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Show immunity comments... San Juan County has submitted bills for millions of dollars to various federal agencies for "rent" on lands under the management of those agencies this week. The move was billed as merely one to dramatize the fact that nearly 90 percent of that County Is owned by the Federal government, and it's my guess that the County won't get enough back from their billing to pay the postage. It does, however, point out the plight of San Juan and smany other western countieswho find It difficult to raise sufficient funds through a general property tax to pay the bills that seem to grow annually. The bill which passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week and headed for the Senate will go a long way toward filling the funding need. It provides, as our Page 1 news story points out, for the payment of "in lieu of taxes" block sums of money which can be used in public land counties for general governmental expenses. It's a landmark piece of legislation, and I'm delighted to hear that Its chances of passage in the Senate are excellent. -sit-As I view the activities of Bureau of Land Management fire crews this past week In containing a pinyon-juniper fire of a couple of hundred acres in the isolated Dolores Triangle area, I can't help but feel that the recently adopted policy of the National Park Service of letting natural fires run their course Is the best one for much of the west's public lands. There Is, of course, a possibility that the Dolores Triangle fire might have endangered more valuable acreage If let alone, but It seems that using over a hundred men and tremendous i amounts of equipment for several days to save two hundred Jacres of pinyon and Juniper which might be chained next season 'anyway is a lot to pay, to say nothing of the cost of rented ;bombers which were called In to drop fire retardants on the ;blaze, resulting In the death of one pilot. Maybe the BLM ought to take a closer look at the experience .'of the NPS the past couple of years since that agency booted Old Smokey out the door. ..elt |