Monday, January 19, 2015

State senator leads debate on federal lands in Montana

...Over the past few years, some in the West have begun pushing for state takeover of federal lands, arguing that states can manage their land better than people in Washington, D.C. The idea isn't new. It has its roots in the Sagebrush Rebellion, which rose in the 1970s under the same states-rights philosophy. But now, in the age of the Internet, proponents of the idea are more organized and can spread their ideas to eager listeners who have grown weary of an ineffective Congress. Those ideas prompted Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, to run for office in 2012. Fielder has met regularly with other Western politicians through a Utah-based group called the American Lands Council, which is dedicated to the transfer of federal lands. "Up in northwest Montana, we are surrounded by millions of acres of federally controlled lands that are at catastrophic wildfire condition levels right now. That affects our lives," Fielder told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. "I think we have bipartisan interest in correcting the problems with federal land management — there are just differences of opinion in how we go about it." Fielder and at least two other GOP legislators — fellow Thompson Falls legislator Rep. Bob Brown and Rep. Theresa Manzella of Hamilton — have requested about three dozen bills dealing with federal land management. The bill subjects range from simply continuing to study federal land transfer to calling on Congress to transfer lands to Montana...more

This could have been an interesting and informative article...too bad its so biased against the land transfer concept.

1 comment:

Dave Skinner said...

No surprise on the bias. Laura Lundquist let herself slip some time back, calling then-Cong Steve Daines a "tea party moron" on her Twitter account.
Former Herc driver, then went back to skool and ended up covering the Libby asbestos scandal for a leftie documentary producer.
But definitely a Fox Butterfield sort of hack.