HomeMy WebLinkAboutLetter From Robert WeidnerRobert K Weidner
9720 lronmaster Drive
Burke, Virginia 22OL5
October 24,2022
Dear Commissioners/Council Members:
Next January will mark the beginning of my thirty first year working as your advocate in
Washington, D.C,, not including my fifteen years working while mentored by a truly great man,
former Utah Senator Jake Garn. Jake served along side Scoop Jackson, Warren Magnusson,
Slade Gorton and Dan Evans. Together, they all overcame the partisan divide that afflicts us
today by advocating access to and wise multiple use management of National Forest and other
federal lands. These men understood the true meaning of conservation through wise
stewardship. They each supported logging as a necessary tool for active forest management
and worked across party lines to see that men and women had opportunities to work in the
forest products industry on federal, state and private forests. They would find today's political
environment anathema to that for which America stands.
I stand second to no one arguing that the federal government must honor its obligations to
rural public lands counties by making full Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) and Secure Rural
Schools (SRS) payments. Most recently, I have worked directly with Finance Committee
Chairman, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, whose idea it was to compensate revenue sharing
counties who have been harmed by reckless federal land and environmental policies to the
tune of SZSO million per year for two years from the Treasury Department. You should each be
receiving the first of those payments now. I currently represent the National Forest Counties
and Schools Coalition advocating active National Forest and BLM management as well as the
uranium mining industry whose work is desperately needed on federal lands to meet the
demands of American electricity users through clean nuclear power generation.
Recognizing the value of broader coalitions, I am pleased to represent several other western
public lands counties in Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, California and Utah
advocating positions compatible with those Senator Garn taught me.
Over the years it has been my focus to: 1) Keep an eye on NACo to make sure it did in fact,
represent our western public lands interests and to similarly keep an eye on the Congress and
Administration no matter which party was in charge to protect our same values. To that end I
have been pleased to work with NACo whenever possible and by working with the National
Forest Counties and Schools Coalition to protect Congress's commitment to share revenues
from management of National Forests and public lands generally.
I am grateful for your ongoing support and look forward to continuing to work on your behalf to
protect access to our public lands for all multiple uses and to continue to evaluate whether
returning land management authority to the states and counties is actually the best way to
protect our rural western way of life. We are the true environmentalists and let no one tell you
otherwise.
Finally, let me share sage counsel from another of my original mentors, the late, great San Juan
County, Utah Commissioner, Calvin Black who shared with Senator Garn and me lasting words
of wisdom. Calvin taught us: "He who controls the land, controls his destiny!" Truer words
were never spoken and to those words I remain committed.
Sin
ner