LETTERS: HERITAGE PLAN USURPS LEGISLATION

To the editor:

Thanks to the efforts of hundreds of grass-roots organizations, Congress in last year's session rejected the American Heritage Area Act. This bill would have authorized Congress to designate vast areas of the country such as Perry, Ste. Genevieve and Cape Girardeau counties as heritage zones based on historical, cultural and natural characteristics such as the Mississippi River. Grass-roots activists perceived this bill as a threat to property rights and a major step toward federal government land-use planning.

Just when you think the battle is won, you find out it is beginning. President Clinton has decided to bypass the legislative process and instigate a program called American Heritage Rivers Initiative. The way it works is rivers are nominated by various environmental groups in their state to be put into this federal program. Then Clinton, with the stroke of his pen, designates the river by proclamation. The decision is not subject to public scrutiny and accountability. Congressional approval and oversight are not required.

The AHRI has the same problem as other attempted heritage river designations had. It brings a federal connection to a nonfederal area and federal control down onto private land. Once the boundaries of the area are drawn -- let's say 20 miles wide on each side of the Mississippi River -- the mandates will apply to everyone within those boundaries in some way.

The actual guidelines for the initiative have been drafted by 14 federal agencies. Farmers, hunters, fishermen and other property owners were not asked how they liked the idea. Community-based involvement in this program is minimal to nonexistent.

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, a champion of property rights, has written a letter of objection to the Council on Environmental Quality, which is one of the federal agencies helping railroad the program. In the letter, she requests that no rivers in the 8th District of Missouri receive designation through the AHRI program. Thanks to her for this. What happens now is up to the whims and agenda of Clinton.

If you are interested in learning more about preserving your private-property rights and how federal and international bureaucracies and environmental extremists are committed to taking them away, write to Property Rights, P.O. Box 105, Frohna, Mo. 63748.

STAN PETZOLDT

Frohna