Public land “sell off” myth put to rest
By Senator Jennifer Fielder – Montana State Senate District 7
In response to confusion caused by certain environmentalists that claim our public lands would be “sold to the highest bidder” if federal lands are transferred to the states, leaders of the Transfer of Public Lands (TPL) effort from all western states recently gathered in Salt Lake City, Utah to set the record straight.
Read moreUpdate from Sen. Fielder: No Losers in Public Land Transfer
“There are no losers to what we are going to propose,” said Kane County Commissioner Doug Heaton, a founding member of American Lands Council (ALC).
“Let me be really clear about this,” he said as he explained why he has taken a leadership role in compelling congress to transfer federal lands to the states. “We are not AGAINST anybody. We are FOR managing the resources so we don’t actually burn our forests to the ground, destroy our watersheds, or kill millions of animals in the process. We are FOR not putting more pollution into the environment — than all our industrial processes combined — because of mismanagement and the wildfires that are occurring.
Read more#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.
Read moreMT Senator Jennifer Fielder’s Op-Ed on the Transfer of Public Lands
Montana Senator Jennifer Fielder is fantastic at what she does. She is extremely passionate about lands issues and is a true environmentalist. She recently attended the Western States Legislative Summit which was held on April 17-18, 2014 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The purpose of the Summit was to begin collaborations between western states to compel Congress to transfer title of public lands to the states. After the summit she released a press release on the summit and the importance of the transfer of public lands. You can view the original Op-Ed that was published in the Clark Fork Valley Press here or read it below.
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