Petition to stop the sale of public wild lands

[woodworkingboy]

A Chinese corporation bought a winery and its associated land in the Napa Valley. They are going to go in and cut over 30 thousand trees - decimate the landscape in that area.

Not a defender of the Chinese, but it's good business for the Chinese to buy Napa wineries, that's all. Protecting money with foreign holdings is one thing, but also the wine consuming market in China is growing and potentially gargantuan. Buying wineries has been going on for some years, it's not a particularly new thing. American owned wineries might get off their ass themselves to broaden their market in China, now largely ruled by the French.

Is the 30,000 trees deal really true, or some people just saying what isn't fact?

 

[Merle Nelson]

It is really true.

A Corp from Spain bought some forested land up the coast from me and they have been logging off hundreds of acres for the last year and a half and putting it into grapes. Fair enough I guess....the land was for sale. But grapes suck up immense amounts of water. A lot of these things go on in watersheds that have just about enough water for the old homesteads around the area. Water laws haven't caught up to current reality yet.

Good business for the short term.

 

[cory]

Good business for the short term.

Same old story.

 

[Bermy]

The Chinese are buying everything.

The lease for the port of Darwin has Chinese interests, the Kidman Cattle stations (not sure where that stands at the moment)...they just got knocked back from buying a major power grid on the mainland...the company has ties to the Chinese State Government.
They are buying the biggest dairy property in Tasmania...it goes on and on. Especially when they can put a bigger offer on the table than locals.

I think the threshold for property purchases by foreign entities is 15 million, then the Government has to investigate it and give their approval...but when Chinese companies are paying off the personal debt of at least one Politician, one wonders about the integrity of the whole thing (said politician resigned thank goodness)

Sorry, derail.

 

[cory]

Not a derail!

 

[tntree]

signed