Page 6 - Flathead Beacon // 12.17.14

6 | DECEMBER 17, 2014 NEWS FLATHEADBEACON.COM Debating the Future of Public Lands
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Sen. Jennifer Fielder and Rep. Ed Lieser square off over whether to transfer public lands from federal to state control
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
The future of public lands could be- come a hot topic during the upcoming leg- islative session and two lawmakers met in Kalispell last week to debate the idea of transferring public lands from the federal government to the state.
Republican Sen. Jennifer Fielder of Thompson Falls squared off against Dem- ocratic Rep. Ed Lieser of Whitefish dur- ing an hour-long debate held at Flathead Valley Community College on Dec. 11 and hosted by Montanans for Multiple Use.
Fielder, vice chair of the Montana GOP and chair of the Montana Environ- mental Quality Council’s SJ-15 Federal Land Study Working Group, said that fed- eral lands are being mismanaged and that transferring national forest land to the state was a sensible idea that would put locals in control of the land they use and cherish. But Lieser, who has a degree in natural resource management and worked for the U.S. Forest Service for nearly 30 years, said the transfer of public lands was a “reckless” and “radical” idea that would never succeed and could result in a loss of public access.
Utah, Idaho, Nevada and Wyoming are actively looking at efforts to wrest control of public lands from the federal govern- ment and there are at least two bills being proposed in the Montana Legislature to study the idea.
Fielder noted that in the eastern part of the country, states control more than 95 percent of public lands, but west of the Rockies, states only control 50 percent.
“Who can make decisions better than Montanans?” Fielder asked the crowd.
State Sen. Jennifer Fielder and Rep. Ed Lieser debate the future of public lands at Flathead Valley Community College during an event hosted by Montanans For Multiple Use. JUSTIN FRANZ | FLATHEAD BEACON
“People from New York and New Jer- sey can’t make land decisions for us just like we can’t make decisions about their subway systems. The subways are im- portant to them just like public lands are important to us.”
But Lieser said that any effort to trans- fer the land would end up in court.
“Transferring public lands will end up in a lengthy legal battle ... It would be a horrible waste of time and money when we could be using that time and money to collaborate with the federal government,” Lieser said. “These lands are American lands and they belong to every citizen of the United States. That’s the way it is.”
Lieser added that the state does not have the resources to manage more public land. For example, the U.S. Forest Service has more firefighting resources that can be moved around the country to fight massive wildfires. He said that as wildfires become more destructive a big fire season could costs millions of dollars, money state agen- cies don’t have. He worries that the state
would have to sell off land to cover its bills and thus public access would be reduced.
But Fielder said the state could bring in more money to cover firefighting costs if it did more to develop public lands.
“Money does grow on trees because trees produce timber and mines produce ore and right now (the federal govern- ment) has it all locked away from develop- ment,” Fielder said.
Fielder said that the transfer of pub- lic lands has been successful in parts of the United States and Canada and there is nothing stopping the same from happen- ing here. But Lieser countered that man- agement issues on federally owned lands stemmed from budget cuts and climate change and that having them under the state umbrella wouldn’t solve anything.
“In the face of dramatic changes on the land it is obvious that changes need to be made, but transferring land from the fed- eral government to the state is not the so- lution,” he said.
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