Presidential Memorandum on Public Lands

The article includes this paragraph:

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Ms. Sgamma may not want to admit it, but humans have a need for wildlife and they have a need to preserve species approaching localized extinction. So Ms. Sgamma is pushing a false dichotomy — as if to say that the conservation of wildlife and the needs of humans are two entirely different things. But they are not.

Suppose I repeatedly went through life borrowing $100 from friends and then paying them back only $1 or $2 — with the claim that that was the best that I could do. I would not have many friends left because they would know I was taking advantage of them.

The sort of industry Ms. Sgamma represents has a long history of destroying wildlife populations down to 1% or 2% of their former numbers. That industry has borrowed heavily from the environment and now claims that paying back a cent or two on the dollar is the best it can do. That's hogwash and they know it.

Species like wolves, grizzlies, sage grouse, prairie dogs, bison and so on have been reduced to 1% or 2% of their former numbers — and often even less than that. The human species has a serious need to protect those species and the ecosystems that sustain them. There is no way that cheap energy and industry profiteering is a greater need than that.