Transfer of Public Lands

highplainsdrifter

Very Active Member
May 4, 2011
703
128
Wyoming
I just received this email (below) from Backcountry Hunters and Anglers. They are asking us to contact members of the House of Representatives to oppose the sale of a wildlife refuge in Puerto Rico. If the sale were to be approved, it would set a terrible precedent for federal lands in our neck of the woods. Please consider writing your congressman/woman. Thanks.


BHA Members -

Rep. Rob Bishop, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, has slyly attached a measure that would enable the sale of the 3,100-acre Vieques National Wildlife Refuge in Puerto Rico to a bill aimed at resolving unrelated fiscal issues on the island.

We need your help to stop this precedent-setting public land divestiture! Puerto Rico's dire fiscal woes simply should not be abused to advance the anti-public lands agenda of an out-of-touch few in Washington. While a national wildlife refuge in Puerto Rico may seem far removed from the public lands elk haunts and trout holes many of us frequent, its sale could have sweeping consequences for the places we enjoy closer to home.

Please take a minute to contact your member of Congress at 202-224-3121 or http://www.contactingthecongress.org/ and tell them the following:

Puerto Rico is currently $72 billion in debt and thus could never afford the management costs of the Vieques NWR, which is currently managed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Handing over American public lands to Puerto Rico has but one possible result: a public lands sale.

Puerto Rico never asked for this land.

The Vieques National Wildlife Refuge is currently owned by every American, not the people of Puerto Rico. We all should have a say in the future ownership of our American public lands - and we believe strongly that our congressmen should vote to keep it public!
Thanks for speaking up and for all that you do to help keep our public lands public.


Tim Brass
State Policy Manager
651-206-4669

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers is the sportsmen's voice
for our wild public lands, waters and wildlife.
 

highplainsdrifter

Very Active Member
May 4, 2011
703
128
Wyoming
This post by Chris Madson appeared on the Wyoming Sportsmen's Alliance facebook page this morning.

Today (June 15th), two bills were introduced into the U.S. House of Representatives. H.R. 3560, introduced by Don Young of Alaska, would allow each state to claim up to 2 million acres of federal land. H.R. 2316, written by Raul Labrador of Idaho, would allow each state to take over management of 4 million acres of federal land. The Koch-funded movement to take our land has finally arrived in the U.S. Congress, where it can actually accomplish what it set out to do several years back. Want to turn the West's federal land over to the big oil companies and men like the Bundys? Just turn your back on bills like these, and that will happen. Anything more I have to say on this subject, these bills, and their sponsors will consist mainly of four-letter words, so I will close with this: Fight them.

I encourage everyone on this forum including your friends and neighbors to write to your members of the House of Representatives!
 

highplainsdrifter

Very Active Member
May 4, 2011
703
128
Wyoming
My letter to the editor of the Casper Star Tribune was recently printed in that paper (see below). Perhaps it will provide some talking points for people who wish to write their Representatives regarding HR 2316.

Recently, upon returning from a bear hunt, I had an email from Rep. Cynthia Lummis. She was responding to a comment I sent opposing HR 2316, the Self-sufficiency Community Lands Act. Lummis is a co-sponsor of this bill. HR 2316 proposes transferring the management of four million acres of federal land to states on a pilot project basis. States would apply to the federal government for the opportunity to manage these lands utilizing an advisory board comprised of representatives of various interests.

According to Lummis, sportsmen shouldn’t object to this bill because it targets only 4 million acres, and they would be included on the advisory board. I want to make it clear that I continue to object for the following reasons.

First, 4 million acres is not insignificant. That acreage is almost twice the size of Yellowstone National Park. Also, it is not insignificant if it turns out to include one of my favorite recreation areas.

Second, the state of Wyoming has a long track record of subverting recreational interests to more profitable activities such as mineral extraction. Why should sportsmen believe that this would change simply because they have a small voice on a state controlled advisory board? Furthermore, nonresident recreationists would be disenfranchised. Our federal lands belong to all Americans.

Third, the federal government has lengthy procedures in place to solicit public comment about proposed activities. Procedures for soliciting comment about land management in the state of Wyoming pale in comparison.

Fourth, the proposed legislation smacks of federal land transfer. While the bill does not propose title transfer, transferring management to the states amounts to almost the same thing. All sportsmen should be very concerned about the precedent this would set.

Finally, if Lummis thinks federal land management agencies are doing such a poor job, I encourage her to restore crippling budgets cuts.

All outdoor recreationists should object to HR 2316. The website for the House Committee on Natural Resources makes it easy to comment. Please do so. Hopefully, when Lummis leaves office this winter, she will be replaced by someone friendly to sportsmen.
 
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