Alaska Moving Forward with Lands Advisory Committee
This past January, President Obama announced that his administration plans to lock up the oil-rich 1.5 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain and offshore areas in Alaska from oil and gas exploration, despite widespread Native Alaskan support for drilling in the area. ANWR's coastal plain alone is estimated to hold 28 billion barrels of oil.
Read moreIn The News, April 9, 2015
Today's Headlines:
Alaska House Passes Bill Demanding Transfer of Federally-held Land; Sen. Murkowski Amendment Ensures Smart, Well-Balanced Public Lands Policy; Guest Opinion: Priest Lake Presents A Great State vs. Federal Basis for a Public Lands Study; Rural Counties to Lose the Most From Defunded Lands Programs.
Read moreAlaska, Allies in West Have a Case to Win Land from Uncle Sam
By Mead Treadwell
Our Arctic neighbors -- Canada's Yukon and the Northwest Territories and Denmark's Greenland recently received control of land within their borders from national governments. In America's big public land states, it could be our turn. Inspired by attempts by other Western states, House Speaker Mike Chenault and Reps. Craig Johnson, Wes Keller, Charisse Millett, Kurt Olson, and Dave Talerico have introduced HB 115. Like laws passed or considered in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, and Montana, it demands Alaska own most federal land not now in national parks or military bases. The bills' first hearing is Friday.
Read moreIn the News, February 19, 2015
Today's Headlines:
Commentary: Hardy Expects to See Action on Federal Land Issues; Local Management of Idaho Lands: Is There a Better Path Forward?; Bill in Alaska Legislature Seeks Transfer of Federal Lands to State Control; Hill Assails Obama's latest Executive Land Grab; Montanans Need to Control Public Lands in Montana; The Federal Lands Freedom Act: Empowering States to Control Their Own Energy Futures; Back Better Management of Public Land.
Read more3 Minute Message - 02/18/2015
Throughout the United States, several states are working simultaneously on bills to help improve the health, access, and productivity of our public lands. These bills are helping to look towards the transfer of those public lands to the states wherein they lie, as a means to help preserve them for generations to come, while still providing for the access we all cherish and the productivity we rely on.
Read moreIn The News, January 28, 2015
Today's Headlines:
The South Carolina Resolution for the Transfer of Federal Lands; New Mexico Lawmaker: State, Not Feds, Should Manage its Land; Studying Public Land Transfer Next Step for Montana; Editorial: Nevada Representatives Propose Anti-Babbitt Bill; Federal Land Ownership Not Supported by Constitution; This Federal Government Land Grab Would Permanently Lock Up Millions of Alaska Acres with Energy Potential.
Read moreIn The News, November 5, 2014
Today's Headlines: Openshaw: Mr. Bureaucrat, may I please have a drink of water?; Healthy Public Lands Mean Healthy Economies | Commentary; Reader View: Feds are the real land-grabbers; BLM plans controlled burns this month; Dianne Feinstein may ask Obama to bypass Congress to protect Mojave sites; Possible fee increases at local National Parks
Read moreIn the News, October 29th 2014
Today's Headlines: Sen. Reid quietly moves to block development of 800,000 acres in central Nevada; Ranchers talk transferring fed's land to states; State Sovereignty at Its Most Basic: Control of Land; Feeling pushed by lands ‘poll’? Sutherland Soapbox, 10/21/14
Read moreState Sovereignty is, at its Most Basic, The Control of Land
by Karla Jones
State sovereignty at its most basic is the ability of a state to control its own land. Earlier this month, 95 state and locally elected officials joined a variety of experts from 14 states in Salt Lake City to draft and ratify a statement calling for land currently held by the federal government to be transferred to the states. Officials at the summit included Alaska’s Lieutenant Governor Mead Treadwell; Utah Speaker of the House Becky Lockhart and state Senator Jennifer Fielder of Montana.
Read moreOct 2014 Press Conference
This 34 minute Press Conference answers many of the questions people have about the Transfer of Public Lands. Share this with your friends, family colleagues and elected officials and help dispel the myths.
#TransferPublicLands “So much bigger than one rancher in Nevada.”
Washington Times, DENVER — Behind the hoopla surrounding Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s standoff with the Bureau of Land Management is a growing resentment over the federal government’s status as the largest landowner in the West.
“This is so much bigger than one rancher in Nevada,” Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory, who heads the American Lands Council, said in an April 23 online debate sponsored by The Salt Lake Tribune.
How much land does the federal government own? A 2012 Congressional Research Survey said the federal government owns about 640 million acres, or 28 percent of the nation’s land mass. Roughly 90 percent of that property is in the West.
Put another way, one out of every two acres in the West is federally owned. In Nevada, the figure is 81.1 percent; in Alaska, 61.8 percent; in Utah, 66.5 percent; in Oregon, 53 percent. In Connecticut and Iowa, the federal government owns 0.3 percent of the land.
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