Keep public lands in federal hands
The call to turn over public lands to state or local control isn’t just for gun-toting crackpots like the militia men who occupied Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last year in Eastern Oregon.
Picking through the boneyard of dead bills in this year’s Legislature, we uncovered a disturbing artifact: House Bill 1103. Five Republicans from east of the Cascades signed their names to this attempt to transfer federal lands to the state.
Thankfully the bill fizzled in committee. But it serves as a reminder that there are leaders in our state willing to jeopardize the future of public lands under the specious claim that natural resource conservation is best handled locally.
Drafters of the bill will tell you public lands are in serious jeopardy. They’ll use the word “mismanagement.” They’ll cite threats of beetles, invasive species, watershed degradation access restrictions and catastrophic wildfires. And though their concerns have some validity, they might also be a smokescreen for a land grab.
In a resource-rich state like ours, developers and extractive industries would love to see the feds move out of the way. The federal government today owns more than 27 percent of the Evergreen State.
Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/article144537979.html#storylink=cpy