re: #191 lawhawk

Case in point - Wyoming legislators want the feds to reintroduce wolves to Central Park:

Lead sponsor Republican Allen Jaggi had tongue firmly in cheek when he made the resolution (see PDF here), which states:

A JOINT RESOLUTION requesting Congress to acquire the area commonly known as Central Park on Manhattan in New York City on behalf of the federal government; urging the United States Congress to declare Central Park to be a wilderness area and to prohibit any further improvement or development of Central Park unless authorized by an Act of Congress.

Jaggi sits on the Wyoming legislative committee that handles wildlife issues—they’re still steamed, it seems, that the federal government has been meddling in their parks, reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone National Park in the mid-1990s. Jaggi admits the bill is modeled after Alaska’s and is meant to be humorous, but adds that it is also a push back at people from other states who want to tell Wyoming how to manage its affairs.

Alaskan Representative Kyle Johansen explained to the Times why many western states were focusing their anger on NYC: “What I’m trying to accomplish is to basically make a point of the hypocrisy of—and don’t take offense—those East Coast folks who write a lot of checks to shut down Alaska, while in their own backyard, Manhattan has been turned from a pristine wild island supporting an amazing Muir web of life to having only Central Park left as a green belt. And even Central Park has been radically changed.”