The Public Land Question Continues

By Heather Scott

Idaho, like many western states, is both blessed and cursed with federally owned public lands. Although there is ample land for hunting, fishing, recreation, mineral extraction, timber and ranching, excessive amounts of federally owned lands impacts Idaho’s ability to generate necessary local property tax revenues, limits private land ownership, results in a constant potential for dangerous wildfires, and creates friction between the public, state and federal entities when it comes to management.

The devastating wildfires this summer are only the latest example of how federal mismanagement of public lands often leads to tragedy for Idaho’s citizens.

More than 60% of the state of Idaho is claimed and managed by the federal government. Federal management of lands in other western states ranges from 32% in New Mexico to more than 80% in Nevada. Every year, more and more citizens of western states are calling for a re-examination of federal western land policy, with the ultimate goal to put western state land ownership and management on equal footing with eastern states, where public lands are nearly all under state control.

The American Lands Council (ALC) has been active in this debate for over a decade. Their mission, “to ensure that public lands are lawfully managed in a way that supports healthy air, water and wildlife, abundant outdoor recreation, and safe, vibrant communities” is one that all Americans and Idahoans can get behind.

The American Lands Council believes a county and state level management is a better approach, because decades of distant, unaccountable, and centralized programs and mandates from the federal bureaucracy have proven ineffective and incredibly burdensome to western states. The ALC also believes it is critical to restore the constitutional right of States to govern most of the public land within their borders so they can implement responsible, locally-driven solutions for public land management.

Their multiple prong efforts include “legal action and a methodical, transparent legislative process that will allow States to gradually and incrementally acquire specific types of federally controlled public land in order to begin managing these areas responsibly, in close coordination with local communities.”

The American Lands Council has joined forces with the State of Utah asking the US Supreme Court to finally rule on the constitutionality of the federal government’s indefinite retention of millions of acres within it’s borders.

The Utah lawsuit is asking clarification on federal BLM land that is “unappropriated”, meaning that the United States simply holds the land without any designated purpose. The lawsuit does not include any “appropriated public land designated as national parks, national monuments, wilderness areas, national forests, Tribal lands, or military properties… and applies only to federally held land that Such lands are currently administered by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM).”

Legislators from other western states have reached out to members of the Idaho Freedom Caucus asking us to join them in supporting Utah in this legal challenge.

The Idaho Freedom Caucus members voted to support and join this venture by signing on as a supportive group in an Amicus Brief. The Caucus believes that a ruling from the US Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the federal government’s indefinite retention of millions of acres within state borders is a critical question to answer for Utah. The Court’s decision will have major impacts on other western states, including Idaho, with federally managed lands. Now we will wait and see what happens.