Obama Administration plotting to seize Western lands without congressional approval
Interior Dept. documents detail Obama admin plotting to seize Western lands without congressional approval
By: Mark Hemingway
Commentary Staff Writer
08/11/10 4:00 PM EDT
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Back in February, a leaked memo from the Department of the Interior showed that the Obama administration was considering designating as many as 17 new national monuments throughout the West, effectively closing off huge swaths of land to development. That this was being done without the input of Congress or local authorities angered many.
Now Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, Chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus and Ranking Member on the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands has uncovered 14 more pages from the document that were previously unavailable.
The new pages show a federal bureaucracy that has contempt for the legislative process and the input of elected representatives. “Should the legislative process not prove fruitful, or if a nationally significant natural or cultural land resource come under threat of imminent harm, the BLM [Bureau of Land Management] would recommend that the Administration consider using the Antiquities Act [to designate a national monument],” reads the new document.
In a statement, Bishop unloaded on the Obama administration. “These 14 pages are further evidence of this Administration’s efforts, under the guidance of Secretary Salazar, to control western lands by unilaterally locking them up without input from local residents and stakeholders nor the approval of Congress.
Their plotting behind closed doors is disingenuous at best and flies in the face of this Administration’s so-called ‘transparency’,” said Bishop.
“Thousands of westerners whose livelihoods depend upon access to our public lands stand to be affected by these decisions and yet this document blatantly goes out of its way to exclude their input or participation. If there was any question about whether or not this Administration has declared a war on the West, these new documents are evidence enough.”
Re: Obama Administration plotting to seize Western lands without congressional approv
BLM document reveals big change in federal land management
Re: Obama Administration plotting to seize Western lands without congressional approv
Michelle Malkin: The great Obama land grab
By: Michelle Malkin
Examiner Columnist
August 13, 2010
Have you heard of the "Great Outdoors Initiative"? Chances are, you haven't.
But across the country, White House officials have been meeting quietly with environmental groups to map out government plans for acquiring untold millions of acres of both public and private land. It's another stealthy power grab through executive order that promises to radically transform the American way of life.
In April, President Obama issued a memorandum outlining his "21st century strategy for America's great outdoors." It was addressed to the interior secretary, the agriculture secretary, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency and the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality.
The memo calls on the officials to conduct "listening and learning sessions" with the public to "identify the places that mean the most to Americans, and leverage the support of the Federal Government" to "protect" outdoor spaces. Eighteen of 25 planned sessions have already been held. But there's much more to the agenda than simply "reconnecting Americans to nature."
The federal government, as the memo boasted, is the nation's "largest land manager." It already owns roughly one of every three acres in the United States.
This is apparently not enough. At a "listening session" in New Hampshire last week, government bureaucrats trained their sights on millions of private forest land throughout the New England region. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack crusaded for "the need for additional attention to the Land and Water Conservation Fund -- and the need to promptly support full funding of that fund."
Property owners have every reason to be worried. The Land and Water Conservation Fund is a pet project of green radicals, who want the decades-old government slush fund for buying up private lands to be freed from congressional appropriations oversight. It's paid for primarily with receipts from the government's offshore oil and gas leases.
Both Senate and House Democrats have included $900 million in full LWCF funding, not subject to congressional approval, in their energy/BP oil spill legislative packages. The Democrats have also included a provision in these packages that would require the federal government to take over energy permitting in state waters, which provoked an outcry from Texas state officials, who sent a letter of protest to Capitol Hill last month:
"In light of federal failures, it is incomprehensible that the United States Congress is entertaining proposals that expand federal authority over oil and gas drilling in state water and lands long regulated by states. ... Given the track record, putting the federal government in charge of energy production on state land and waters not only breaks years of successful precedent and threatens the 10th Amendment to the United Sates Constitution, but it also undermines common sense and threatens the environmental and economy security of our state's citizens."
This power grab, masquerading as a feel-good, all-American recreation program, comes on top of a separate, property-usurping initiative exposed by GOP Rep. Robert Bishop and Sen. Jim DeMint earlier this spring.
According to an internal, 21-page Obama administration memo, 17 energy-rich areas in 11 states have been targeted as potential federal "monuments." The lives of coyotes, deer and prairie dogs would be elevated above states' needs to generate jobs, tourism business and energy solutions.
Take my home state of Colorado. The Obama administration is considering locking up some 380,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land and private land in Colorado under the 1906 Antiquities Act.
The Vermillion Basin and the Alpine Triangle would be shut off to mining, hunting, grazing, oil and gas development, and recreational activities. Alan Foutz, president of the Colorado Farm Bureau, blasted the administration's meddling: "Deer and elk populations are thriving, and we in Colorado don't need help from the federal government in order to manage them effectively."
Indeed, the feds have enough trouble as it is managing the vast amount of land they already control. As the D.C.-based Americans for Limited Government group, which defends private property rights, points out:
"The [National Park Service] claims it would need about $9.5 billion just to clear its backlog of the necessary improvements and repairs. At a time when our existing national parks are suffering, it doesn't make sense for the federal government to grab new lands."
