Jeff,
The message is simple: Everyone has had a increase in their property tax bill. This increase was sought to help fund the many needed improvements to the schools throughout the Copper Country. The CFR tax rate has not changed for twenty years. No, make that 30. The CFR tax rate has remained the same for 50 years, now, and it too should see an increase as every other property tax bill has increased. We had, at one time, manymining properties that were contributing mightily to the tax base. We hear the timber industry brag about how many billions that industry contributes to the Michigan economy. Why should CFR stay the same while Grandma and Grandpa's property tax bill increases?
The timber industry isn't on a fixed income.

When it comes to that electoral college argument, I wonder why the following has been broken time and time again:

Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Why do we even have a 10th amendment? Look at the "electoral college" in that light.

What I'm reading as the gist of your argument, Walt, is that corporate owners of CFR land in the Keweenaw should contribute more to the taxes which support local schools. The few that HAVE should contribute more fairly to the many who DON'T HAVE. Since the charity of these IP stockholders (or "New Englander's", as you put it) is in question, one might ask: how many of their kids are in the local public school system. And how much of an increase in rates could they comfortably afford? Would it hurt some small-acreage individual owners of CFR whose kids are in the local school systems? Could different rates be applied to each?
Is this a property rights issue or a fairness issue? Or both?
I suspect the "property rights" instinct is largely inbred. Bird #1 sings to Bird #2 that they're not territorially welcome in Bird #1's location because this is where Bird #1 is raising its brood. To enter that territory is to violate a kind of "existential niche" and an aggressive defense of that niche will likely ensue.(Ever notice those "niches" in old churches occupied by a statuette of this or that particular "saint"? There's no room for another statue to "trespass" upon those enclosed spaces unless you physically remove the original inhabitant.) Perhaps the Christian Church has been instinctively advertising the concept of individual property rights for centuries while selling more "communal" concepts in their intellectual doctrines.
Anyway, people and families living on a piece of private land are like birds(or saints) in this respect, but corporate owners in absentia are not. Corporate owners have a different relationship to the land they "occupy". Maximizing profits is their business goal(like all businesses) and I assume the long-term SFI imperatives were adopted to achieve that purpose. The techniques of land-management they use seem to be working well from everything I've read on the subject, but how much longer the Keweenaw forest acreage will remain more valuable to IP as wood product rather than real estate is, I believe, a question worth asking.
Could some of the No Trespassing signs be up because absentee owners are worried about lawsuits from someone who gets hurt while hiking through their property?
If you are going to "trespass" on God's Green Earth, it's probably wise not to advertise the time and location however to the specific property owner. For someone who just likes exploring the wild outdoors wherever it might be, I've found this approach to trespassing quite workable.


On another issue, I read a wise and interesting Letter to the Editor at today's on-line DMG about why it is inadvisable to do away with our Electoral College System(though political people as different as Jesse Ventura and Hillary Clinton seem to think this is a good idea). Then a little while later I came across an article on Ronald Reagan in the NY Times which quoted from his written opinion on this issue(Yes, Reagan wrote...he wasn't the air-headed wind-up doll some revisionist media mind-benders have tried to portray him as). He really was for the "little guy".
Since I've already made my own point on this issue in a previous post after the November elections, I'll just let "The Gipper" speak for himself:

"The very basis for our freedom is that we are a Fed. of Sovereign States. Our const. recognizes that certain rights belong to the state & cannot be infringed upon by the Nat. govt. This is the guaranty that small states or rural, sparsely populated areas will have a proportionate voice in national affairs.
Those who want to do away with the electoral college really mean they want the Pres. elected in a national referendum with no reference as to how each state votes. Thus a half dozen rural states could show a majority for one candidate and be outvoted by one big industrial state opting for his opponent. Presidential candidates would be tempted to aim their campaigns & their promises at a cluster of metropolitan areas in a few states and the smaller states would be without a voice."
From a transcript written by Ronald Reagan for an April 13, 1977 Radio Address

Joe,
I'm comfortable here in the U.S. of A.

My country was built on protests. I am protesting an idea. You obviously disagree. That is hardly reason for the person you disagree with to move to another country. That kind of bigotted thought was prevalent during the demonstrations of Vietnam.

This country was built on protests. Those protests were based on ideas. Those ideas were passed around for a long time before any action was taken. That action was the result of words used to express those ideas.

Get used to it.

