<story><title>Britain&apos;s Next Megaproject: A Coast-To-Coast Forest</title><url>https://www.citylab.com/environment/2018/01/northern-forest-united-kingdom/550025/?utm_source=SFTwitter</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Dirlewanger</author><text>It stings to know that in the US, state-level initiatives like this are exceedingly rare, and national ones are (and will continue to be) non-existent. Even most local efforts like this are met with resistance, usually from NIMBYs that have no argument aside from that they don&amp;#x27;t like it. Americans have a very hard time seeing beyond their property boundaries.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mkingston</author><text>As a New Zealander currently living in the UK, the contrast in conservation approaches is stark.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve come to the conclusion that New Zealand is beautiful in large part because a) it has a low population density and b) it hasn&amp;#x27;t had a sufficiently high population density for long enough to ruin it. Not so much because of broad public support for conservation. Luckily, I think some good basic protections exist (national parks), and are mostly respected.&lt;p&gt;In the UK, there&amp;#x27;s so little wilderness remaining that it commands a considerable respect, and considerable conservation effort and public support. Noticeably more so, I believe, than I witnessed in NZ.</text></comment>
<story><title>Britain&apos;s Next Megaproject: A Coast-To-Coast Forest</title><url>https://www.citylab.com/environment/2018/01/northern-forest-united-kingdom/550025/?utm_source=SFTwitter</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Dirlewanger</author><text>It stings to know that in the US, state-level initiatives like this are exceedingly rare, and national ones are (and will continue to be) non-existent. Even most local efforts like this are met with resistance, usually from NIMBYs that have no argument aside from that they don&amp;#x27;t like it. Americans have a very hard time seeing beyond their property boundaries.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bdamm</author><text>This seems very appropriate as a state-level issue. There are many states larger than England. New York State, for example, is larger. Why should it be federal? Besides, federal agencies already directly control enormous tracts of land in the west. State-level control over land use is a good thing.</text></comment>