....

At a recent House hearing, I was asked my opinion about the subject of making public lands private. I answered: “Congressman, first I’ll give my professional opinion and then my personal one. My first answer is no and my second answer is Hell NO!"

Speaking for myself, I won’t stand for it for me, I won’t stand for it for my grandchildren and I won’t stand for it for their children yet unborn. This heritage is too precious and too unique to be traded away for potage. These are our lands—all the lands that most of us will ever own...

Always willing to skewer a sacred cow when he saw fit, Thomas made another point on the subject as he was slowly dying of cancer:

“We prattle about the North American Model of Wildlife Management. Talk about whistling past a graveyard. It’s trendy but it’s BS. It declares that wildlife belongs to the people. But if I control your access to the land where that wildlife is, then it belongs to me. That’s why public lands will become more and more valuable. And the temptation will increase to sell them to the highest bidder.”