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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHouse Republicans seek to open up national forests to mining and logging
Weeks after an anti-government militias takeover of an Oregon wildlife refuge, legislators are presenting bills to loosen federal authority over public land
Oliver Milman in New York
Wednesday 24 February 2016 15.50 EST
Congress is to consider two bills that would allow states to hand over vast tracts of federal land for mining, logging or other commercial activities ...
A bill put forward by Republican Don Young would allow any state to assume control of up to 2m acres of the national forest system to be managed primarily for timber production in order to address what Young claims is a decline in national logging rates.
A further bill, written by Republican Raúl Labrador, would allow state governors to assign up to 4m acres of land as forest demonstration areas, which would allow logging free from any federal water, air or endangered species restrictions ...
The natural resources committee is pretty radicalized at this point, said Bobby McEnaney, senior lands analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. The fact that they would react to whats happened in Oregon to advance an agenda to take land from the federal government is seriously tone deaf ...
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/24/house-republicans-open-national-forests-mining-logging-oregon-militia-malheur-wildlife-refuge
Cordy
(82 posts)I oppose the idea. I think it time we each be allotted our fair share of the federal lands to do with as we wish. I can see this headed towards giving the large corporations our lands to plunder, lands I have paid taxes on all my life to maintain.
maxsolomon
(33,345 posts)Logging rates have fallen BECAUSE ALL THE GOOD TREES GOT CUT DOWN.
Simpletons.
Beartracks
(12,816 posts)"free from any federal water, air or endangered species restrictions"??
That's fucking asinine.
The whole point of most Federal land was to set it aside to be "free from any bullshit commercial use that would harm the water, air, or flora/fauna." You know: for the benefit of ALL not just SOME. I know there's some limited commercial activity on Federal lands, but it's actually is RESTRICTED, which is a GOOD THING to anyone with a lick of sense.
When these Bundyto-types or their sympathetic corporatchik legislators want to get Federal lands returned "to the people" they obviously just mean "me."
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