When a racist rancher in Nevada and his armed supporters can command headlines by claiming to own and control publicly owned lands, perhaps it’s time to remind Westerners about the history of the nation’s public-land heritage.
Recall that it is we, the American people, who own the public lands that make up so much of our Western states. These great open spaces are the birthright of all of us, not just the residents of Nevada or Arizona or other Western states. The question of ownership of the public lands was settled by the founding fathers, in favor of you and me, by the Maryland compromise reached in 1781, and carried forward in the property clause of Article IV in the United States Constitution.
On occasion, diehard malcontents such as Cliven Bundy emerge to promote so-called “Sagebrush Rebellions” to turn the public lands over to the states as a conduit for handing them out to resource raiders and private interests. Governors and state legislatures, most recently in Utah, are sometimes drawn into endorsing these movements, only to see them fade away in the face of public opinion.
Now, while this latest fracas is fresh in our minds, let me speak up for the employees of the Bureau of Land Management who have been demonized by Fox newsman Sean Hannity and threatened by rancher Cliven Bundy and his followers. BLM staffers are dedicated public servants who struggle with the unenviable task of juggling the conflicting demands of ranchers, miners, oil and gas companies, sportsmen and conservationists. They deserve our respect and our gratitude.
I believe that the whole sorry Bundy episode has given us an opportunity to renew our commitment to conservation. We can do that by calling on President Obama to take action to protect more of the special places on our public lands.
He can begin by using the Antiquities Act to establish more national monuments. Some may counsel caution in light of the recent House passage of a bill by Utah Republican Rep. Rob Bishop to gut the law. However, the best way to protect and preserve the Antiquities Act is to use it visibly and vigorously, thereby demonstrating once again the broad public support it has enjoyed for more than 100 years.
The president could start with California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s bill to protect a million acres in the Mojave Desert of California. Or he could take up Maine Democratic Rep. Mike Michaud’s bill to protect the scores of small islands that host seabird colonies off the coast of Maine. The president can use his authority under the Antiquities Act to take these bills and their establishing language and designate the lands in questions as new national monuments.
President Obama could also review the list of our existing national parks and monuments, many of which are in need of expansion because these areas are threatened by encroaching strip mining, drilling or other incompatible development. He could start out in the majestic expanses of southern Utah, where Canyonlands, Arches and Capitol Reef national parks all need additional lands to protect their archaeological sites and unique geological formations.
And at Yellowstone National Park, the migratory herds of bison, elk and other wildlife all need more space, which can be best obtained by designating the forest lands to the West as a national monument. There are many other areas where local residents are voicing support for new national monuments, including the Boulder-White Cloud Mountains in Idaho, the Vermillion Basin in Colorado and the Owyhee Canyons in Oregon.
The president also has the authority to add lands to our National Wildlife Refuge System. There is an urgent need to create a system of refuges to protect the endangered greater sage grouse that inhabits the sagebrush seas that stretch across public lands in seven Western states.
In addition, the Antiquities Act could be used to protect fisheries and endangered coral system in our marine waters. Bristol Bay off western Alaska is the most prolific of our fisheries, the passage through which millions of salmon migrate to spawn throughout the river systems of Alaska. The little-known deep-water corals adjoining the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea also deserve enhanced protection.
There is much to be done, and President Obama should not wait until the eleventh hour to act. He should start now by advancing proposals, explaining the urgency of conservation, generating the visibility of the issues at stake and asking all Americans to voice their opinions. He should invite Congress to take legislative action, making it clear that he will act if it doesn’t.
A robust conservation program, following in the tradition begun by President Theodore Roosevelt, will be an enduring accomplishment for President Obama, a gift to future generations from his time in office.
This article appears in May 29 – Jun 4, 2014.
We miss you Bruce!
The only rub I have with this essay is the “birthright” concept. This land became the birthright of all Americans right after we stole that birthright from previous inhabitants, the Native Americans. Mr. Babbitt’s history conveniently starts at a specific time. Regardless of my pickiness, I totally agree with the progressive content of Mr. Babbitt’s essay. All we really have is the land/environment and we owe it to ourselves and future generations to preserve and protect it.
