The greatest assault on public lands in American history is being led by Utah’s Gov. Spencer Cox, who is suing the federal government to take over 18.5 million acres of public lands managed and protected by the Bureau of Land Management.
The lawsuit makes us question for how many more generations the promise of Yellowstone National Park – “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people” – will stand in America. And the mentality of public lands being disposable to the highest bidder may be seeping into states across the West.
Cox claims he wants the land to “actively manage and protect our natural resources.” But it’s hard not to suspect that the real reason he wants to remove the Bureau of Land Management’s oversight of these public lands is to open them up for private profit – development, mining, logging and disposal — at the expense of the American people.
We’d also like to say we trust that Utah’s elected officials would never betray the American people with such a brazen act of thievery, but Cox has made it clear that he sees little value in protecting Bureau of Land Management lands for future generations with his previous opposition to BLM conservation efforts.
“The rule is contrary to the bedrock principle of ‘multiple-use’ in the BLM’s governing law,” Cox said, in his opposition to allowing certain BLM lands to be leased for restoration or conservation.
We suspect his lawsuit, announced shortly after the new BLM rule was adopted, is a direct response to his conflicts with the BLM.
The Utah lawsuit asks the U.S. Supreme Court to strip the federal government of all lands that are not already appropriated as national parks, national monuments, wilderness areas, national forests, tribal lands or military properties. It argues that these lands are unappropriated and must be given to the state. We argue that if the U.S. Supreme Court sees any logic in this legal argument, the BLM must quickly appropriate these lands to preserve ownership by the American people.
It’s true that the most spectacular places in Utah would still be protected from development – the unparalleled national parks of Zion, Arches, Canyonlands and numerous national monuments. But if you haven’t spent time on BLM land you’re missing out. BLM lands are the most unrestricted public lands available – for generations, cowboys have let their cattle graze these lands, alongside oil and gas rigs. Campers can explore vast areas via car and camp just about anywhere that they find along the way. They are wild and free. Utah threatens these places.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis joined other governors in the West recently in echoing Cox’s sentiments about some public lands having a better use than being owned by the American people.
“The West is unique in that the federal government has a large footprint in our area, whether it’s the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) or the U.S. Forest Service,” Polis was quoted saying in the Aspen Times. “And so a lot of the work that we need to do for community planning, for growth, for housing — it really relies on strong federal partnerships.”
Polis is talking about buying or trading for small parcels close to development that the state could buy from the BLM to sell to developers with conditions of affordability. We think this is a slippery slope. Certainly, there are successful examples in Colorado of limited use of this tool, however, the precedent it sets is poor.
If the BLM owns lands that are not suitable for any use other than development, it should be selling those lands at top dollar and using the millions of dollars in revenue to buy thousands of acres that are suitable for the “multiple uses” that are part of its mission.
America’s greatest asset — aside from our freedom — is our public lands. We must not only preserve the lands we have but grow them in the face of our ever-increasing population, growth and development.
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