Land trust not our friend

To the Eagle,

This letter is a little hard to write, as I feel like I’m saying good bye to a dear friend and a true champion of property rights. I want to share my thoughts with her as well as The Eagle readers. This letter is written as my own opinion.

Raven Webb has sold her property to the Columbia Land Trust, and will be leaving the area to a new home soon. As she said in her recent letter to the editor, she truly was not a “willing seller.” But what do you do when you don’t have the money to fight any longer against a group that always seems to find the money to buy someone out (our tax dollars fund these NGOs).

The Columbia Land Trust is not our friend. They have destroyed hundreds of acres of farmland by removing tide gates, adding huge culverts causing extreme velocities of water to undermine 100 year old dikes, flooding pastures where cattle grazed for years, built an earthen berm across flood plains and impounded the flood waters causing homes and other buildings to flood while washing out county roads. All this in the name of “saving the fish.” I’m sorry, but we had plenty of fish before these groups, with the help of grants (our tax dollars), and some of the agencies (Fish and Wildlife, Ecology, EPA, Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board, BPA, etc.), began mitigating our farm land to the detriment of the farmers and landowners.

CLT claims to be pro-community, so why are they here in our area trying to destroy it? I think it’s because, we are a small, economically challenged county with not much support from the political arena and CLT has some real smooth talking and manipulative employees that know how to convince folks that they are a great group.

Because of Raven Webb, many people have had their eyes opened and have been given much good information regarding their property rights, myself included. She has fought a valiant fight for her home and property, and has educated many of the other landowners in the ways of NGOs. Even though she will be pretty much starting over, and building a new business, she will always remain a part of this community due to her kindness to others, perseverance, outspokenness, and her genuine love for nature.

I want to say thank you to Raven, and wish her well in her new environment. She will truly be missed. Enjoy your new home and community, and don’t ever give up on things you believe in. Especially “truth.” I already miss you, my friend.

Trudy Fredrickson

Grays River