Mr. Babbit, we have not seen the likes of you in the Federal Govt since you were Sect of Interior many years ago. Your voice (and those like yours) is trampled by the masses of greedy, beligerant yahoos who, like Bundy, will sell, destroy and pillage the last acre of preserved land to make their millions. Their ecological devestation on western lands means nothing to them as they blast out ignorant words about states’ rights, personal liberties and individualism. They are a cancer on our land and until the American public demands environmental protection to prevent more destruction, they will continue to rape and destroy all that is in their way.
I met Bruce Babbitt before he was elected as Arizona’s attorney general. He represented a coalition of groups pro bono in a lawsuit against the Forest Service to halt construction of an unnecessary road in the Coconino. I remember seeing Bruce on TV after he became attorney general when the governor died and Bruce was catapulted into the governorship. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights of a semi truck. 🙂 The last time I saw Bruce was during a fund raising dinner in Phoenix, when he was running for the Democratic nomination for president. Like bslap, I miss Bruce and hope he is having loads of fun. I sure enjoyed reading this guest column and agree 100%. Along the lines of Bruce’s column, actually extending the lines a bit, I recommend Dave Foreman’s book titled “Rewilding North America” and an anthology titled “Keeping The Wild”. I hope President Obama has the stones to go wild, really wild, and establish as many refuges, monuments and wild land protections as are available to protect.
“On occasion, diehard malcontents such as Cliven Bundy emerge to promote so-called “Sagebrush Rebellions” to turn the public lands over to the states as a conduit for handing them out to resource raiders and private interests.”
What a convenient way to dismiss any dissent over Federal Land grabs as rants from mere “malcontents” steeling public resources.
Is Bundy TREO? The ranch El Rio? How ‘Progressive’.
LOTFI: Who actually “owns” America’s land? A deeper look at the Bundy Ranch crisis
http://benswann.com/lofti-who-actually-owns-americas-land-a-deeper-look-at-the-bundy-ranch-crisis/
Ronko, great comment. I look forward to the day when the actual history of America is front and center to all discussion, and Native Americans get their long overdue respect, and compensation. Ironic, considering the following… Bruce, your pro-environment stance is so important and appreciated, but some of us have not forgotten YOUR cattle ranch with the damn that blew out sending a tsunami of water down cataract canyon flooding the Havasupai Indian Reservation and causing MASSIVE destruction, not to mention threatening the lives of the Havasu’u Baaja. And that there were major delays under your leadership getting them disaster relief $ and when it came it was totally inadequate. And furthermore, why didn’t you pay for it yourself instead of using taxpayer $? P.S. Selling ur interest in the ranch doesn’t disassociate you from what happened. To this day they have never been properly compensated, and the damage and ongoing threat to the Havasupai still exist.
The Indians get respect? Wasn’t it Babbit Ford in Flagstaff that hired NAU students in the 70s to repo their vehicles for financing and credit mistakes by salespeople? Those oil burning, pollution belching, global warming waist rockets that destroyed our environment? How soon you forget.
“BLM staffers are dedicated public servants ….” Mr Babbit those poor overworked federal employees sound just like the group of workers from the VA that took bonuses while our servicemen and women were left for dead. Try that line on somebody else, cuz I’m not buying it!
You seem to confuse conservation with confiscation and preservation….
“…asking all Americans to voice their opinions”
Isn’t that what Donald Sterling did?
Yours is a fantasy land of foolishness.
I think the perception of most living in the West, is that the BLM doesn’t treat public lands as though they belong to the citizens of the US, but as though it is personally their land – to the exclusion of US citizens.
It is difficult to really understand all of the arguments on public vs private land ownership/control. On the one hand, it is easy to see the attitude of people living in or near the original colonies. There is a reason the area is called New England beyond the obvious historical reference. The whole area is still stuck in the European concept of loyalty to crown and the established order, allowing for some practical, merchant liberties. We southerners were often the Scotch-Irish who didn’t and still don’t like giving up freedoms to strangers. And the people who willingly settled in the deserts of AZ just wanted to get away from the rest of us.
These are the ones who carved a living out of land that the people in Washington decided was useless. Now, the descendants of these pioneers must submit to a law that was designed, not to give land to the people, but to give federal government control to the land.
On the other hand, private owners have (like the banks, the businesses and the Bars) proven to be too often blood-sucking opportunist wielding their wealth as both their sword and their sanctifying agent for its use.
Personally, I can’t wait till God gets back to sort it all out.
Lakes