Our view: Make the most ofwildlandspreservation

One of the curious facts of public life is that if a government body issues a proclamation recognizing a particular event or cause or organization, no one pays much attention. If you happen to be the subject of the proclamation, the official document, plus 5 bucks for a frame, gets you one more wall-hanging.

It's only when an entity such as the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors rejects a proposed proclamation that anyone notices. Such was the case Tuesday when the board balked at recognizing the Sierra Club's Redwood Chapter on the occasion of its 50th anniversary.

In the eyes of at least two supervisors, the proclamation went too far in noting the club's "instrumental role" in preserving public lands and encouraging conservation. Mike Sullivan put it bluntly: "I'm a little reluctant to congratulate a group that's had a detrimental effect on Del Norte County's economy."

While the vote was 2-2 on whether to issue the proclamation — Chairman Dave Finigan abstained — a majority of the five-member board consistently and vocally laments the amount of publically owned and preserved land in Del Norte County.

Last year it adopted a resolution stating there should be no further net loss of private land without compensation. In other words, any time land is acquired by the state or federal government, or any agents acting on their behalf, the loss of land should be offset by relinquishing public land to the private sector.

This resolution no doubt played well to a portion of the populace. After all, huge chunks of Del Norte County are under the control of the state and federal governments, and there are a lot of restrictions on how they can be used. It has about as much enforceable muscle as a proclamation, however, because if you've got a willing seller and a willing buyer, the county really can't stop the transaction.

Passage of the "no-net-loss" resolution and rejection of a proclamation recognizing the work of the Sierra Club stem from frustration and tension over the environmental and bureaucratic issues at play here in our little neck of the woods.

Some county leaders say they can't get the time of day from the state and federal officials who administrate our publically owned lands, especially if the subject is more access to those lands. And as the smoke clears from a devastating season of wildfires, some officials say we could improve fire safety and make money by thinning public forests through timber harvesting.

We must continue to address these issues, but there's another evolving dynamic at play: Environmental preservation now plays a key role in a regional economy that all stakeholders agree is increasingly dependent on tourism. And what is indisputably our No. 1 tourist attraction? The tallest trees in the world, a few groves of which were spared from logging and preserved through the work of organizations such as the Sierra Club.

We get to live in one of the most scenic places on Earth, and that natural beauty also represents our best hope for sustained economic growth through outdoor-oriented tourism. Besides, preservation of vast tracts of land is already assured, so we might as well make the most of it.

It's a challenging scenario requiring a lot of detail work by all sides, but it's not necessarily one to consistently complain about in public.