Free Republic

There’s a lot of teeth gnashing and stomping of feet by Democrats whenever a proposal is on the table for local government to take control of public land. But now it appears to be fine and dandy to take control of national forests for development, when said proposal is actually proposed by Democrats. For this we have to thank U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, and former U.S. Sen. Mark Udall. ... They’re the trio behind the 45-acre Forest Service sale to Summit County, upon which a new housing project will be developed. Yes, it certainly is amazing....

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...

Congress rejected the Forest Service plan to give the agency access to up to $2.9 billion a year to suppress wildfires. In response, Secretary of Agriculture threatened to let fires burn up the West unless Congress gives his department more money. In a letter to key members of Congress, Vilsack warned, “I will not authorize transfers from restoration and resilience funding” to suppress fires. If the Forest Service runs out of appropriated funds to fight fires, it will stop fighting them until Congress appropriates additional funds. This is a stunning example of brinksmanship on the part of an agency once...

Americans now comprehend fully the disdain the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has for truth-telling, the rights of others, and the environment. Forget the last six spiteful years; the Colorado mine disaster suffices. The EPA’s wanton malfeasance — experts warned of a catastrophic blowout — unleashed three million gallons of orange arsenic-, cadmium-, and lead-laden wastewater into an Animas River tributary trashing public, private, and tribal lands and waters in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and the Navajo Nation. Even so, the EPA has nothing on the U.S. Forest Service. In documents filed days ago in a federal district court in Arkansas,...

U.S. Forest Service ranger told Montezuma County commissioners this week that local officials continue to overstep their authority in regard to the Dolores-Norwood Road. ... Earlier this year, Montezuma County officials installed a dozen “Share the Road” signs accommodating off-highway vehicle use on county roads, including the Dolores-Norwood Road. To clarify any confusion, Montezuma County attorney John Baxter told commissioners on Monday that people were allowed to operate off-highway vehicles on the roadway. “Not according to our travel management rules,” Padilla interrupted. “Your travel management rule is incorrect,” Baxter replied. Baxter continued, stating that federal officials had yet to provide...

Garfield County officials said Monday the Bureau of Land Management is considering even-stricter measures to protect greater sage-grouse than previously contemplated, rather than listening to concerns the county and others have raised. As a cooperating agency, the county got an advance look Friday at the revised proposal the agency is now considering. “It is very dramatic in terms of the changes (from a draft BLM proposal) that are being proposed,” Fred Jarman, the county’s community development director, told county commissioners Monday. Jarman and Garfield Commissioner Tom Jankovsky said the proposed measures are the result of directives coming from Washington, D.C....

A top U.S. Forest Service executive told his employees to probe their own “unconscious bias” on everything from race and sexuality to the disabled and fat people, asking them to use an unproven assessment tool to explore their feelings. The online test, which Forest Management Director Bryan Rice urged other agency directors to use as well, specifically warns of problems when it is taken “outside of the safeguards of a research institution.” Users also are told to be careful about how far to go in interpreting the results. Mr. Rice, in a March 11 email to his employees, also instructed...

After what became known as the Moonlight Fire burned some 65,000 acres in the Sierra Nevada in 2007, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection decided that Sierra Pacific Industries was responsible for the damage. The culprit, regulators charged, was a friction spark from a bulldozer operating on Sierra Pacific land. Cal Fire fined the timber company $8 million to pay for related costs. Because the fire burned more than 40,000 acres of national forest, the federal government also went after Sierra Pacific's deep pockets; in 2012, Sierra Pacific agreed to a settlement that entailed paying the feds $47...

Sales of leases on 8.1 million acres of federal oil and gas parcels — an area larger than Massachusetts and Rhode Island combined — are on hold because of worries that drilling could harm greater sage grouse... the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s delay on the parcels underscores just how much is at stake for an industry that finds its future inextricably intertwined with a bird once known primarily for its elaborate mating display. The grouse’s huge range, covering portions of 11 states and an area more than four times as big as New England, includes vast oil, gas and...

Assemblyman Ira Hansen has concerns about the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service overreaching their policing powers. Spurred in part by the BLM’s April roundup of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy’s cattle that brought an armed confrontation between federal agents and Bundy supporters, the Sparks Republican is pushing for a bill that would prohibit BLM and Forest Service law officers from enforcing state laws. He is trying to get Nevada’s 17 counties, including Clark County, to take an interest in the issue that would be considered by the 2015 Legislature. Hansen’s concerns are tied in part to a variety...

