Federal land redistribution rumbles build in D.C.
Public use groups fret; GOP trains on transfers
By STUART LEAVENWORTH
MCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON— Emboldened by the change of administration, GOP lawmakers are quietly making moves that would permit a potentially vast transfer of federal land to states and other entities.
On a party line vote last week, the House of Representatives approved rule changes that would expedite such transfers, alarming environmental and recreation groups that have long called for “public lands to stay in public hands.”
President-elect Donald Trump and his pick for interior secretary, Rep. Ryan Zinke, a Montana Republican, have both said they oppose turning federal lands over to states or localities. Even so, Zinke joined his party in approving the Jan. 3 rules package, raising questions about how Trump might act if lands transfer legislation were to reach his desk.
“I’m not very confident. I am very worried,” said Sharon Buccino, a lawyer who directs the land and wildlife program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. “Both Trump and Zinke say they oppose the transfer of federal land, but when it came time to vote last week, Zinke voted to make it easier to do land transfers.”
Zinke, whose Senate confirmation hearing is Tuesday, could not be reached for comment. Neither his office nor the Trump transition team responded to inquiries about his vote. A former Navy SEAL commander who served in Iraq, Zinke is an avid hunter and fisherman. This summer, he resigned as a delegate to the Republican National Convention after the GOP drafted a platform supporting transfer of federal public lands to states that wanted them.
As the nation’s biggest landlord, the U.S. government controls more than 2 billion acres of property nationwide, including 47 percent of the American West.
But the management of vast tracts by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management has sparked conflict, including armed standoffs involving Cliven Bundy and his sons over cattle grazing in Nevada.
In October, a federal jury acquitted one of those sons, Ammon Bundy, of firearms and conspiracy charges stemming from the takeover in January 2016 of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon.
Conservatives and local elected officials also have rallied behind calls to turn federal land over to local or state managers. In Idaho, a state where more than 60 percent of the land is in federal hands, rural communities blame federal ownership for a decline in timber harvests, and many ranchers complain about their dealings with the Bureau of Land Management.
“They feel it is like negotiating with the Soviets,” said Fred Birnbaum, vice president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, a group that supports transferring federal land to local ownership.
Despite the growth of the land-transfer movement, Birnbaum says he doubts the president-elect will embrace the issue, largely because of the influence of his two adult sons, both of whom are dedicated sportsmen.
In an interview with Field and Stream in January 2016, Trump made it clear that he doesn’t support federal divestiture of public lands or transfer to the states.
Speaking to Montana Public Radio last year, Zinke said he was open to changes in federal land management, but not a turnover to the states.
Whit Fosburgh, CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, said he was concerned by Zinke’s vote. A provision in that package removed an obstacle to land transfers: the requirement that Congress reduce spending elsewhere to offset the lost value incurred by giving up property.
Fosburgh said that Zinke may have felt compelled to vote for the rules package to avoid picking a fight with House leadership and Rep. Rob Bishop, a Utah Republican who sponsored the rules change. Bishop, who chairs the House Resources Committee, has long headed efforts to transfer Western federal lands to states and local governments.
Federal lands such as this patch near the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Ore., have GOP lawmakers zeroing in, hoping for a vast transfer from the federal government to states and other entities.
ALEX MILAN TRACY/ SIPA USA/TNS
printed in the Las Vegas Review Journal Monday January 16, 2017
