A friend of the blog sends this email:
Saw this article this morning & thought you might have fun with it. I
could see a headline like “White colonialists invade Native American
land and destroy culturally sensitive structures”. The article
mentions that the land belongs to the Leech Lake band and the
structures involved belonged to Native Americans
The friend was right.
Not only was it a story of cultural oppression, but…:
Foresters for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources used dynamite to blow up two enclosed wooden deer stands state officials say were permanently left on state land against state law.
Neighbors in the area say the demolition was unsafe and unnecessary. Agency officials on Wednesday said the action didn’t follow “DNR policy or reflect good judgment” and that follow-up measures are likely.
…dynamiting deer stands can not be good for the environment.
I noticed that there was a follow up article noted at the end of this one, entitled “DNR to Clean Up Mess from Dynamiting Deer Stands.”
After reading this piece, I clutched my pearls and toppled over onto the fainting couch.
Dynamite??!!
Q: Why would anyone use dynamite for such a purpose?
A: Because it’s fun.
But I do support the DNR doing this. Public land today is The Commons of yesterday. If you want to put up a permanent deer stand or leave one in place year after year, buy your own land.
This should have been part of my previous comment. If, as the article states, the DNR left notices on those deer stands months earlier for and had discussions with the owner’s family member, then I’ve got no sympathy for them.
“But I do support the DNR doing this. Public land today is The Commons of yesterday. If you want to put up a permanent deer stand or leave one in place year after year, buy your own land.”
Agreed, but dynamite? On wooden deer stands? Maybe they used 24″ logs to make the stands? That’s the only reason I can think of to use dynamite. Ever hear of a chainsaw and wrecking bar? Or are those to difficult for government employees to operate?
“A: Because it’s fun.”
OK. Gotta give you that one. If I had the means and opportunity I suppose I’d blow them up too, just to watch the explosion, but it seems a bit overkill to me and these are government officials; aren’t they supposed to have some sort of regulations or something to prevent them from blowing stuff up just for fun?
Heck, it’s their job…it’s not supposed to be fun.
I understand the need to remove private structures from public land, but….dynamite? Seriously? And it didn’t even remove the stand, really, but rather just made it a lot more hazardous. The owners obviously had pulled it there with a pickup or something, and I’m at a loss to figure out why instead of using dynamite, the DNR didn’t just….bring their own truck and a winch to pull it out.
The article says dynamite was used, with detonation cord. It’s a reporter quoting a neighbor, not a demolition expert, but okay, say that’s correct.
Dynamite is a Class A federally regulated explosive. Buyers need permits, right? And must keep a detailed inventory? I suppose the DNR could use dynamite to blow up beaver dams, that would be a legitimate purpose, but then somebody had to check the stuff out of inventory. Don’t they need to give a reason?
“Hey Jim, give me half-a-dozen sticks of dynamite and 50 feet of det cord.”
“Sure thing, Bob. Just gotta note in the log – what’s it for?”
“Gonna blow up a deer stand on Indian land.”
“It’s on wheels. Couldn’t you just tow it out?”
“Nah, what fun would that be?”
“Okey doke, here you go.”
Seriously, who came up with the idea, who approved it, who signed it out, who was the demolitions guy who went along to help place the explosives . . . it’s not like me and my cousins were out there with Tannerite. This was a planned and sanctioned state government operation they fully expected to get away with, until they got caught.
Reminds me of the legislator-lawyer making a 3:00 am welfare check on her step mom while dressed in black carrying away Tupperware, fully expecting to get away with it.
Dynamite seems right – no heavy equipment, – no unbudgeted labor spent on hours or days disassembling it, – no wear and tear on equipment
just Rapid Controlled Disassembly and collection of the pieces, a very low budget activity that illustrates the governments deep concern for wisely spending taxpayer money
Years ago, I visited a college friend of my in western PA. We took a tour of some caves near his place. The park ranger conducting the tour advised us not to touch the walls of the cave, as the oils from our fingers could disrupt crystalline growth for “a thousand years”. As we travelled to the next chamber, where there was evidence of excavation, my friend leaned in and said “Environmentalist Logic: You can’t touch the cave walls, but you can blast the crap out of them with dynamite!”
No, dynamite was a terrible decision. Now there are splinters, nails, and likely steel shards all over the place up there that have to be cleaned up.
But hey, it’s the DNR so the labor is “free” to the taxpayers, just like all other government largess, eh?
Though I have to admit, if I were a DNR employee and dynamite were an option, hell yes, I’d have used it! Just way too much fun and brings out the little kid in me. In Vermont they used it frequently on beaver dams, but I’ve never heard of anyone using it in managed woodlands on manmade structures before.
The “no heavy equipment” is a sore point with me, tbh, Bodine. In the winter, heavy equipment in a forest is pretty safe.
But we’re never safe from bureaucracy. When we rebuilt a Long Trail cabin on Mt. Mansfield in Vermont in a National Forest (the cabin had been there since before it was a forest), we asked to put in a log line and run logs up to the site. Nope, no motors permitted in the National Forest, and the Feds were adamant *ssholes.
We wound up having to get the state involved as well as the National Guard, who flew several flights of helicopters in and dropped the logs in an official alpine area from which we could move the logs by hand down to the cabin.
The alpine area should recover in 80-100 years, but the Federal government didn’t care and was happy that we didn’t use any evil internal combustion engines in their pristine area. Like the National Guard helicopters flying the logs in were any quieter, cheaper, or polluted less. Oh, and about 2 miles down south there’s a road with cars that go up to the summit all summer and fall that’s also in the National Forest.
I assumed that the dynamite was left over from the DNR’s early fisheries surveys of local lake fish populations.
Nerdbert: I’m familiar with Mt Mansfield because I went to high school in Vermont and every March the school took a 3 day ski trip to Stowe, Vermont. Yes, there’s a very large ski resort there with the attendant chair lifts taking skiers high up the mountain. And that wasn’t noisy or intrusive upon the pristine wilderness? Vermont is full of Bernie Sanders clones, so it doesn’t surprise me.
nerdbert.
Since the DNR has since announced that they will clean up the mess, I’m sure that they’ll bring out several of the people that have to perform community service as part of a sentencing and/or some of the inmates from the minimum security wing of a jail or prison, to do the job.
So the DNR has now promised to clean up the mess. I wonder how they propose to do this? Napalm perhaps?