Posted on 28-2-2002

Buying Back Our Country
by Alan Marston

Hundreds of acres of the most famous stretch of California coastline - the
much photographed and filmed Bixby Ocean Ranch in Big Sur - has been added
to the Los Padres National Forest, creating creating an 11 mile stretch of
permanently protected coastline beginning at the Bixby Bridge and extending
south through Andrew Molera State Park.

This time it was the US Government, but the trend is obvious, people
concerned with the privatisation and sell-off of everything and especially
wilderness and other uniquely important ecological zones have adopted a
TaiChi approach, using an opponents energy against it - individuals, groups
and governments are buying back what should never be a commodity. What
should never be in `the market' is being taken out by the only thing the
market economy responds to - money.

There are many names for the individuals and groups that are buying natural
areas to conserve them, a good place to start looking for participation is
www.ecologyfund.com

Now at last is something worth buying.