One of the books written by game wardens that I've been reading is
Badge in the Wilderness by David H. Swendsen. Below the title are the words, "My 30 dangerous years combating wildlife violators."

A recurring theme in Mr. Swendsen's book is the idea that the wildlife, and that includes both fish and game, belong to the people. In one story, he says,

Even in 1963, a lot of those anti-warden attitudes were changing. Serious fish and game violators were no longer popular with the general public. More people seemed to see the fish and game as belonging to the people and not to the warden or the state of the "king."

Sounds reasonable. The fish and game belong to the people. Debate and disagreement enters when the people decide how the fish and game is to be utilized. For instance, when the subject of baiting deer comes up, many debates ensue. I believe there was a time when baiting deer was illegal. One could spend hours tracking deer through the woods, get a fleeting glimpse of a whitetail in the scope or in the iron sights, try to determine if it was a legal buck or not, and then shoot. If the deer was still there. And so a phrase was born, "Well, you could always do a ground check," --shoot when the deer is in the sights, check if it is a buck, and if it was, you're okay. (I've heard someone say something about "trust" at the bait pile. Talk about trust to the millions of hogs, cattle, and chickens that are sledge-hammered yearly to feed the taste buds of diners who enjoy steak and potatoes at the country club.)

Last year, it was decided that baiting would not be permitted after the 15th of December. The reasoning behind this was that bow-hunters that would bait after the 15th would hold up the deer from entering a yard. The assumption is that all deer head for the yard on December the 15th and on the migration there they do not feed. So bow-hunters could hunt a yard and hope that a deer would come close enough (30 yards or under) to tag. You also need a permit to feed the deer over the winter. Backyard bird feeders are exempt from this law.

So with all of the rules and regulations that say how, when, and where we can use the fish and game that belong to the people, it's interesting that the game warden who wrote this book also defends the concept that trespassing is a crime. Apparently the land does not belong to the people, only the fish and game that might reside on the land or in the water. Who owns the fish and game that reside on private land or posted land? The landowner?

And how about some laws, rules, and regulations to defend the land? For instance, how about we make it a crime to neglect that septic tank in the ground that has the potential to create more harm and damage than that person who enters the land to enjoy the land does? Why shouldn't that be illegal? What's stopping a timberland owner from clear-cutting his land from one end to the other? Nothing. And how about the landowner that has his land enrolled in CFR simply for the benefit of a low tax?

I hunt the Point Mills area of the Copper Country. Several years ago, while my truck was parked off the seasonal road (logging trucks would always appear here on the 15th of November) and while I was bothering nobody, while I was simply enjoying the land and hunting thereon, I returned to my truck to find a note under the windshield, "This is private property, please leave." The note was unsigned. I didn't leave.

But somebody has taken the time, presumably the landowner, to drive down this two-mile long, dead-end seasonal road, to see if any hunters were there. An unsigned note was left on my windshield.

In this same area, listed in the current platbook, are two 40-acre sections of CFR. These CFR sections are areas where I've hunted before, areas where I walked and sat during that season when the note was tucked under the wiper blade. So now apparently, it is okay to be there to enjoy the land, to hunt thereon, because I've been given the gift by this landowner who is selling lakeshore lots (and 43.8 acres is CFR) will now permit it?

Well, why is it okay for this landowner to develop this land any way they want? The fish and game that might be found there belong to the people. The land, on the other hand, belongs to one, at least on paper, and this one is receiving $93,000 per lakeshore lot on one end of the land, and has 43.8 aces of CFR, with surveyed and pinned plats for future lakeshore estates on the other end.

Who is the trespasser? What wildlife laws protect this scenario? The other section of woods, 40 acres in size, that is now CFR had been logged repeatedly, beginning, as I said, on the 15th of November each year. If they cut anymore there, it would be a clear-cut. Logging is fine. Cutting is fine. I question the ethics, if you will, and the CFR regulations that make this possible.

Off M-203, there is a 40 acre section of CFR landlocked by non-CFR land. So is this section of CFR "accessible"? I don't know. I've never tried to access it. But the same person who has this section listed under CFR has other acreage around it and I know that they have told others to stay off their non-CFR land. So do you think anyone could access this landlocked CFR section? Well, a creek runs into it so I guess one could always get their feet wet. Water does belong to everyone and anyone can walk up the middle of the creek to access this CFR land. No, in this case, and I'm sure there are others, CFR is being taken advantage of and as the people suffer when wildlife laws are broken, so too do we suffer then CFR regulations are taken advantage of. But the, the land doesn't belong to the people, only individuals who have their name on a piece of paper. And when that burns up, who owns what?



