I’m a relative new comer to Montezuma County. I moved here in ’96. Since then I have taken advantage of many of the outdoor opportunities the area affords me: hunting, fishing, biking, birding, etc. much of them on National Forest and Bureau of Land Management lands.

I fear the ulterier motives of the American Lands Council, which our county commissioners has supported with taxpayer monies. The goal of this group is to transfer federal lands to state ownership. While this seems a mechanism to alleviate conflicts between public lands administrators and land users, my concern is that this is a ploy to sell off these lands to private interests thereby restricting public use.

As a public land user, voter and interested party, I ask the commissioners to cease support of the American Lands Council.

Ed Nemanic

Cortez