Public Land Grab: Bill aims to give away BLM lands under the guise of national security.

[L. Coyote]

Last edited Thu Feb 25, 2016, 12:45 PM - Edit history (1)

From SUWA's Legislative Director today:

The Utah delegation’s quixotic mission to take over federal lands that are the birthright of all Americans will be in the spotlight this week at a hearing on H.R. 4579, the "Utah Test and Training Range Encroachment Prevention and Temporary Closure Act." Introduced by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT), the bill aims to give away federal public lands under the guise of national security.

Write to your members of Congress and tell them to oppose this latest land grab attempt!

A companion to Senator Hatch’s S. 2383, the legislation would withdraw roughly 625,000 acres of BLM lands to expand the Utah Test and Training Range—already the largest military training ground in the United States—purportedly to accommodate a new fleet of F-35 jets. But it goes well beyond that mission by granting 6,000 miles of RS 2477 rights-of-way to Box Elder, Juab, and Tooele counties.

These so-called routes, many of which are simply faded two-tracks, cow paths or streambeds in the desert, run directly across federal public lands and fragment critical habitats, proposed wilderness, wilderness study areas, and even parts of the designated Cedar Mountain Wilderness! Caught up in the state’s land grab fever, these counties have sued the federal government to wrest control of these bogus routes, but are unlikely to win the majority in court. Forfeiting them now in this bill would set a dangerous precedent, not just in Utah, but throughout the West.

Tell your members of Congress that national defense is perfectly compatible with protecting our national heritage!

In addition, the legislation disregards bedrock environmental laws including the National Environmental Policy Act, undermines the protection of proposed wilderness areas such as the Newfoundland Mountains, Deep Creek Mountains and Dugway Mountains, and facilitates a land exchange that would trade away wilderness-quality lands.

Rep. Stewart’s proposed expansion is merely part of the broader effort by the State of Utah to seize our nation’s public lands. We need you to contact your member of Congress and expose this bill for what it is—a land grab shamelessly hiding under the guise of national security.

Click here to take action now!

Thanks for all you do,

Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

Keep Hoax Highways Off Our Public Lands!

You may already know that the state of Utah has sued the federal government for thousands of miles of “routes” across BLM lands—many of them bogus—in a blatant attempt to dissect Utah’s wild lands and thwart their protection. Now California Rep. Paul Cook is trying to make it easier for such claims to advance. His bill, HR 4313, the “Historic Route Preservation Act,” would significantly lower the standards for claiming so-called RS 2477 “highways,” allowing counties and other special interest groups to win claims they never could now.

Tell your representative to oppose this cynical land grab!

Revised Statute 2477, better known as RS 2477, dates back to 1866 and was originally an effort to encourage prospectors and homesteaders to settle the West by granting rights-of-way across federal lands. It was repealed in 1976, and existing valid claims that could be proven were grandfathered in. But many of Utah’s thousands of claims aren’t valid; they are hoax highways that consist of nothing more than old two-tracks, dry washes, and seismic lines from drilling exploration. Many of these run directly through national parks, national monuments, designated wilderness, and wilderness study areas.

Ask your member of Congress to stop the giveaway of bogus roads on public lands!

LBN thread: Congress Takes Up Bundy Copycat Bills To Dispose Of America’s National Forests

What is really behind the land grab? Opposition to the federal government reaches back to the Civil War (and the Mormon War).

[ladjf]

1. Once those lands are gone, there will be no turning back.

The rich will plunder the land, rape the environment, pocket the money and never look back.

The American Government has gotten as corrupt is Governments can get. Whether it's the election, won by Sanders, or something a lot less peaceful but much more violent, Americans will not continue to allow this to fester indefinitely.

[IDemo]

2. House Moves On Bills That Would Allow States To Seize Millions Of Acres Of Public Lands

Less than two weeks after the arrest of Cliven Bundy and the armed militants who were occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, the U.S. House of Representatives will consider three bills that would dispose of vast stretches of national forests and other public lands across the country.

The bills, which will be heard in a meeting of the House Natural Resources Committee on Thursday, represent an escalation of the political battle being waged by the Koch brothers’ political network, anti-government extremist groups, and a small group of conservative politicians led by the committee’s chairman, U.S. Representative Rob Bishop (R-UT).

The first bill, introduced by Representative Don Young from Alaska (R), would allow any state to seize control and ownership of up to 2 million acres of national forests within its borders — an area nearly the size of Yellowstone National Park. A state would then be able to auction off the lands to private ownership or for mining, logging, and drilling.

The second bill, written by Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID), would give states and counties the right to take direct control of up to 4 million acres of national forests across the country for clear-cut logging, without regard to environmental laws and protections. A third bill, written by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-UT), would turn over what the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance estimates to be 6,000 miles of road right-of-ways on U.S. public lands to counties in Utah, opening the door for road construction and development in protected wilderness areas.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/02/23/3752342/bundy-copycat-bills-public-lands/