Thanks a lot, HCN, for trying to kill another effort at environmental conservation in the West (HCN, 5/30/05: Write-off on the Range). As if it’s not hard enough to get landowners to think about conserving resources, then the government tries to put "cash-poor" landowners out of the running by getting rid of their incentives to do so.

So what if some property owners want to create greenbelts around their land? That’s not the problem with Western real estate. How about artificially inflated prices for land being marketed overseas by unscrupulous out-of-state realtors/developers? Or extractive industry speculators seizing on corrupt mining and water laws here in the West?

It’s easy to point fingers at organizations that have little money for lawyers and (gasp) "no staff," are loosely networked and independent, yet are doing far more to protect our environment than our current administration, despite the paltry handouts of tax credits.

P.D. Griffin
(City withheld), Colorado