{"id":4115,"date":"2017-12-05T09:48:52","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T16:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=4115"},"modified":"2025-04-26T16:31:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T22:31:24","slug":"the-public-land-bills-we-can-all-agree-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/?p=4115","title":{"rendered":"The Public-Land Bills We Can All Agree On"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ploutside.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4116\" src=\"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ploutside.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"959\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ploutside.jpg 959w, https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ploutside-300x140.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sbbch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/ploutside-768x357.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 959px) 100vw, 959px\" \/><\/a>Two bipartisan bills show how the left and the right can converge on public land policy<br \/>\nOutside Magazine &#8211; Jake Bullinger<\/p>\n<p><strong>It<\/strong> would seem Republicans and Democrats are wholly divided on public land policy. During the 2016 campaign, the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/prod-cdn-static.gop.com\/media\/documents\/DRAFT_12_FINAL[1]-ben_1468872234.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">GOP platform\u00a0<\/a>called on Congress to \u201cimmediately pass universal legislation\u201d to \u201cconvey certain federally controlled public lands to states,\u201d while\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads.democrats.org\/Downloads\/2016_DNC_Platform.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Democrats<\/a>\u00a0sought \u201cpolicies and investments that will keep America\u2019s public lands public\u201d by prioritizing access and environmental safeguards.<\/p>\n<p>But, believe it or not, some\u00a0consensus exists. A pair of bills introduced this year\u2014including one that would make it\u00a0<em>easier<\/em>\u00a0to transfer federal land to states\u2014shows that Republicans and Democrats can actually agree on certain aspects of public land management.<\/p>\n<p>The land transfer bill, dubbed the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/115th-congress\/house-bill\/4257\/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22hr4257%22%5D%7D&amp;r=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Advancing Conservation and Education Act<\/a>, was introduced on November 6 in the House by Chris Stewart, a Utah Republican, and Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat. An identical measure in the Senate is backed by Democrat Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Arizona Republican Jeff Flake. The bill would allow western states to ask the Department of the Interior to swap state-held trust lands surrounded by federal conservation plots for federal parcels that are easier to develop.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the issue: Western land is divvied up into a grid of state, tribal, federal, and private ownership. Occasionally state trust lands, which are designated to generate revenue for public schools, are surrounded by national parks, national monuments, or wilderness areas. Consider Arizona\u2019s Petrified Forest National Park. Peppered throughout the park is trust land deeded to Arizona for the purpose of generating money for schools. Arizona has the legal authority to lease those parcels, but running cattle or setting up a pump jack on a 160-acre plot surrounded by stringent national park regulations would be impractical for any rancher or driller. It\u2019s a lose-lose for the state and the feds: Arizona is unable to tap into those dollars, and the national park lacks consistent management within its borders.\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outsideonline.com\/2266181\/public-land-isnt-just-fighting\">READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two bipartisan bills show how the left and the right can converge on public land policy Outside Magazine &#8211; Jake Bullinger It would seem Republicans and Democrats are wholly divided on public land policy. During the 2016 campaign, the\u00a0GOP platform\u00a0called on Congress to \u201cimmediately pass universal legislation\u201d to \u201cconvey certain federally controlled public lands to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-public-lands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4115","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=4115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4117,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4115\/revisions\/4117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbbch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}