Tim,
Our various levels of govt may or may not assist you. Could be fed, state or county forestry, agriculture and/or parks & recreation depts, State University Ag & Tech Cooperative Extensions. Could be your local zoning or planning boards and as we have here too, a local Conservation Advisory Council. Plus we have a Wetlands Inspector. On the local levels they mostly "are just doing their job", except for the occasional volunteers who can be wacky, self-important, and ill-informed PIAs. For starting a relationship with any whose jurisdiction I am/will be working in I start with the assumption that they are there to help, and I will inform them what I want to do, and that I need to know relevant rules and regs etc so that we can work cooperatively and successfully, and that they will help me. Ongoing successful relationships build trust and result in more rapid issuance of permits, completion of inspections, clearance of paperwork and issuance of Certifs of Compliance etc.
Nationally (& to the EXTREME w Bush Administration) govt agencies more often ARE puppets in order to implement policy to make or break fortunes for the puppeteers who want to misuse OUR national land, water, mineral and air resources for free, or to get permission to ignore the intent of the Clean Water Act and The Clean Air Act. Is acid rain effecting your forests in Maine as it is in the Adirondacks, Allegheny, Appalachian Mountains? Maybe someone from WV will say what's happening with
"mountaintop removal mining" ...?
Govt may or may not assist you, but they all will have some capacities to influence you, your forestry and land management practices, sizes and species of trees available for cutting, water resources available for use, regional and national management of pests and diseases (containment, or introduction by neglect - current huge looming dangers are the Asian Horned Beetle, blights affecting the Sugar maples and White Ash, smut affecting American Cherry, wooly adelgid on the Hemlocks). In the past - Dutch Elm Disease, Chestnut Blight, plus Pine Borers which 10 to 15 yrs ago killed all the stands of Red Pines planted here by the CCC during the 1930s.
So, is all govt evil or destructive or ignorant of local people and local conditions and local economies? Does govt have to be puppets for "bad, greedy" puppeteers? Are we also govt, as voters giving the "Consent of the governed"? by speaking up, by volunteering, by demanding policies will be obeyed that will sustain life? On a large scale - take steps to ratify Kyoto protocols and to raise CAFE Standards etc etc, and on a small scale to live as examples of our values, as you do "off the grid", taking care of your family and land, plus the life and heritage that are on it, sharing your knowledge, doing good work.
More later, I've got some snow to move so I can go dancing tonite.
Steve
