Public Lands

The congressional battle over public lands is only just beginning. The latest action: the House voted to rescind the Bureau of Land Management's recently approved "Planning 2.0" rule.

February 9, 2017 - The Denver Post

But that's no reason not to try, figures Republican Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, chair of the powerful House Natural Resources Committee, who has his sights on the Bears Ears National Monument, barely a month old.

February 8, 2017 - NPR

It's the antithesis of what former President Obama and his predecessors did when they gave federal lands and waters more protection. But don't blame Trump's executive actions for this one (not yet, anyway), as it's being proposed by Congress.

January 29, 2017 - The Guardian

Will the acquittal of seven defendants in a U.S. district court who used force to occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon last January embolden other takeovers of public lands by resentful ranchers or militia?

October 31, 2016 - High Country News

Where's the green?

September 23, 2016 - NPR

In an news analysis for The New York Times Sunday Review, Alan Feuer sees the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Harney County, Oregon as another struggle between the Wise Use movement, which began is the 1980s, and the mainstream.

January 11, 2016 - The New York Times

Tens of thousands of wild horses still inhabit the western states. The Bureau of Land Management is caught between two camps: ranchers who want them contained and advocates who want them to roam free.

December 5, 2015 - Pacific Standard

As part of a compromise, the most ambitious public lands package in years was approved earlier this week by the House of Representatives as an addendum to a must-pass defense bill.

December 8, 2014 - Los Angeles Times

Faced with the prospect of states seizing control of federal lands to potentially sell to private owners, a resident of New Mexico argues against "the land grab out west."

October 28, 2014 - The New York Times

The New York Times Opinion Pages present a new narrative for the American West: "A wounded piece of land can be made whole, if managed for the future by people whose capacity for wonder is limitless."

September 6, 2014 - The New York Times

"A DC Council committee voted…to require developers to include affordable housing any time they buy land from the city for residential development," reports Jenny Reed.

July 15, 2014 - DC Fiscal Policy Institute

Utah's San Rafael Swell is the scene of an energy showdown between conservationists who want to preserve this unique landscape (potentially a national monument), private oil and gas companies that want to drill there, and the BLM that has to decide.

September 23, 2013 - The New York Times - U.S.

Utah Governor Gary Herbert has approved two eminent domain bills that seek to give the state rights to seize property now owned by the federal government. Officials concede the fight will be hard to win.

March 30, 2010 - The Salt Lake Tribune

Tasked with managing millions of acres of public lands, the federal Bureau of Land Management has announced plans to perform detailed ecological studies of some of its most notable properties.

March 7, 2010 - San Jose Mercury News

The Department of Energy is proposing to construct massive "energy corridors", land designated solely for the purpose of energy conduction like oil, hydrogen and electricity.

July 15, 2008 - Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments