An update from Senator Fielder

“There are no losers to what we are going to propose,” said Kane County Commissioner Doug Heaton, a founding member of American Lands Council (ALC).

“Let me be really clear about this,” he said as he explained why he has taken a leadership role in compelling congress to transfer federal lands to the states.  “We are not AGAINST anybody. We are FOR managing the resources so we don’t actually burn our forests to the ground, destroy our watersheds, or kill millions of animals in the process. We are FOR not putting more pollution into the environment -- than all our industrial processes combined -- because of mismanagement and the wildfires that are occurring. We are FOR having some family sustaining jobs that come as we manage the natural resources and provide a benefit not only for the animals and the environment, but for people as well. We are FOR being energy independent as a nation, and as states. We are FOR being financially independent as a nation, as a state, as counties, and private citizens.”

The American Lands Council was formed two years ago by Heaton and a number of county commissioners and state legislators in Utah and Nevada. Today their membership includes elected officials in every western state as the idea of shifting to state based public land management has grown in popularity as more is learned about the possibilities.  

During Montana’s legislative study of federal land management this past year, we identified serious problems, chief among them are ongoing reductions in multiple use public access, declining forest health, extreme wildfire conditions, and lack of economic productivity on federally managed public lands.

Although our study was supposed to consider all lawful options to correct the problems, some Democrat committee members would not allow discussion of transferring federal lands to the state. While our bi-partisan committee received some testimony on the issue, we were never really allowed to give this subject the due diligence it deserves. Naysayers claimed it wasn’t legal, or that Montanans would foolishly sell all the land if we were put in charge.

However, in closing remarks of our final meeting, we had a breakthrough when a Democrat Senator pointed out that safeguards could be put into place to ensure federal lands remain in public status, and that a slow incremental shift would allow us time to adjust. He suggested that perhaps Montana could acquire 1% of the federal land in our state each year for 100 years. Eventually we began to see bi-partisan agreement that transferring control of federal lands to the state is worthy of thoughtful consideration.

That breakthrough was preceded by encouraging testimony from Mr. Martin Goldney, Chief Negotiator for the Northwest Territories (NWT) of Canada. He described the agreement struck in April of this year that successfully transferred control of federal lands in Canada to the smaller, more nimble territorial government.  

In this arrangement, Canada is paying Northwest Territories to manage the public lands. The Northwest Territories agreed to hire all the federal employees who had been working within the region, thus ensuring no loss of jobs and a continuation of related expertise. The Northwest Territories and the federal government will split the proceeds from natural resource production on these lands, and local tribal governments will receive a large share as well.

The big advantage is that land management decisions will be made by people who live in the affected region rather than an enormous, out of touch federal government.

Mr. Goldney said it took ten years of hard work to negotiate the deal, but both the Northwest Territories and Canada achieved a win-win arrangement which is responsive to local people and financially beneficial for all parties. Local control is known to achieve better results in favor of access, health, and productivity. “When decisions are made by people closer to the subject matter, the decisions tend to be better,” he added.

Here in America, if we endeavor to consider the possibilities and work constructively across party lines, we too can bring forth tremendous improvements in public land management to benefit people and the environment. There need not be any losers.

For more info, please email me at sen.jfielder@legmt.gov, call 406 210-5944, or sign in and leave your comments at www.jenniferfielder.us