FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS

---

OPPOSE TURNING OVER FEDERAL RESERVES TO NON-FEDERAL ENTITIES

The Bush administration is considering turning over management of hundreds of millions of acres of federal lands, including 34 national parks and 41 wildlife refuges, to various non-federal entities, such as Indian tribes and local government.  Planning for this is now under way in the Interior Department, and notices have been published in the Federal Register. Among the first of the areas to be considered is the National Bison Range in Montana, where the Fish and Wildlife Service would find its budget cut and under orders to hand the area over to tribes who admit they are not staffed to handle the job.  Congressional leaders in Alaska are pressing to follow suit.

These are steps to implement an Executive Order that President Bush signed in August 2004 that calls upon agencies to collaborate with tribes, states, and local government in actions that promote what he termed "cooperative conservation."  It calls upon agencies to facilitate cooperative conservation, especially with entities that have legal interests, or property rights, in land and natural resources.

Little attention appears to have been given to the effectiveness of management by non-federal parties, oversight of such management, NEPA compliance, and whether this is a first step toward divestiture from federal ownership.

The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs opposes any steps to turn over federal lands to be managed by others and opposes any divestiture of federal ownership of the public domain.  It also opposes approaches to collaborative management which give special privileges to any class of citizens in the management of lands owned by all.


next >>