Sen. Martin Heinrich, one of the U.S. Senate’s most vocal advocates for preserving federal lands, argued against efforts to transfer federally-owned tracts to the states in an op-ed published today in the New York Times. In the article titled “The Land Grab Out West,” the freshman Democrat from New Mexico argues that attempts by conservative public policy groups and congressional Republicans to transfer federally-owned lands to states, if successful, could open those lands up to eventual privatization for oil, gas and mineral extraction. That, in turn, could leave an American public who has long enjoyed the lands for recreational purposes...

The U.S. Forest Service has tightened restrictions on media coverage in vast swaths of the country's wild lands, requiring reporters to pay for a permit and get permission before shooting a photo or video in federally designated wilderness areas. Under rules being finalized in November, a reporter who met a biologist, wildlife advocate or whistleblower alleging neglect in any of the nation's 100 million acres of wilderness would first need special approval to shoot photos or videos even on an iPhone. Permits cost up to $1,500, says Forest Service spokesman Larry Chambers, and reporters who don't get a permit could...

The U.S. Forest Service celebrated National Roasted Marshmallow Day the only way a government agency knows how — by telling people how not to roast smores.“Never start a campfire when there are fire restrictions in place,” the jovial blog post says. “Be sure you are at least 15 feet from tent walls, trees or other flammable objects.” It also recommends keeping children at least 10 feet from the campfire, ensuring that they take no part in dangerous marshmallow melting.Once minors have been safely sequestered out of sight, “let’s get to the marshmallow basics. Use a roasting stick of at least...

Last week I said the Environmental Protection Agency has become a monster that does more harm than good. But logical people say, "What else we got?" It's natural to assume greedy capitalists will run amok and destroy the Earth unless stopped by regulation. These critics don't understand the real power of private ownership, says Terry Anderson of the Property and Environment Research Center. "Long before the EPA was a glint in anyone's eye," said Anderson on my TV show, "property rights were dealing with pollution issues."

Large turnouts are expected at two upcoming public hearings on proposed changes to the Mexican wolf management plan, including expansion of the wolf-management areas in Arizona and New Mexico. The hearings, Aug. 11 in Pinetop, Ariz., and Aug. 13 in Truth or Consequences, N.M., will be the final opportunity for verbal testimony on proposed changes to management of the endangered Mexican gray wolf population in the two states. Public hearings last year in Albuquerque and Pinetop drew a total of around 1,000 people, most of whom were not allotted time to speak. ... The Fish and Wildlife Service proposes to...

Proposed regulations to guide sheep grazing in the Weminuche Wilderness are so weighty and controversial that the level of environmental examination of the issues is being ramped up a notch. The original Environmental Assessment (EA) of the plan – for which an unusual second public comment period was opened – has been suspended to allow preparation of a more comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Kara Chadwick, recently named supervisor of the San Juan National Forest to replace Mark Stiles, broke the news Thursday in a talk to Club 20. She confirmed it later to The Durango Herald. Chadwick cited heightened...

A federal judge handed a landmark victory to Kane County and the state of Utah on Wednesday in a years-long dispute with the federal government over whether some rural routes should remain in use as roads, or if they should be closed to the public. In two decisions, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups found he had jurisdiction to hear Kane County's claim, gave parameters for "reasonable" right-of-way widths on some routes and determined that 12 of 15 routes in dispute were roads and therefore accessible by the public. The distinction hinged on an 1866 law through which Congress sought to...

Despite an eleventh hour interjection from the U.S. Forest Service, the Ouray County Commissioners made history this week, unanimously voting to adopt a new county road map that brings it into the 21st century. The last time an official county road map was prepared in Ouray County was in 1961. Proposed revisions to this 1961 iteration of the map took place over the past five years, first through the work of the collaborative, multi-jurisdictional Public Access Group and later through two years of intensive work by Ouray County IT/GIS Manager Jeff Bockes, who integrated modern computerized mapping techniques (including GoogleEarth)...

Last month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the meadow jumping mouse as an endangered species. Now, the U.S. Forest Service, which oversees the Santa Fe National Forest, is considering erecting a series of 8-foot high fences to protect the mouse’s habitat. The Luceros, members of the San Diego Cattleman’s Association and holders of grazing permits with the federal government, say the fences will lock out their cattle — as well as those of other permit holders — from ever returning to the meadow where the livestock graze for 20 days in the spring and up to 40 days...

The National Park Service on Friday announced it was moving to ban drones on all its lands.. The move comes amid growing concern about hobbyists using drones to create dramatic videos. The ban would cover more than 84 million acres of public land. The director of the parks service cited safety concerns as well as potential harm to wildlife. "Imagine you're a big wall climber in Yosemite working on a four-day climb up El Capitan, and you're hanging off a bulb, ready to make a [difficult] move, and an unmanned aircraft flies up beside you and is hovering a few...