{"id":2381,"date":"2015-04-16T09:35:51","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T16:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=2381"},"modified":"2025-04-26T16:31:28","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T22:31:28","slug":"roger-phillips-public-lands-deserve-protection-not-liquidation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=2381","title":{"rendered":"Roger Phillips: Public lands deserve protection, not liquidation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RP\"<\/a>Like many people, I was bewildered that U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch recently voted in favor of a resolution that could allow the transfer of federal lands to states.<\/p>\n

For the record, I think it\u2019s a long shot at best the federal government will ever transfer title of its lands, but I will get to that later. It still concerns me that Idaho\u2019s two senators are deaf to Idahoans\u2019 loud-and-clear message to protect and preserve our public lands.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an issue that unites a bear hunter in Orofino with a backcountry skier in Ketchum. Both know how important those lands are to the fabric of Idaho\u2019s communities. Public lands keep people grounded in rural communities and drive others to leave cities to recreate and renew themselves in Idaho\u2019s backcountry. If there\u2019s a non-debatable motherhood-and-apple-pie issue in Idaho, it ought to be public lands.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s equally baffling is why these two senators would vote for this misguided legislation. Both have shown leadership and wisdom in managing federal lands. Crapo spent years crafting a balanced and comprehensive package for the Owyhee Initiative that satisfied a broad swath of Idaho\u2019s citizenry from ranchers to backpackers and ATV riders to bighorn sheep hunters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best way to make decisions about our environment and land is through cooperation and collaboration, and we have done that with the Owyhee Initiative proposal,\u201d Crapo said after its passage.<\/p>\n

Now he seems to be favoring a hostile takeover instead of \u201ccooperation and collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Risch, during his brief stint as Idaho\u2019s governor, he put to rest a decades-old struggle over Idaho\u2019s roadless lands by making most of them off limits to intensive development while loosening restrictions that made some lands challenging to manage. The Clinton administration signed off on Risch\u2019s plan, and many called it a model for other states to follow in dealing with their roadless federal lands.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month in the Statesman, Crapo tried to explain his recent vote with the Republican majority in a party-line 51-49 vote by saying that laying the groundwork for transferring federal lands doesn\u2019t mean he actually supports doing it. That sounds a lot like the squishy substance that sticks to my truck\u2019s tires when I drive through a cow pasture.<\/p>\n

Risch has been quiet about his vote. Maybe he\u2019s hoping it will blow by like a spring rainstorm and the sun will keep shining in his political world, but I think there\u2019s a bigger storm brewing than either realize.<\/p>\n

If Western politicians want to hitch their wagon to a losing proposition, transferring or selling federal lands is it. I think it\u2019s an issue that will goad apathetic voters to the polls and make people vote across party lines. Selling the Forest Service and BLM lands where Idahoans camp, fish, hunt, hike, ski, snowmobile, ride motorcycles, ATVs, mountain bikes and horses, where they go for picnics, Sunday drives and to pick huckleberries, is just a bad idea.<\/p>\n

Sell off granny\u2019s secret huckleberry spot at your own peril, senators.<\/p>\n

The idea of federal lands being traded or sold off has been around since the 1970s during the failed \u201csagebrush rebellion.\u201d It was a bad idea then, and I would venture it\u2019s an even bigger loser now brought on by politicians a little too comfortable in their seats, or who are trying to make a name for themselves more for political reasons than practical ones.<\/p>\n

Look at Texas senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz, for example. He can pander to the Tea Party crowd without worrying about the backlash from his home state because Texas is less than 2 percent federal lands.<\/p>\n

I expect this nonsense from the Statehouse. Demanding the feds to turn over about 62 percent of Idaho\u2019s land it manages is good political theater. It may win votes in places like Custer County, where about 90 percent of the county is federally owned, and they aren\u2019t happy with how it\u2019s managed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a jaded, cynical attempt to turn back the clock. Because this isn\u2019t about who owns the lands, it\u2019s about how the lands are managed. There\u2019s a sad sentiment that lingers among some Idahoans that if we could go back to Grandpa\u2019s days, all would be good in Idaho. Mostly it\u2019s in rural Idaho that has leaked jobs and population for decades, and the \u201cFeds\u201d are supposedly to blame.<\/p>\n

That attitude has become toxic, and it\u2019s what fuels people like Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy to nearly start a modern range war because he didn\u2019t want to pay the federal government for grazing fees he owed.<\/p>\n

It also ignores the fact that federal lands are owned by all Americans, not just those who live near them in the West. Show me the benefit of land transference to a family from back East who wants to go rafting on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River. When they\u2019re awed by the rugged, pristine beauty of the Middle Fork, I doubt they will clamor for the federal government to turn it over to the state.<\/p>\n

Mainly, it won\u2019t fly because it\u2019s bad policy, and I think the majority of Idahoans will rise up and loudly reaffirm that. That\u2019s not to say I have no gripes with the current management of federal lands. Most are under-managed, under-funded and borderline neglected. I think, even when we agree locally and nationally on what\u2019s good management for federal lands, getting anything to change is a byzantine, glacial process mired in red tape.<\/p>\n

But Crapo and Risch have shown the ability to navigate that bureaucracy and come out the other side with something lasting and meaningful that benefits Idahoans. It\u2019s not easy, but it\u2019s a better option than aligning with wingnuts and their hot-breathed, hostile-take-over rhetoric that\u2019s doomed to failure because it\u2019s a stupid, far-fetched idea borne out of frustration rather than reality.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like many people, I was bewildered that U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch recently voted in favor of a resolution that could allow the transfer of federal lands to states. For the record, I think it\u2019s a long shot at best the federal government will ever transfer title of its lands, but I will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-around-the-campfire","category-current-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2384,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2381\/revisions\/2384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}