At the federal, state and local levels, government is in the midst of a major land grab.  Environmentalists, conservationists, NIMBYists, and anti-sprawlers offer a wide array of reasons, but all want the same thing-to have government take money from taxpayers in order to buy up land.  Their mission is to "protect" the land.

Of course, protecting the land to one person can mean stomping all over private property rights to another.  That's why if an individual or groups of individuals really want to protect land, then they should raise private funds to buy and manage the property themselves.

As evidenced by the fires that raged through Los Alamos, New Mexico, in May, private solutions are far preferable to government land grabs.  Over the decades, government has never been a good steward of the land.  After all, with government land, nobody has true ownership and therefore no incentives to take care of the property.  In New Mexico, a prescribed burn by the National Park Service got out of control and consumed more than 47,000 acres and about 260 homes and dwellings.  Some 1,500 archaeological sites were damaged, and the complex of historic buildings where America developed the A-bomb was destroyed.   Imagine that, the federal government botching something.  The estimated cost of the property damage exceeds $1 billion.

If various special interests want land protected, then they should do so privately for a variety of reasons, including taxpayer concerns, private property rights, and true conservation.  In addition, regarding the park lands government already owns, privatization should be considered where possible, and contracting out operations implemented in other instances.