At the February 21st Mineral County Board of Commissioners meeting, American Lands Council (ALC) representative Douglas Heaton gave a half-hour presentation about what the ALC does and how Mineral County can take back control of the lands in its own backyard.
The ALC believes that the decades of distant, federal control over lands in the West have created a legacy of neglect, wildfires, destruction of wildlife, polluted air/water, devastated communities, and billions of dollars wasted.
Douglas Heaton, a former county commissioner himself from Utah, became aware of the federally controlled lands in his state and others in the West and how they have been mismanaged. He joined the American Lands Council 10 years ago to try to put the control of public lands back in the hands of the states and their local governments.
Over 50 percent of the land in the western region is federally controlled while less than 5 percent of the land in the East is affected by the government. This means that the people who are making the decisions in Congress aren’t seeing for themselves what is happening.
“[An] in-depth legal analysis conducted by the State of Utah proves that it is unconstitutional for the federal government to retain so much land within the western States,” he says.
The good news is that these federally controlled lands can be transferred to the States, who can likely manage them more efficiently (it has been proven that western States outperform the federal government by 10:1 in revenue-per-dollar-spent protecting the government and positive cash flow).
Heaton explained that in the beginning of the management of public lands, the Fed identified parcels of public lands to individual states that could possibly manage them better, but they could never sell the lands. Therefore, the ALC formed a nationwide nonprofit, advocacy 501c4 organization to help fulfill the goal of transferring the management of these lands back to the states.
“There’s been a loss of access for forest management, hiking, hunting, and mining,” Heaton says. “This [the ALC] is for wilderness advocates,” he adds.
Heaton talked about the forest mismanagement while it’s under federal control, resulting in dead, neglected trees that create extreme fire risk, toxic smoke, filthy water, dead/burned animals, environmental destruction, and economically devastated, depressed, and unsafe communities.
“What we want is healthy air, water and wildlife, vibrant/safe communities, and abundant recreation opportunities,” Heaton says.
“Instead of a museum where we look at the land, it should be like a garden that we tend and take care of,” he adds.
In the attempt to transfer the land to local and state governments, the ALC has proposed The National State Lands Act which involves: acquiring specific pieces of federally controlled public land at their own pace, a promise to keep it public, protect mineral/grazing/water rights, establish resource revenues for keeping that land public—making the state ownership of public lands more economically sustainable.
The ALC’s mission and priorities are organization, research, legislation, litigation, and education in this effort.
The ALC offers memberships at a county level– to help finance and advocate for the mission—as well as set up local chapters and do nationwide advocacy.
“Land is an asset, not a liability,” Heaton says.
Regarding what the county can do, Heaton says, “Utah paid $250,000 for a State Resource Management Plan and it was money well spent. There were 29 areas of environmental concern that the federal government identified, and my Utah county hit every single one. If this federal lands transfer does take place, then Mineral County having a Resource Management Plan will help you be prepared.”
At the end of the ALC presentation, Heaton said he would follow up with the commissioners about their decision about joining the ALC.
For more information about the American Lands Council, visit https://www.americanlandscouncil.org/.
