Conserve or control?

To the editor:

It is right for our county commissioners to oppose the 30x30 initiative.

Proponents call it “a grassroots, locally driven initiative that will require cooperation from all levels of government.”

But Wikipedia defines it as “a worldwide initiative for governments to designate 30% of earth’s land and ocean area as protected areas by 2030.”

It is a part of a global drive to gain more control by claiming it will protect nature and stabilize climate change.

In the U.S., the program was advanced by an executive order by President Biden named, “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” and signed Jan. 27, 2021.

The actual effect of the policy, if implemented voluntarily or not, will be to take more land out of production and put it under the control of the federal government. In the process, it will restrict our private sector’s ability to grow our nation’s food and supply our energy needs.

A conservative group, American Stewards of Liberty, has this to say about 30x30: “The 30x30 initiative is not about conservation. It is about circumventing the American people and the rule of law in order to transfer control of Americans’ private property rights to environmental elites and the administrative state.”

I hope our commissioners will do due diligence to research 30x30 and not let themselves be hoodwinked by words that are intended to deceive us.

Rowena Plett
Lincolnville