Nevada and eastern California have an abundance of open, public lands (in fact, about 81% in Nevada). These lands enable residents and visitors to recreate in many different ways, provide the states with important economic benefits, and provide many vital public goods such as wildlife habitat, clean air and clean water. Yet, public lands are increasingly under threat by those who unwisely believe the states can better manage these lands than the federal government. The Toiyabe Chapter strongly supports continued federal control to keep our public lands open and accessible and to protect our air, water, and wildlife.
In its current (2015) session, the Nevada State Legislature has unfortunately joined state lawmakers in other western states in efforts to transfer our public lands managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to state control. If these campaigns succeed, the likely result will be that state governments, unable to fund the necessary land management costs, will sell the land to private developers – thus cutting off the public access to outdoor recreation that westerners have enjoyed for generations.
Two bills were introduced in Nevada’s 2015 legislative session to grab our public lands. One, a truly radical bill dubbed the “Bundy Bill” after the scofflaw southern Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, was trounced in the Assembly, with only eight “yes” votes: many of our state legislators apparently decided they didn’t want to associate themselves with the lawbreaking rancher. The other, SJR 1, which "urges Congress to enact legislation transferring title to certain public lands to the State of Nevada in accordance with the report prepared by the Nevada Land Management Task Force," was on a fast track to pass with strong support from the Republican leadership in both the Senate and Assembly.
Sounds pretty innocuous, but the Task Force reports calls for phased transfer – then sale or lease to private developers – of millions of acres of our public land in Nevada. SJR1 passed the Nevada Senate and Assembly on party lines. So what, you might say. It’s just a resolution, right? A message to the U.S. Congress that Nevada wants to take away our public land?
Well, no. This land grab movement has also taken root in Washington, with the launch last month of a “Federal Land Action Group.” The goal of the group is to “determine the best congressional action needed to return these lands back to the rightful owners.”
These people are serious – and not one but two of our Nevada Representatives – Cresent Hardy and Mark Amodei - are members of the group.
With the passage of SJR1 and the end of the 2015 Nevada Legislative session, the Toiyabe Chapter is turning its attention to the long haul. We do not think that these land-grab ideas are going to just fade away. We’re working on strategies to build a campaign to protect our public lands from the state land grab and to let Nevada residents – and everyone else who uses and enjoys our public land – know just what is at stake if our public lands are taken away and sold off.