Title: Public Lands: A “Generational Vision”
Original CoS Document (slug): article-23-public-lands-a-generational-vision
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Attached File: Public_Lands-_A_Generational_Vision.pdf
The federal takeover of western lands is getting out of control. As Ken Ivory explains in this piece, a Convention of States can help rein in this troubling federal practice
Created: 2017-07-06 07:09:03
Updated: 2021-10-19 23:00:00
Published: 2017-07-17 18:00:00
Converted: 2025-04-14T19:24:03.350809422
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 ration 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 secure 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 wildlife; 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.
However, federal bureaucrats, more
concerned 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
catastrophic wildfires that pollute our
air, destroy water supplies and habitat,
and kill wildlife in the millions, leaving
communities depressed and unsafe,
and recreation 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 timber
industry that funded the sheriff’s
department. When she called 911,
all the operator could do was to tell
her to “call back tomorrow” because,
with only two deputies, 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
overgrown forest. Every year, millions
of her forest mates are not so lucky.
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.
CONVENTION OF STATES ACTION
A GENERATIONAL VISION
by Ken Ivory
A Generational Vision
PUBLIC LANDS
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 industries, 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 federal government extracts
billions of dollars each year from
taxpayers east of the Rockies, to
subsidize western communities that
are thwarted in their ability to raise
sufficient revenues for public services
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
undermines 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
garden. 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
opportunity 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?
ConventionofStates.com info@conventionofstates.com 540-441-7227
Support the only solution that is as big as the problem.
Sign the petition at ConventionofStates.com.
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.