We had a small victory & dancing, but the fight to save the
Public Trust aint over yet. Far from it. And this, I think, serves to
illustrate the false construct of an actual Left/Right divide, as hunters & anglers of all parties are coming together to protest Congress's "disposal" of public lands. We must quit drinking
that divisive kool-aid right now lest those serving lesser gods rob us while we are busy
poking each other’s belly buttons. Wake up ladies & gentlemen. Like it or
not, The Time has arrived that we must define
what America
And my hat is off to the many outdoor writers who have put aside
things they’d much rather be writing about & instead using their platforms
to activate anglers, hunters & all who live & enjoy the outdoor life. John
Tobin, one of the good guys, sent me this from outdoor writer Casey Schreiber,
from Modernhiker.com.
What you can do: Take a few minutes to pen a message letting them know that they must not sell away our public lands, & CC it to your congressmen & senators & everybody else you can think of. That is how we stopped HR 621. They can only accomplish their agenda in the dark, & under the light of citizen scrutiny they will fail.
But another threat to public lands remains
The bill, which you can read in its entirety,
directed the Secretary of the Interior to “sell certain Federal lands in
Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah,
and Wyoming, previously identified as suitable for disposal, and for other
purposes.”
Conservatives and Sagebrush Rebel types have been pushing for
federal land sales in the West for decades, and now that the political setup is
overwhelmingly favorable to such actions, many in the outdoor community and
beyond were extremely concerned about how this would affect our ability to
enjoy our public lands as many of us have been doing for generations.
Thankfully, public pressure and outreach from those groups got to Chaffetz’s
office, and the Congressman announced on social media that he was withdrawing
his own bill late on Wednesday, February 1st.
While the outdoor community is right to celebrate this victory,
the Congressman introduced another bill this session that seems crafted to
appeal directly to the same groups that would cheer the sale of federal public
land to private interests. HR 622, the Local Enforcement for Local Lands
Act, aims “To terminate the law enforcement functions of the Forest
Service and the Bureau of Land Management and to provide block grants to States
for the enforcement of Federal law on Federal land under the jurisdiction of
these agencies, and for other purposes.”
In some parts of the West – including most of Chaffetz’s district
in Utah
In the past, these sheriffs have refused to enforce federal and
state environmental and preservationist laws they did not personally like or
agree with, and removing the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management’s
ability to enforce their own rules, laws, and policies and potentially leaving
them at the mercy of enforcement agencies that don’t want to enforce specific
laws is, perhaps, just as great a threat – if not a greater one – to our public
lands.
Other bills that currently threaten public lands include:
S 33 and S 132, which hobble the
Antiquities Act (used by Presidents to establish National Monuments)
HR 232,
which transfers National Forests to states for logging.
