This Land is Ours (Bruce Babbitt)

[struggle4progress]

The best way to remind everyone of the importance of public lands would be for Obama to add more to the list of protected places
By Bruce Babbitt

When a racist rancher in Nevada and his armed supporters can command headlines by claiming to own and control publicly owned lands, perhaps it's time to remind Westerners about the history of the nation's public-land heritage ...

I believe that the whole sorry Bundy episode has given us an opportunity to renew our commitment to conservation. We can do that by calling on President Obama to take action to protect more of the special places on our public lands.

He can begin by using the Antiquities Act to establish more national monuments. Some may counsel caution in light of the recent House passage of a bill by Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop to gut the law. However, the best way to protect and preserve the Antiquities Act is to use it visibly and vigorously, thereby demonstrating once again the broad public support it has enjoyed for more than 100 years.

President Obama could also review the list of our existing national parks and monuments, many of which are in need of expansion because these areas are threatened by encroaching strip mining, drilling or other incompatible development. He could start out in the majestic expanses of southern Utah, where Canyonlands, Arches and Capitol Reef national parks all need additional lands to protect their archaeological sites and unique geological formations ...

http://www.inlander.com/spokane/this-land-is-ours/Content?oid=2305301

[MBS]

1. I especially liked this. .

Recall that it is we, the American people, who own the public lands that make up so much of our Western states. These great open spaces are the birthright of all of us, not just the residents of Nevada or Arizona or other Western states. The question of ownership of the public lands was settled by the founding fathers, in favor of you and me, by the Maryland compromise reached in 1781, and carried forward in the property clause of Article IV of the United States Constitution.

On occasion, die-hard malcontents such as Cliven Bundy emerge to promote so-called "Sagebrush Rebellions" to turn the public lands over to the states as a conduit for handing them out to resource raiders and private interests. Governors and state legislatures are sometimes drawn into endorsing these movements, only to see them fade away in the face of public opinion.

[AverageJoe90]

2. Wasn't this guy governor or Arizona once, btw? Kudos to Mr. Babbitt!

[struggle4progress]

3. Yup -- and Clinton's Sec'y of the Interior