Law of the Land? Does that mean, Joe, that because your name is on a piece of paper you can do whatever, whenever, for however long you please on your land? I think not.

Joe,
You're welcome to bring a portable blind to my backyard, if you wish; however, my three dogs would probably bark at you and with that in mind you probably wouldn't see many deer.

Hey Walt:
Guess that means that next deer season, I can set up a blind in your backyard? Where do you live again?
Its called the "law of the land" and if you don't like living under the laws, perhaps there is another country you would feel more comfortable in?

I was trespassing on PublicAccessKeweenaw's website recently and came across the following statement:

We'd like to hear from you about how you enjoy this gift of access to one of the most beautiful areas of Michigan.

Although PAK's message here is that IP, the current corporate land-holder of the majority of land in the Copper Country, has given us a gift of access, I prefer to thank God, for this gift, and access is a natural right.

The people, in turn, have given the corporate land-holders of the Copper Country the gift of an incredibly low tax rate


Recently, I was reading several books written by conservation officers (game wardens) and one short piece in one of the books spoke of people who trespass. While I have the same opinion on the other wildlife laws as the authors of these books do, and although I have broken wildlife laws, I do not have the same opinion on trespassing.

I don't see the point of a person owning hundreds of acres, posting keep out signs on the roadside edge of that land, and rarely visiting the land himself. Reminds me of the song, I've got a mansion, forgot the price, Ain't never been there, they tell me it's nice.

Another point on this gift of access is that nobody is going to stop access. The majority of people in this area have been, and many still are, under the impression that CFR land is open to anything. As I drive down the road I don't see anything indicating where CFR begins and other private land begins. To say that access to CFR land is a gift is ludicrous. There aren't enough law enforcement personal in the U.P. to enforce a law that would prevent people from enjoying God's green earth.

Why is it okay for the deer, the coyote, the bear, and the birds to roam freely around the earth while man must ask permission? I refuse.

I guess one day we can ask the Indians for permission to visit the lands of the reservations?

Hey everyone,
Well where is everyone?
Buried in the snow? Out on the ski hill?
Awful quiet here.
HHHHHMMMMMMM.
Well it's snowing here, yeah I know big hairy deal.
It's snowing everywhere it seems. Well it is winter so I guess it should be a logical thing that it would happen.
Well just thought I would drop a line to see if everyone was still alive. If not buried to their but cheeks in the glorious white stuff. We may not love it but I know the people that ski dooooo.
Well take care and stay warm
Lisa

Hello to all !!!

Can anyone tell me if the landing restaurant is open yet ? How about the ski hill ?

HEY EVERYONE,
Does anyone have the following?,
triple a batteries,coffee,sleep,that one missing ingredient for some dish you are making that for some reason out of all the stuff you bought just didn't make it home with you?
A paper shredder?
I'm wondering if I'm the only one who has said or will say the following today, What is that? OH how nice, ok quiet down now, get out of the kitchen, don't eat that before dinner, honey can you help me a minute, honey turn down the tv, honey where are you I can't see you from behind all that food?
Yes, dinner will be done soon, the turkey only has two legs so all of you can't have one sorry,
ok quiet down now. Honey?
Someone say the blessing, pass the stuffing, ok quiet down now. Honey?
Anyone want to help with the all the dishes? Honey? Boy it sure is quiet in there.
Well anyhooo, I just started dinner so someone pray for me, this should be great fun.
Merry Christmas.
LMT

Warm Christmas Greetings to all you posters and readers! Hope all is well with you and your families.

Merry Christmas Keweenaw Land and all of the seasons Blessings to you all.

HO-HO-HO, everyone,
Well just thought I would sit and tap out some Christmas wishes for everyone up there.
I hope everyone gets what they want for Christmas, even Paul. (Although I must wonder about the wisdom of this decision.)
I hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow.
With the lack of sleep most of us parents will get it should be great.
Well we will have a green Christmas this year, but the day after will get snow. Go figure.
Everything moves slower in the South including any white stuff for us.
I'm wishing you all the joys of the Holidays.
Have a great day.
Gods Blessings to you and yours.
Lisa

I'm back again, just found some interesting info while browsing PASTY CENTRAL. There is a site to link to Nitrate Elimination Co. which contains some informative text about nitrates, from sewage etc. if anyone is interested.