New Mexico land transfer experiment ended badly for state control advocates
BY TOM RIBE
It is no secret that some state legislators in the West want to boot federal land management agencies from their states. They argue that the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service cost too much and are too detached from local values, and that states could make money by running our vast open spaces like a privately owned business.
The Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based libertarian think tank, is of that opinion and has developed models to replace federal agencies with private interests. What many people don’t know is that Congress implemented one of the Cato Institute’s ideas in 2000, on the 89,000-acre Valles Caldera National Preserve in New Mexico. For some critics of the federal government, this was the experiment in land management that would signal the end of the BLM and Forest Service in the West.
Give states chance to manage small portion of U.S. forests
BY JIM GERBER
At a Feb. 24 House Appropriations Committee meeting on the Forest Service budget, Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., suggested there might be some merit to selling off federal public lands. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, pointed out that the people of Idaho love their public lands because they use them for a wide variety of uses. They would not like to see them auctioned off.
There is a better solution than to sell off federal lands. Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, has a bill that would create experimental areas of 200,000 or more acres in several states to see whether state management of federal lands is feasible.
Idaho’s misguided attempt to legalize a Bundyesque occupation
BY KAHLE BECKER
Senate Bill 1338, brought to us by Sen. Sheryl Nuxoll R-Cottonwood, purports to allow counties to declare Federal land a “Catastrophic Public Nuisance.” The proposed legislation which then claims to allow a county or its sheriff to take steps to abate the nuisance. Presumably this means the county can order trees be logged, roads be constructed, or prescriptive fires be lit on Federal land.
BY BRIAN BROOKS
For most Idahoans, our expansive landscapes are seen as a great heritage to be explored and cherished. These lands provide quality habitat that sustains rich fish and wildlife populations that naturally draws or creates lifelong sportsmen and women. Our Idahoan character and western culture have been shaped in part by our uninhibited exploration of wild places.
BY ZANE JOSEPH BEAL
A handful of bills recently introduced in the Idaho State Legislature strike a worrisome note. These bills — SB 1338, HR 582 and HR 586 — would have the effect of introducing a measure of chaos into extant methods of public land management, and ultimately erode our capacity to preserve the natural bounty of Idaho. SB 1338 would give sheriffs and county officials the ability to unilaterally impede federal management initiatives, while HR 582 and 586 represent efforts to transfer public lands from federal to state control.
BY ED NORTHEN
Recently the Idaho Senate passed SB 1338, a bill that, if enacted, will bring disarray to land management across our state. An earlier version, drafted by out-of-state lobbyists and special interests, had to be withdrawn due to gross inaccuracies. While this version has corrected spelling errors and reduced inaccuracies about our state, it is still wrong for Idaho