Why Utah’s Federal Lands Fight Matters in Oklahoma [and all points East] - Part 5 of 5
This is the fifth in five-part series about federal lands by Trent England of the Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs - www.OCPAThink.org.
Legislation adopted in Utah calls on the federal government to transfer certain of these lands to the state. It set a deadline of December 31, 2014.
Just 1.6% of the land that comprises Oklahoma is owned by the federal government. In Utah, where state officials are leading an effort to reduce federal land ownership, that number is 66.5%. Yet there are good reasons why Oklahomans and all Americans should support Utah’s legal and political challenge to Washington, D.C.’s power.
States Can Manage Public Lands - Part 4 of 5
This is the fourth in five-part series about federal lands by Trent England of the Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs - www.OCPAThink.org.
Legislation adopted in Utah calls on the federal government to transfer certain of these lands to the state. It set a deadline of December 31, 2014.
A division cuts across the continental United States. In the 11 western states, the federal government owns nearly half the land (47.3%). In the 37 states to their east, just 4% of the land is federal. In five states, including New York, the federal government owns less than 1% of the land.
Given these numbers, Utah’s insistence that the federal government turn over resource lands in that state is hardly radical. All Utah wants is to be treated like every other state east of Colorado.
This East-West division is the result of a history of federal foot-dragging and eventual reneging on a policy of treating states as equals by giving them control over their own lands (other than those retained by the federal government for a constitutionally enumerated purpose; more on the history is in parts two and three of this series).
The Neo-Colonialism of Federal Planners and Urban Elites - Part 3 of 5
This is the third in a five-part series about federal lands by Trent England of the Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs - www.OCPAThink.org.
Legislation adopted in Utah calls on the federal government to transfer certain of these lands to the state. It set a deadline of December 31, 2014.
Colonialism is “control by one power over a dependent area or people.” This definition applies to many western communities surrounded by federal land.
Most federal lands were originally open to use by local people and industries. Yet in classic colonial fashion, distant politicians and bureaucrats now routinely dictate restrictive policies that degrade or destroy local communities. Just one example, the Northwest Forest Plan devised in 1994 reduced logging by 80% for lands originally set aside for that very purpose. Based on bad science about the spotted owl, the plan devastated communities (as the USFS’s own report shows, corresponding with what this writer has seen in these same communities) and increased the intensity of wildfires.
Even some liberal politicians in the West have cried foul as outside interests have worked to shut down the use of lands for the very purposes they were originally preserved.
Op-Ed: Tying Statehood and Education Funding Together
Op-ed 2:28:14 Tying statehood and education funding together _ Payson Roundup – Payson, AZ
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