selling off federal lands: part 2

[Koda]

Thank you for speaking up! I'm hopeful more of the members who visit this forum will as well. I honestly don't know why this issue isn't as controversial as unleashed dogs and cairns. We're facing the prospect of losing public lands FOREVER. Thousands of miles of trails in Oregon/Washington gone. Please take a minute to sign a petition, share, call congressmen, etc.

Here's the actual bill:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-con ... 21/actions

Petition:
http://sportsmensaccess.org/state-public-lands/oregon/

List of Congress people on the Natural Resources Committee:
http://clerk.house.gov/committee_info/i ... mcode=II00

What to say:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/10cm ... uA/preview

Miah, thanks for doing this that google doc is well written and thought out. We may have disagreed on other political topics, but I stand by you on this one buddy. I see your other separate thread, you should add that link there too...

it is surprising that there is not more input on this topic on this forum, Im actually more surprised that Oregon Hikers/Trailkeepers hasn't made the topic a sticky and taken a formal position against the transfer of public lands. Saddening. If people want to bitch about unleashed dogs, poo bags and cairns but say nothing about losing their lands to argue about those trivial things upon it means they are clueless and asleep to the loss they will suffer. At lest right now, we still have places to go to get away from those evil cairns and crowds, but not if our public lands are sold.

[drm]

I think the reason this topic doesn't get more energy is that some people have been pushing this for decades with little or no success at getting actual transfers. So people just don't take it seriously. As with many things, it may take a first actual transfer before we get people energized about it. That's unfortunate, but the way things often work.

[Rand Man]

If you care about the places where we hike take 2 minutes and write in to your representative, little impact as it may have.

"Advice from an ex-Capitol Hill staffer [Emily Ellsworth] on how to get a Congress member's attention ..."

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bge3pl9lnrnnr ... SECURE.pdf

https://twitter.com/editoremilye

https://www.google.com/#q=Emily+Ellsworth

[miah66]

I think the reason this topic doesn't get more energy is that some people have been pushing this for decades with little or no success at getting actual transfers. So people just don't take it seriously. As with many things, it may take a first actual transfer before we get people energized about it.

Interesting because that first actual transfer may be (edit) 31.4 million acres all at once, just in Oregon. Also, note that Oregon has already sold off 776,000 acres of land.

source

[Rand Man]

Given Trump and Zinke's [NPS, BLM, USFW] previous statements of favoring holding on to federal lands, the larger threat might be reduction in existing restrictions (as opposed to ownership transfer), meaning reductions aimed at expanding mining and logging, possibly turning management of federal lands over to states.

Regarding USFS lands, the cabinet pick is Sonny Perdue for Dept Agriculture. Senate hearings on the Ag position are TBD.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/newssearch/?query=perdue

The Senate committee vote on Zinke was postponed on Jan 24th

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pow ... n-hearings

[Koda]

Given Trump and Zinke's [NPS, BLM, USFW] previous statements of favoring holding on to federal lands

as far as I can tell that was indeed his campaign position on this topic, does anyone know if the Trump administration has giving this topic any attention now that he is in office?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cra ... ddc4d393b3

[Rand Man]

https://www.google.com/#q=zinke+backlog

[miah66]

Some interesting stuff from that google search:

Here is how some are proposing we "fix" the National Parks.

http://www.perc.org/articles/BreakingtheBacklog

This is not germain to the transfer of public lands, however, such as National Forests, BLM, USFS, etc, but you can see that it's aim is to privatize public land. $12B backlog of decades of deferred maintenance, yet we can spend $15B on a unnecessary border wall. Why don't we privatize the wall?

[Rand Man]

Interesting because that first actual transfer may be 35-50 million acres all at once, just in Oregon.

What's your source? I was under the impression that the feds owned less 35 million acres in Oregon, let alone 50 million.

[miah66]

Interesting because that first actual transfer may be 35-50 million acres all at once, just in Oregon.

What's your source? I was under the impression that the feds owned less 35 million acres in Oregon, let alone 50 million.

I linked my source. I also edited to show 31.4M acres.

Important to note: "In state hands, everything else would come second to generating income from these lands."