ICYMI: Nevada Lands Council Board Member Buzzetti Laments Chinese; Makes Derogatory Comments

During an appearance on the Trent Loos Podcast, Rachel Buzzetti, one of the top leaders of the Nevada Lands Council (NLC), lamented that Chinese people own land near Yellowstone and made derogatory comments about Chinese tourism.

Here’s what she had to say:

Buzzetti: “…We were visiting a little more and they [locals who live in Yellowstone] said  ‘yeah, they are difficult to deal with’, the Chinese are, they don’t understand… they have the three people behind the desk here at our hotel said, ‘they actually wanted us to take classes on how to start serving things Chinese like to eat like rice and different things.'” Buzzetti went on to say, “Mmmmmm rice” in regards to having Chinese food in a Yellowstone vacation town…

The podcast host later said, “But what is not heresay is in a time when our federal government continues to buy land, to run people off of the federal land, here the Chinese somehow end up owning a little piece of it?”  Rachel Buzzetti said, it’s called dollar, it’s called dollars. Whoever has the dollars. It is just maddening.”

Buzzetti is on the NLC board of directors, a state-based organization similar to the American Lands Council, working to transfer federal public lands to state control, a precursor to privatization.

It’s hard to understand Buzzetti’s logic. On one hand, she is a member of an organization that openly advocates for the privatization of public lands but laments foreign ownership, particularly Chinese, and makes derogatory comments.

China is one of the largest sources of tourism spending in the United States, expanding five-fold in less than ten years. National Parks in Nevada generated $242.9 million in visitor spending and supported over 3,000 jobs last year. Outdoor recreation generated $14.9 billion in consumer spending and $4.8 billion in wages and salaries in Nevada.

Listen to the full interview here: Trent Loos Podcast.

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