Federal Land Transfers

[YosemiteSam]

I've heard Backcountry Hunters and Anglers discussing the idea of Federal Land Transfers for a few months.  Seems it may be under way in Congress right now.  Is there any good source of information about what is happening?  There are lots of speculative pieces floating around the internet but nothing non-partisan or very informative that I've found yet.  Does anybody know of good sources of information on this topic?

[takefive]

I've heard about that going on in the Western States, too.  I don't think any legislation has been passed, but I wouldn't be surprised if it does happen.  Here's the most recent article I could find:

 http://wyomingpublicmedia.org/post/another-public-land-transfer-bill-filed-11th-hour

[takefive]

Here's another article:

 http://www.outdoorlife.com/house-bill-would-sell-33-million-acres-federal-public-land

I'm betting dollars to donuts that this will happen.  And that the politicians responsible will be reelected handily again and again.
Because...A good half of voters are easily conned into voting against their own interests.  And the other half don't even care enough to vote.  Look at this thread for example.  It's an important issue but where is the interest in it?  Crickets...

[Mint]

According to your link the bill was pulled due to sportsman blowback.

I would rather have the land transferred to the states but with a covenant stating that it can never be sold by the state and must be open for use by the people including hunting.

[Yellowstoner]

Mint - state land has to be managed profitably, while federal lands run in a deficit every year. It's part of the reason we pay federal taxes (and one of the most honorable reasons why imho). If handed over to the states, many states would be forced into selling much of their public lands to fund the rest of the forests. Our forests are being managed incredibly well currently, I'm not sure why we would want to move away from this management.

[Cory Mattson]

Mint - excellent input
I never bought into the idea the Federal government was managing land properly now??? Pet sheep and cattle are all over now grazing at a welfare subsidized rate and not enough trees cut either creating fire hazard.
It is interesting that non residents get charged ten times as much to hunt federal land out west and nobody mentions this. This one fact alone puts western federal land out of reach of many hunters so I wouldn't expect them to care. A lot of so called public land is difficult to access or inaccessible now so at least on those tracts it makes no difference who owns it.

[Prairie Drifter]

Much federal land is "landlocked" within private property. Can anyone tell me how much of this type was included in this bill to transfer/sell fed land?

[YosemiteSam]

Originally posted by Yellowstoner:
Mint - state land has to be managed profitably, while federal lands run in a deficit every year. It's part of the reason we pay federal taxes (and one of the most honorable reasons why imho). If handed over to the states, many states would be forced into selling much of their public lands to fund the rest of the forests. Our forests are being managed incredibly well currently, I'm not sure why we would want to move away from this management.

Very much agree with the first part.  But my experience of land management hasn't been the best.  We could use more fires out here but they keep putting them out.  It's no wonder the beetles are taking over -- our forests are pretty sick.  I suppose it could be worse --  much worse.  But we're a far cry from letting nature do its thing in these parts.