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The privatization of our public lands via land sales and giveaways is finally getting the scrutiny it deserves. But these routes are neither the be-all nor the end-all of the massive privatization movement. They are not even the dominant route, as is suggested in the following Writers on the Range Op-Ed.
Here's a quote:
[Trend number two may be worse. Its the outsourcing virus that is sweeping agencies like the U.S. Forest Service. Here, an idea that made sense in the past when applied to urban services such as trash collection may be focused on 75 percent of all the jobs in the agency, including fire suppression. If we do this long enough, and the ideologues push for this hard enough, its going to go like this: Why do we need the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, even the Park Service or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? So much of what they do has been outsourced; lets just get rid of them. Put some private sector, beltway, politically connected, market-mantra-chanting consulting firm in charge. It can manage the land, or else we could transfer the land to states. This move could make trend number one easier to accomplish.]
The article concludes with these words:
[The chipping away at our publicly owned lands will happen incrementally, over time.]
On balance, I would suggest that the conservation community is doing more to facilitate privatization than they are doing to stop it. If we continue to follow the current route long enough, the entire American Commons will be privatized. If we change directions, we can still avoid the neo-feudalistic future that awaits us.
Scott
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http://www.headwatersnews.org/wotr.landsale081506.html
Writers on the Range:
Is the great federal land debate over?
By John Freemut
h
Every decade or so, people start pushing the idea of selling off big
chunks of public land or transferring that land to state ownership and
management. Outside of small parcels, it has never happened, probably
because most of us support leaving public lands in federal hands.
With the recent pronouncements of Idahos own Dirk Kempthorne, now
Interior secretary, and Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho that
large-scale federal land sell-offs are politically dead, it might
appear that the latest attempt is finally over. Conventional wisdom
says the West has grown up, and we all realize that we need those open
spaces to bike, shoot, boat, ride, hike, climb and picnic in. Maybe so,
but there are a couple of trends that bear watching as they lead to
privatization of our birthright.
The first trend has to do with land transfers done in the name of
economic development. In some cases, these transfers, small in acreage,
may make sense if important public purposes are met. But in southern
Utah, for example, its much messier. There, booming development in St.
George has led to a proposal to sell off 40 square miles of federal
land, while at the same time protecting some wilderness, much of it in
Zion National Park, and desert tortoise habitat.
Environmentalists oppose the bill; developers and the county support
it. Its main purpose appears to be making more land available for the
“New West” phenomena of second homes and footloose retiree money. This
is a land exchange that caters to the upper middle class, and the irony
here should not escape us. This is mountain bike country,
get-your-piece-of-the-West land. Perhaps these folks need public land
to play on, but they want private land to live on, preferably close to
the public land. And if that private land needs to be removed from the
public estate -- so be it. This is not a small-scale transfer to allow
an economically disadvantaged place like Salmon or Challis, Idaho, get
some help. Just Imagine the cascade effect as other booming towns seek
to dig deeper and deeper into our common estate.
Trend number two may be worse. Its the outsourcing virus that is
sweeping agencies like the U.S. Forest Service. Here, an idea that made
sense in the past when applied to urban services such as trash
collection may be focused on 75 percent of all the jobs in the agency,
including fire suppression. If we do this long enough, and the
ideologues push for this hard enough, its going to go like this: Why do
we need the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, even the Park
Service or U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service? So much of what they do has
been outsourced; lets just get rid of them. Put some private sector,
beltway, politically connected, market-mantra-chanting consulting firm
in charge. It can manage the land, or else we could transfer the land
to states. This move could make trend number one easier to accomplish.
While were at it, lets be consistent. Why not outsource the Congress,
the White House and the courts? Clearly, the private sector can be more
efficient in the running of government than politicians can, and
outsourcing is all about efficiency. But since when is efficiency the
primary aim of government?
Through the years I have been a critic as well as a supporter of
federal land management. But I have a touchstone for what public
service can mean. I once worked as a seasonal ranger at a national park
and found that you cannot replace what rangers and other park staffers
do or the way they approach their jobs. It may sound overwrought and
ridiculous, but many believe they are on the “staff” of the Grand
Canyon, of the Sawtooths, Escalante, Rocky Mountain National Park. They
work for the land they love. Can that kind of commitment be outsourced?
Right now, a majority of Americans want most public lands to remain
public and under federal management. But pay attention. The debate wont
be about that, as it should be, and it may not be a debate at all. The
chipping away at our publicly owned lands will happen incrementally,
over time. With the population growth in places like St. George, Utah,
the battles will likely never end.
--
John Freemuth is a contributor to Writers on the Range, a service of
High Country News (hcn.org). He is professor of public policy and
senior fellow at the Cecil Andrus Center for Public Policy at Boise
State University in Idaho
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