Recently I caught a news item on NPR that piqued my interest. You can read or listen to it here. In brief, it spoke of plans to run a natural gas pipeline from Malin, Oregon to the coast. As might be expected this proposed pipeline has had a polarizing effect on land and business owners. There are those who see only the economic benefit and seem to be missing the long term effects and potential hazards to flora, fauna and humans. Then there are those who see the potential damage and threat and feel that the risks far outweigh the rewards and therefore are threatening to dig their heels in.
As interesting as this is, what really caught my attention was a statement made towards the end of the article. From the article:
"But [the ranch owner] may not have a choice. Eminent domain likely will come into play, and a court could force reluctant landowners to allow the pipeline across their property, though that's not the company's preferred option."
I remember a friend of mine years ago made, what seemed to me, to be an offhand comment (he was an assistant to a surveyor at the time). He said: "Land ownership is a myth. No one owns land in America except the government". And now, every time I hear eminent domain come up I can hear my friend whispering in my ear, "Land ownership is a myth".
Now, I'm not a lawyer so I can't speak to all the in's and out's of eminent domain. Nor shall I try to convince you that all uses of eminent domain have been bad. All I want to point out is the fact that if the government (local or federal) decides they want your land or want to do something to your land then you are out of luck. You may have had that land in your family for generations and if the government decides they want to run a big ol' pipeline across it neither you nor your long dead ancestors will have anything to say about it.
What does this mean? It means if you or I ever want to stop big corporations from raping the land we may find ourselves shoved into a corner that will require something beyond complaining to our neighbors or our assemblyman or senator. It may mean we will have to actually put some sort of muscle behind our rhetoric. But don't be worrying about some outbreak of acts of "eco-terrorism" (A term I despise) by angry landowners in the near future. The fact is most landowners eventually roll over and let big corp walk all over them.
However, I would like to offer this word of advice which may help such landowners decide on their tactics and how quickly they decide to cave. That advice is this: the fact that you think the land belongs to you isn't going to help you because, to quote my friend, "landownership is a myth".
[I realize that no one really owns land, not even the government, however for this article I wanted to address a different issue. I hope to address the fact that land ownership is a myth on a wider scale in a future article].
