How Federal Missteps Make the Case to Transfer Public Lands to States, Localities

Daily Signal ^ | December 27, 2015 | Marjorie Haun

[george76]

A growing number of state organizations seek to remedy what they consider negligent policies and shoddy oversight of public land on the part of federal agencies.

Under the umbrella name Transfer of Public Lands, the movement offers a solution to the problem that is simple in concept: transfer ownership and management of public lands administered by federal agencies to equivalent state agencies. These agencies, being accountable to governors, state legislators and citizens, will manage the public lands in a more conscientious, cost-effective way.

...

Unlike states east of the Continental Divide, public lands in Western states such as Washington and Idaho predominantly are owned by the federal government. They are under the management of the Interior Department and a plethora of subagencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

...

Utah is at the forefront of the Transfer of Public Lands movement. In 2012, the Utah state legislature passed legislation that lays down the foundation for transferring public lands to state ownership.

National parks, national monuments, tribal lands and Defense Department property are excluded from the transfer. Called the “Transfer of Public Lands Act and Related Study,” it was signed into law by Gov. Richard Herbert, a Republican.

The American Lands Council has been tireless in making the legal and moral case for transferring public lands in the West .

...

Bungling, overreach and overreactions by the federal government may make the strongest case of all. Within such instances of federal mismanagement are stories of human suffering and environmental degradation.

...

As the legal wrangling over the Transfer of Public Lands movement plays out, the critical moral case for state control of public lands within state boundaries is being made by a growing list of federal debacles, injustices, waste and abuse.

[griswold3]

Meet the new boss , same as the old boss.

[marron]

I completely agree.

Aside from office buildings and military bases, the federal government has no business owning vast swaths of land.

Federal land should be transferred to the states. The federal agencies that manage those lands should be broken up and transferred to the states too. If the states choose to continue to pay their salaries, fine, and if not, they can seek honest employment. The next president may be hiring Border Patrol agents.

I would prefer it if public lands were passed into private hands by means of a lottery or something, limited to US citizens only. But even just into state hands would be an improvement over the current state of affairs.

To my mind, I don’t think National Forests should be off limits to the transfer, they should likewise be transferred. But step by step, I suppose. Take what you can get.

[tbw2]

States for example would reopen land to grazing, logging and resource extraction. They generate revenue and the local economy creates jobs.

[ColdOne]

Feds never going to give up any land.

[OregonRancher]

The most hated and distrusted government agency in the west is
the BLM. I’ve got 50 years of anecdotal and literal happenings that makes my hand reach for a ##### every time
I think about them.....whoops...forgot....lost those pesky #####s when I capsized on the lake last year...shucks..

[Secret Agent Man]

Fedgov needs complete dismantling. No more.

[george76]

UN Agenda 21 ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)

[CedarDave]

Older story for the NM list.

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