Title: Public Lands: A “Generational Vision”
Original CoS Document (slug): public-lands-a-generational-vision-1
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Attached File: Article23-PublicLands_COSA122022.pdf
Public Lands: A “Generational Vision”\rBy Ken Ivory, Utah State Representative and Director of the Free Lands Project with Federalism in Actio
Created: 2024-02-08 15:26:26
Updated: 2025-02-08 19:00:01
Published: 2024-02-08 03:00:00
Converted: 2025-04-14T20:16:36.743404443
The federal government
loses 27 cents for every
dollar it spends on land
management, a loss to
taxpayers of approximately
$2 billion per year.
PUBLIC LANDS: A “GENERATIONAL VISION”
Ken Ivory is a Utah State Representative and Director of the Free The Lands Project with Federalism in Action.
Updated November 2022
AS THEY MOVED westward, their
strongest men inexplicably dropped dead
along the trail. In a company of pioneers
trudging forward through harsh, early
winter conditions, the sudden deaths
caused great concern. The company
leader ordered an investigation.
The ones still alive were all half-frozen.
As their supplies dwindled, their daily ra-
tion of food was one small, eight-ounce
pouch of flour. These strong men were
scooping much of their flour into their
children’s pouches so that they might
make it safely to their land of promise.
The hardships these pioneers endured
paled in comparison to their vision to se-
cure their own piece of land and the right
to govern themselves, and to pass on to
their children the opportunity to prosper.
The movie “Monumental” depicts how
the pilgrims suffered intensely during
their first winter. Nevertheless, the sickly
settlers refused to give up and sail back
to England, having a “generational vision
that they could lay their lives down in this
wilderness and literally put their faces
down in the mud and have their children
walk on their backs to a better day.”
Aren’t we all pioneers and pilgrims?
Don’t we all share the same “generational
vision” of healthier air, water and wild-
life; safe and vibrant communities; and
abundant recreation?
We’ve been told for decades now that,
to achieve this promise, we have to trust
distant federal bureaucrats with the
management of our unique lands. How-
ever, federal bureaucrats, more con-
cerned with policies than promises, lock
up our lands like they are in a museum
— Hands Off, Don’t Touch!
This “museum management” results in
overgrown forests and record-setting cat-
astrophic wildfires that pollute our air,
destroy water supplies and habitat, and
kill wildlife in the millions, leaving com-
munities depressed and unsafe, and rec-
reation areas burned up or blocked off.
It’s Not Working!
It’s not working for the Oregon woman who
was raped and brutalized in her own home
because federal policies shut down the tim-
ber industry that funded the sheriff’s de-
partment. When she called 911, all the op-
erator could do was to tell her to “call back
tomorrow” because, with only two depu-
ties, the sheriff’s office could not respond.
It’s not working for the little bear cub in
eastern Washington state who crawled
desperately on her little paws, burned
up to her elbows, to find anywhere that
was not an inferno. State wildlife agents
found her and she was nursed to health,
only to be released into another over-
grown forest. Every year, millions of her
forest mates are not so lucky.
Continued on back page
With improved management … vast
ecosystems will have the opportunity
to recover, blue ribbon fisheries will
be restored, the threat of massive
wildfires will be reduced, and big game
will be able to flourish again.
Continued from front page
It’s not working for the lands and people
of Montana. Firefighters in the state put
out wildfires, on average, at less than 10
acres. Their helicopters are equipped to
carry more water and drop it faster. When
wildfires broke out on federal lands, five
Montana crews were in the air. However,
the U.S. Forest Service grounded
them because the Montana helicopters
were “not on their approved list.” The
Montana crews sat there on the ground
watching thousands upon thousands of
acres burn, their air polluted for weeks,
and their water supplies decimated.
It’s not working for Garfield County,
Utah, where they recently declared an
economic state of emergency. Inflicted
by a host of federal lands policies, from a
two million acre national monument that
shut down the world’s largest reserve of
the cleanest coal, to federal policies that
decimated their timber and livestock in-
dustries, the number one export from
Garfield County is now their children.
It’s not working for national security or
energy independence. China controls
nearly 90% of the world market for
rare earth elements that are vital to the
technology that keeps our planes in the
air, ships on the water, and troops on
the field. We have rare earth elements in
abundance locked up from New Mexico
to Alaska in federally controlled lands.
We are dependent on foreign powers
that manipulate the price and supply
of our energy. According to the U.S.
GAO, there is more recoverable oil in
Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming than in
the rest of the world combined, locked
up in federally controlled lands.
It’s not working for the nation. The fed-
eral government extracts billions of dol-
lars each year from taxpayers east of the
Rockies, to subsidize western communi-
ties that are thwarted in their ability to
raise sufficient revenues for public ser-
vices because the federal government
controls up to 90% of their lands. Worse
yet, Congress regularly holds these funds
to western communities hostage in a sort
of “two-bit protection racket,” as Sen.
Mike Lee calls it, to garner western votes
for hundreds of billions to be doled out
from the “dysfunctional favor bank” that
epitomizes D.C. politics. This under-
mines our system of strong, self-reliant
states meant to check federal overreach.
So, what’s the answer? Have you ever
had a garden? If so, you know that a
healthy garden is a productive garden,
and a productive garden is a healthy gar-
den. Who better to tend the garden than
those who know the unique soil, climate,
pests, and local conditions best, and who
are on hand to address the unforeseen
circumstances that always arise?
It’s time to Free the Lands for more
effective local care and management.
Who better to care for the unique lands
and interests of Nevada (85% federally
controlled) than Nevadans? Or, for the
unique lands of Alaska (more than 225
million acres federally controlled) than
Alaskans?
With the same “generational vision” that
built this nation, we can secure the op-
portunity for our children to prosper.
A Convention of States has the power
to propose amendments that will rein
in an out-of-control federal land baron,
transition to more effective local care of
our unique lands, and unleash a national
economic renaissance.
What’s in your flour pouch?
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