This Spring as the farmers and ranchers have begun to burn off their fields and ditches they are beginning to get a taste of what the oil and gas companies have been receiving from the local radicals for several years.
Emboldened by the pandering of local and state politicians that dreaded triumvirate of complainers, hypochondriacs and anti--job loons have now begun pestering the local agricultural community to stop the field clearing practice.
Like new oil and gas commission member and Garfield County Commissioner Ms. Houpt they imagine a connection between every tenuous complaint and something they see.
This of course is precisely the sort of thing that led to worshiping the sun and oak trees.
Actually, many in the modern environmental movement are not too far removed from this thinking which is predicated on fear of their surroundings and feeling at the mercy of a vast complicated and unmanageable world.
Most of us who have made a living at some point in our lives or families from farming or ranching have been and will continue to be true environmentalists since we understand the connection between the land and life.
Perhaps that is because many see the world as a gift for man to prosper with and manage while others without this connection see it as some sort of secular park where man is only an occasional visitor.
