There are close to 650 million acres of federal land, much of it west of the Mississippi. Even in the rest of the country there are wide swaths of rural/small-town America that is MAGA. People in such places enjoy getting outdoors, and of course hunting and fishing. Managing these natural resources like land and forests, water and wildlife takes a lot of expertise and skill. What we think of as Environmentalists today grew out of a conservation movement spearheaded by Teddy Roosevelt, then turned into a movement by hunters and and anglers in the years after he left office. Their descendants (which includes me) are both upset and fearful over Trump’s cuts to the agencies that manage our natural resources.
Conservation is the wise use of resources. Ensuring the land we live on, which grows crops and sustains both wildlife and animals that wind up on the dinner table is important. In fact it’s essential to the survival of life on the blue and white ball we call Earth. Greed has at times literally caused extinctions of animals and plants. Even rural conservatives understand this, and for more than one reason are upset with their orange painted Trumpty for getting rid of the people that manage the land and water, and the wildlife and fish, and even the water they drink as this article in Politico explains.
MAGAs tend to dismiss “Environmentalists” as crazy liberals and freaks but the majority DO believe in conservation. Now they get all upset that Trump has done exactly what he said he’d do? It reminds me of the fact we have a Democratic Governor of Kentucky. He won the first time because his predecessor VOWED to get rid of the wildly popular KYNect healthcare program – the state’s version of Obamacare that the Obama administration signed off on. The asshats didn’t think the guy would actually DO it but he did. It pissed them off enough that they wound up doing the unthinkable – put Democrat Andy Beshear in the Governor’s Mansion. (Note, keep an eye on him come 2028)
I’ve found it makes old acquaintances sputter, or their heads to damn near explode when I tell them two things. The first is the CONSERVATION they talk about and more importantly support is actually a form of ‘environmentalism.’ Again, conservation is the wise use of resources and it’s a concept they know better than you might thing. They want to protect resources they both enjoy and to an extent rely on. They want, even demand to have places to hunt and fish, or take the family for outings. To go camping, or just for a drive to soak in the natural beauty that can be found even in dirt poor places like southern Illinois where I’m from, is environmentalism.
The second thing I remind them of is that Teddy Roosevelt was a Republican but it was a different GOP back then. He is also widely considered the first ‘environmental President.’ He established national parks and set aside wide swaths of federal land for protection. And more. What blows so many minds is that it was a few years after his time in elective politics a group of well-to-do people turned his efforts into something more tangible. They created and pushed legislation that would put a tax on every firearm sold and ammunition too. They got the Pittman-Roberson Act passed and got the President to sign it. The money was (and still is) dedicated to paying for wildlife management. Later, another tax would place a similar tax on fishing gear.
It was people like current MAGAs, the ones who are all bent out of shape now who really got the ball rolling and created formal programs to manage wildlife, and the land/forests and water on which it depended. (Us too) In addition to all that enthusiasts of various species created their own groups. Ducks Unlimited for example. Or the National Wild Turkey Federation. Species once on the brink of extinction were brought back to thriving populations including whitetail deer. Because hunters (and anglers) forced laws that would set limits on how much a hunter or angler could take on a given outing, and a plan for acquiring more natural resources. More importantly they created a means to PAY for it, and people who would manage the resources.
This used to be common knowledge in what’s now MAGA territory. I’m not sure elders pass along that rich history anymore. It’s more fun “owning the libs” by making fun of “environmentalists.” Still, the people in these places like Montana which is the focus of the linked article understand the value of agencies and people who have worked so hard to manage the resources they love. If you read the linked piece, you’ll see they actually do understand that those federal (and state) folks are valuable.
Getting rid of over five thousand of them via DOGE cuts is something many say they didn’t vote for. Also, there are communities out west where those offices exist that were one of, if not the largest employer in town. What’s happened because of DOGE has had an impact and the MAGAs have noticed:
Steve Ellis, chair of the National Association of Forest Service Retirees who was stationed in small towns in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and Alaska, said that “the federal payroll from the BLM, the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service in these small rural communities is huge. It helps pay taxes. It helps keep the little hospital open. Federal employees have kids in the schools where the funding from the state depends on the number of students.” Hollow out the agencies, he said, and the communities themselves are hollowed out.
In addition to the employees and their families who’ve been impacted, those staffing cuts are also affecting the ways of life and livelihoods that are major economic drivers out here for almost everyone else, too. Ranchers and farmers use public lands for agriculture; outfitters and guides take guests into them; hunters access them regularly to put food in the family freezer; and forestry, timber and sawmill workers fulfill contracts on them for wildfire mitigation and lumber.
Those ripple effects will likely travel a greater distance than we think. The people in these communities being destroyed have friends and family in other places. Word-of-mouth advertising is the most effective of all, but this isn’t the kind that Trump wants or needs. Hunting and fishing in these places is part of people’s DNA. As Aldo Leopold wrote in A Sand County Almanac “Babes do not tremble when shown a golf ball, but I should not like to own the boy who’s hair does not raise his hat when he sees his first deer.” Leopold goes on to discuss how visceral this is. It’s bad enough that their local hospitals will close or medical clinics too, but this? Putting game and fish on the table is something they will have to rely on even more and now Trump is screwing with their ability to do THAT!
Remember what I said about Andy Beshear in Kentucky? All those good ole white folks (it’s high on the list of the whitest states), the majority of which decry government assistance for “those people” while sucking it up themselves didn’t believe his predecessor would actually eliminate their popular health care program. Now we have all these voters in MAGA country whining that Trump is doing what we all knew he would do.
Rich cronies want that land and those resources. With Trump they see someone who will force government sale of it to them. That is FINALLY starting to sink in. Ordinarily I wouldn’t care about their “This isn’t what I voted for” whining but I’m lucky enough to have visited some of those places out west. It’s an experience all Americans should move heaven and earth to experience for themselves.
The author of the linked piece spoke with people across a range of professions and political leanings including the staunchly conservative. They are in agreement on several things. They don’t like what’s already happened and are opposed to what they’ve been told (more of the same) is coming. As the article puts it now that the folks in Montana and other red/MAGA places are feeling the effects policy makers in DC have woken a ‘political sleeping giant.’ I keep saying even having ten percent of MAGAs not vote, or vote third-Party would lead to an electoral bloodbath for Trump and the GOP. Well, regular folks are noticing and starting to think Trump doesn’t know or care about what’s important. Plus, I doubt one person featured in the article is a voice in the wilderness with his blunt assessment:
“You cannot fire our firefighters. You cannot fire our trail crews. You have to have selective logging, and water restoration, and healthy forests,” Zink said. “People in Washington, D.C., on the West Coast, East Coast — they don’t understand what that means to us out here.”
I’m betting this guy and lots of others who voted John Tester out of the Senate last year regret bringing in a rich, Trumpy carpetbagger. It makes me think of the tag line of Joni Mitchell and Big Yellow Taxi: Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. They might not pave all that public land but if Trump and his cronies get their way they might as well do so. It will be privatized and most Americans will be shut out. Worse, the environmental damage from poor or no management of the land and water and other resources will do permanent damage.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
