I think we can all agree that:
Public lands should remain public. (No sell off to private interests, period.)
Managing public lands needs improvement. (Need more local input, oversight, and planning regardless of whether the FEDs or the State ctrl the land.)
Sustainable management needs to allow for some economic activity but not at the expense of irreversibly damaging the lands themselves. (Logging is sustainable and benefits the forest, but I think oil extraction poses way too many risks and generally damages the environment...we can figure this out later
What we're seeing now is a planned effort to sell off public lands via transferring them first to States, then to the highest, most connected bidder. Republicans legislatures and the $$ behind them, for the most part, support this legislation. People who care about public lands needs to stop voting these folks into office.
I mean read the freaking bill in WA that Vincent Buys, the 42nd rep, supports--95% of revenue from the State sale of public land goes to the FEDs. The States retains 5% to be deposited into some education fund.
This legislation contains no State interest at all...it's just a shell game.
