States taking back federal land?

With the recent unpleasantness with the Bundy Ranch and the BLM, people are starting to take note of just how much land is actually controlled by the federal government. It’s a lot. In Nevada, over 85% of the state is actually property of the United States government and the state has little or no access to it.

In fact, most of the land in the western states is actually controlled by the Federal Government. This has allowed agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife and other agencies to run roughshod over private citizens and their personal property. Well, it looks like the western governors have had enough. Recently they held a summit to look into taking back their own state’s land. Here are some of the details from Fox News:

Lawmakers from Western states said Friday that the time has come for them to take control of federal lands within their borders and suggested the standoff this month between a Nevada rancher and the federal government was a problem waiting to happen.

“What’s happened in Nevada is really just a symptom of a much larger problem,” Utah House Speaker Becky Lockhart, a Republican, told The Salt Lake Tribune.

We’re still trying to get information on just what is going on with Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management. As I understand it, the BLM took control of that range 20 odd years ago and broke an agreement that the Bundy family had going back a century. The governor of Nevada has stated that Mr. Bundy had been paying range fees to the county and State of Nevada, which, if I understand things, was the original agreement made prior to the arrival of the BLM.

The lawmakers — more than 50 of them from nine Western states — made their proclamations at the Legislative Summit on the Transfer for Public Lands, in Utah, which was scheduled before this month’s standoff between Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management.

Now I wasn’t aware that they had already scheduled this meeting before the BLM was driven off by freedom loving Americans. I would say that the recent incident brought the whole issue of federal land grabs front and center.

The idea of Western states taking control of parts of wide tracts of federal land is nothing new. Those involved in the so-called Sagebrush Rebellion and similar movements have argued for decades that states and local governments west of the Mississippi River often can best manage the land and that doing so would allow them to use it to improve their economies.

Again, from what I’ve heard, land that is managed, or should I say mismanaged by the BLM and other federal agencies is beset with issues, with some of the major ones being forest fires.

On Friday, political leaders from the nine states convened for the first time to talk about their joint goal of wresting control of oil-, timber -and mineral-rich lands away from the U.S. government, according to the paper.

“It’s simply time,” said Utah state Rep. Ken Ivory, a Republican who co-organized the summit with Montana state Sen. Jennifer Fielder. “The urgency is now.”

Representative Ivory is correct and in more ways then one. The Bundy Ranch situation has brought the problem of who controls the land to a head. Thanks to the radical agenda’s of the people running many of these agencies, a huge amount of America’s resources have been locked up and can’t be exploited for the benefits of the people living in those states. In Alaska, we have the oil reserves in the North Slope that the oil companies can’t go after because the Federal Government won’t let them. The residents of Alaska aren’t happy about that. They are also unable to go after other mineral resources not to mention all the timber up there.

Now none of the states or the people living in them have any interest in seeing the land torn to shreds. They are much better suited to keep the companies that mine, drill and cut trees in line then the federal government. I also don’t think they will send out armed goon squads to intimidate people either ((Report: EPA accused of overkill in ‘raid’ on Alaska gold-mine)). I’ve looked at maps on what the Federal government controls, and it’s astonishing. I don’t have a problem with the Defense Department controlling areas, since they are actually using the land to defend the nation. They also don’t hold that much compared to other parts of the Federal Government.

Another problem with these federal land grabs, besides tying up huge amounts of resources is the personal cost. The Bundy’s are not the first family to run into government land grabs. In Colorado there is another case where they are trying to flat out steal land from the owners ((The Story of a Couple’s Fight Against Eminent Domain Over ATVs That Will Leave You Scratching Your Head)). In other cases, it’s gotten people killed. ((Five police agencies staged bogus drug raid on rich eccentric to acquire 200-acre spread)), ((Death of Donald P. Scott)) Then we have the Kelo decision which basically gave the government the right to seize people’s property, not for actual public benefit, but to give to another private group for their own use ((Kelo v. City of New London)). That decision by the United States Supreme Court ranked right down there with the Dred Scott ((Dred Scott Case))

There is a move afoot to call a constitutional Convention to propose amendments that will reign in the out of control actions of the Federal Government. It may be time to add control of the land to the list. However, in the near future, I believe that the State Governors should tell the President and Congress to fork over the property they have been seizing for over a century. Without a doubt, they will refuse, and at that point the Governors, with the backing of their legislatures, should just announce they are seizing the territory and forcibly remove any federal officials. (BLM, Fish&Wildlife, etc) In other words, force a constitutional crisis.

Of course, that requires courage. That is something that is usually missing from your average elected official. They had better do something and so it soon or the next “Bundy Ranch” whoever that may be, could end up with a second “Shot heard round the world.”

Thatisall

~The Angry Webmaster~

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