Public Lands in Public Hands Live Chat!

[ScottR]

Hey all, tonight starting at 4:00 pm MST we will be having a live chat here to discuss keeping public land in public hands. So prepare your well thought out questions on this issue as there is discussion on the federal level for selling public land.

This chat is sponsored by Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, who have recently signed up as a forum sponsor.

 

[okielite]

Good stuff. They seem to be a great group.

 

[Topgun 30-06]

BH&A is a great group of people that are doing a lot of positive things in the short time they've been around! I know one of the guys that's helping run the organization and he's also already won individual awards for his conservation efforst before he even bacame involved with the gropu. I hope I can get set up to listen to that chat tonight, as I'm sure it will be of value and time well spent!

 

[Topgun 30-06]

ScottR---Could you please find out why there is no edit button for our posts in this Forum and have them correct it? Thanks!!!

 

[ScottR]

Top Gun, comments noted I haven't found how to adjust that on the admin side at the moment.

 

[ScottR]

Hey all, we are here. Here is the first question we received from Tim:

Viewing this issue as another example of urban states forcing their values on us who live and thrive in the rural states, what kind of support do we expect to get from legislators out of non-western states?

 

[ScottR]

Second question:

Let’s be honest with ourselves here. The thought process behind pushing this as a “budget issue” is nothing more than a ploy to paint the issue as a short term solution to a long term problem, and the real motivation behind the proposed sale has everything to do with greed, money, and power plain and simple. Who benefits from the sale of this land? It sure wouldn’t be the sportsman, or the citizens of the state(s) the sale would take place in. It would be a miniscule percentage of the populous, of which I would venture to speculate don’t live in the affected area(s), and most likely have never set foot there. Sure, it may create a few jobs for locals but are those jobs sustainable? The fact that this issue is even being entertained makes me sick and ashamed of the people running our country. Let’s look at what I view as the root of this problem being the fact that the EPA has made it so difficult for energy and mining companies to secure new leases that they’ve found a “work around” by flashing money in front of legislators. Extortion and corruption are the terms that come to mind when you view it in this light.

 

[Guy]

Fire away, here we go. Public land issues/concerns and management...

-G

 

[ScottR]

For reference here is a blog piece that concerns this HERE

 

[Drhorsepower]

Do you think public lands should be handled more on the state level rather than Feds?

 

[NVBird'n'Big]

Any idea what states may be most affected?

 

[Guy]

Good question. I personally would like to see a system closer to what we have with the Federal highway system, where federal funding can still be used but the overall management of the federal land is conducted for the most part at the local and or state level, with some serious caveats of course. I have been to a few of these meetings in the past and the first thing the residents will tend to angle for is to limit nonresident usage (hunting in particular) and I don't think that's fair. -G

 

[ScottR]

Any idea what states may be most affected?

The states that you generally think of that are the hot spots for western hunting all have huge swaths of public land. They would be all be in the cross hairs.

 

[Drhorsepower]

What are your thoughts on the landowners who's land is checkerboarded with public land then fence the whole thing off and how do we control it?

 

[Guy]

The states that have the most to lose/gain in any of these federal land disputes are by far, Utah and Nevada, followed up by AK, ID, MT, WY and CO. I believe both UT and NV have the most federal public land. I could be a off a little on that. The interesting thing however, is the fact that almost every state has some Federal land to deal with, so its not 100% a Western issue. -G

 

[AKaviator]

Federal overreach is one of the really big issues in Alaska. The majority of Alaska's land is Federally owned however the State constitution says the State is the management authority of the wildlife resources. The Fed's disagree and have been exerting management on Federal land for some time now because the citizens refused a constitutional convention that they wanted to give rural residents a priority to fish and wildlife.

I've been present at meetings where the Federal representatives (Park Service) admit they manage by "policy" not science! It's scary when their policy comes from D.C. and the likes of Sally Jewell.

I believe our best counter is at the ballot box. We need an administration that supports State's rights and we need every citizen and sportsman's group to always vote that way.

Do you have other strategies that can help?

 

[Umpqua Hunter]

As long as we are talking about federal land, why do you think corner hopping, with today's GPS technology, is not legal in so many states?

 

[Guy]

The "checker board" scenario is a tricky one. I personally believe in private property rights, as do most of the Federal court systems. I think its just flat unreasonable to expect to cross someone's deeded land to access public land. I would want people cutting across my backyard to find a shortcut to the alley behind my house. That's essentially what some guys want to do. Corner jumping is a bit of a different issue however.

I would like to see the state G&F agencies, and good orgs like BHA work to secure recreation easements to key chunks of public land through private land owners, with the use of tax deductions and cash leases if necessary. -G

 

[Umpqua Hunter]

By corner hopping, I mean at a hopping public to public at the corner of checkerboard.

 

[Ikeepitcold]

Isent deeded land not considered private and supposed to be open to the public?