The Columbian has published a number of letters recently exhorting Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., to preserve this or that federal program. The latest, a Sept. 9 letter, “Refrain from cuts to conservation,” by Sam Jefferies asked that the Conservation Reserve Program be retained. Unfortunately, the author radiates a very typical problem we have in this nation: Cut another program but don’t cut my program. Some folks might even call it “Not in my backyard (NIMBY).”
I have personally been involved in the Conservation Reserve Program and can unequivocally state that, at times, the program has simply added dollars for landowners who most definitely do not need them. I never thought that it was a “core” responsibility of government to compensate landowners for preservation efforts, just as I do not think it is a core responsibility of government to ensure every senior has an adequate retirement fund or universal health care (and I am a senior).
I guess another way at looking at the mess we are in is, regardless of letter-writers, citizen activists or legislators, there simply are not the dollars available to sustain the various programs. Maybe this financial mess will be a self-leveling process in the long run and we will come out stronger in the end.
Tom Cutter
Vancouver
