From amcgowen@hposl02.cup.hp.com Tue Aug 1 10:27:35 1995 Return-Path: Received: from mx5.u.washington.edu by lists.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW95.05/UW-NDC Revision: 2.33 ) id AA20655; Tue, 1 Aug 95 10:27:34 -0700 Received: from hp.com by mx5.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW95.07/UW-NDC Revision: 2.33 ) id AA21216; Tue, 1 Aug 95 10:27:33 -0700 Received: from hposl02.cup.hp.com by hp.com with SMTP (1.37.109.16/15.5+ECS 3.3) id AA256378051; Tue, 1 Aug 1995 10:27:32 -0700 Received: by hposl02.cup.hp.com (1.38.193.4/15.5+IOS 3.20+cup+OMrelay) id AA26421; Tue, 1 Aug 1995 10:27:45 -0700 From: Alan McGowen Message-Id: <9508011727.AA26421@hposl02.cup.hp.com> Subject: House Bill To Giveaway Public Lands (fwd) To: consbio@u.washington.edu Date: Tue, 01 Aug 1995 10:27:45 PDT Cc: amcgowen@hposl02.cup.hp.com X-Mailer: Elm [revision: 109.14] HOUSE BILL TO GIVE ALL BLM LANDS TO THE STATES Rep. James Hansen (R-UT) has introduce legislation H.R. 2032, offering to give 272 million acres now being managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to the states. This could lead to these lands being sold to the highest bidder or opened for exploitation by states facing tightening budgets. Rep. Hansen is Chairman of the House Resources National Parks, Forests & Lands Subcommittee, which will conduct a hearing on the bill August 1. The proposal could affect 15.7 million acres of BLM-managed land in the state of Oregon, where and effort is already underway to turn over the O&C railroad lands back to the state. This proposal has been supported by the Oregon state legislature, the Association of O & C Counties and Reps. Wes Cooley (R-OR) and Jim Bunn (R-OR). A task force established by Gov. John Kitzhaber is studying the implications of the proposal, and its conculsion is expected this fall. Several Oregon counties (Multnomah and Benton) oppose this transfer citing the likely loss of federal payments in lieu of taxes (PILT) and increased costs to the states to manage these lands. The BLM has concluded this land transfer would cause increased instability for the people of Oregon in protection of both natural resources and jobs. Additional conservation measures on private and other National Forest lands would be required to offset the increased destruction of habitat on the O & C lands undermining the proponents intention to increase logging after the transfer. Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) has announced plans to conduct hearings on public land ownership and will explore proposals to convert public land to private and state ownership. Chief of the Forest Service Jack Ward Thomas took issue with this proposal at the Outdoor Writers Association of America's annual conference. Thomas stated, "How will the average American benefit from public lands becoming private? Where will the experiences they now get from public lands come in the future? Can we afford to own public lands? The better question is can we afford not to? This heritage it too precious and too unique to be traded away for potage. Such a birthright is unique in all the earth." Thomas vowed to fight budget cuts and policy decisions under consideration in Congress that would dilute his agency and the nation's forest programs. (Reported by the Oregonian, 6/27/95) .