An old BLM dude came out of the woodwork the other day to sound off on the unholy botch that was the attempt of our congressional delegation to work with Lyon, Mineral and Esmeralda counties to put together a lands bill that would boost the economies and preserve some wilderness. In an editorial former state BLM Director Bob Abbey recently penned for the Reno Gazette-Journal, he basically says: Chill, people! Ensign and Reid aren’t out to steal your land for some shitty smallpox blankets, so put the frickin’ lotion in the basket and get the hell over it.

Another question at the bottom of this whether-these-places-are-even-worthy-of-wilderness-or-not is: Are these counties truly the stinking worthless shitholes residents suggest they are? See, the people who live there have been blabbing on and on and on about how oh-so-un-wildernessy the land is, how scarred and irrevocably screwed up it is by the mining and livestock industries (thanks, guys!), blah blah blah; Abbey disagrees. In the piece, he also suggests the battle to preserve land in these counties isn’t over yet.

A snip:

The criticism directed at U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign and their staffs regarding their efforts to obtain input, including the identification of areas some believe to be deserving of wilderness consideration, is unwarranted. Much like the National Park System, the National Wilderness Preservation System represents the very best of our natural areas. We have held to this lofty standard when considering wilderness in previous legislative proposals, and this same standard eventually will be applied to nominated areas in Lyon and Mineral counties.

Another point he makes that flies in the face of the “not in our backyard” mentality that rules the braincases of these three counties: It’s not your backyard. It’s everyone’s backyard.