The bureaucrats behind Obama's "Great Outdoors Initiative" plan on wrapping up their public comment solicitation by Nov. 15. The initiative's taxpayer-funded web site (http://ideas.usda.gov/ago/ideas.nsf/) has been dominated by left-wing environmental activists proposing human population reduction, private property confiscation, and gun bans, hunting bans and vehicle bans in national parks.
It's time for private property owners to send their own loud, clear message to the land-hungry feds: Take a hike.
Re: Obama Administration plotting to seize Western lands without congressional approv
Federal Budget Deal Blocks Obama Wilderness Policy
Quote:
April 13, 2011
A last-minute budget deal reached by Congressional leaders would block an Obama administration plan to make millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West eligible for federal wilderness protection.
Republican lawmakers had complained that the wilderness plan would circumvent Congress's authority and could be used to declare a vast swath of public land off-limits to oil-and-gas drilling.
An agreement reached Friday night to avoid a government shutdown includes language that prohibits the Interior Department from spending money to implement the wilderness policy
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the plan in December, reversing a Bush-era policy that opened millions of acres of Western lands to commercial development. The so-called "wild lands" policy would restore eligibility for wilderness protection to millions of acres of public lands.
Salazar calls the new policy a common-sense solution that would help the agency better manage public lands, waters and wildlife, but critics accused him of a land-grab that would lock up millions of prime acres in the West.
Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said the policy would "destroy thousands of jobs ... and create a paralyzing uncertainty for Western communities.'' Elected officials throughout the West have called for the plan to be halted, Bishop said.
"The longer this initiative has been out in the public, the more concerns I hear about the impact it will have on ranching, energy production, recreation and even the Bureau of Land Management's own ability to manage their lands," said Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho.
The initiative oversteps the Interior Department's authority, Simpson said, adding: "Only Congress has the authority to create new land designations.''
A spokeswoman for Salazar declined to comment Tuesday. But in a statement last month the agency said that as a Westerner himself and a former Colorado senator, Salazar believes the wild lands policy is a practical approach that restores balance to the management of public lands.
The plan has drawn support from conservation groups and recreation business owners, who say conservation of public lands is good business. The groups cite the impact of tourism on Western economies.
The new policy by itself does not itself create any wild lands designation, nor does it require that any particular lands be protected, said Bob Abbey, director of the Bureau of Land Management. Designation as wild land can only be made after public comments and review and does not necessarily prohibit motor vehicle use or the staking of new mining claims, Abbey said.
Planning for the new policy has already begun, and Abbey said last month that designation of the first wild lands could occur as soon as this summer in Idaho, Wyoming and Alaska. It was unclear Tuesday if those designations would go forward.
The House is expected to take up the budget agreement as soon as Thursday.
Re: Obama Administration plotting to seize Western lands without congressional approv
Quote:
federal wilderness protection.
Can anyone say "The King's Deer!"
sigh
Re: Obama Administration plotting to seize Western lands without congressional approv
U.S. Sheriffs Rise Up Against Federal Government: Sheriff Threatens Feds With SWAT Team ~ Grass Roots Take Charge!
http://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/p...?m=1304053249gNovember 14, 2011 by Volubrjotr http://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/p...?m=1304053248g118 Comments
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Sheriff Threatens Feds With SWAT Team
As more people became dissatisfied with federal government controls and land grabs, it was inevitable that local law enforcement would eventually see the bigger picture. At the northern California fairgrounds of Yreka last month, seven California sheriffs and another from Oregon gathered with a large group of citizens to say that they are finally going to do something about it.
“A giant has been awakened,” said Plumas County, Calif. Sheriff Greg Hagwood, “and they didn’t count on that,” speaking of the federal bureaucracy.
With exposure of the Emergency Management Center in San Luis Obispo a few decades ago, California began to offer the rest of the nation some evidence of the psychological conditioning aimed from the federal level at state, county and city law enforcement.
Dean Wilson, sheriff of Del Norte County (Sacramento), is a great example of this great awakening. He received the loudest and longest applause for his candor in confessing past faults after apologizing for not understanding the central government assault and land grab being committed against the people and what he should have been doing about it. Only in the past year has he done a turnaround and begun to behave as a county sheriff instead of an extension of federal law enforcement.
“I had spent a good part of my life enforcing the penal code, but not understanding my oath of office,” he told the audience. “I was ignorant and naïve, but now I know of the assault against our people by the federal government.”
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Host sheriff John Lopey of Siskiyou County, speaking about the federal environmental intervention, said: “I have told federal and state officials over and over that, yes, we want to preserve the environment, but you care more about the fish, frogs, trees and birds than you do about the human race. When will you start to balance your decisions to the needs of the people?” Later he told the audience, “We are right now in a fight for our survival.”
Glenn Palmer, sheriff of Grant County, Oregon, said, “If an elected official has not taken an oath of office, he does not belong in office.”
AFP readers are familiar with the work of former Arizona Sheriff Richard Mack, who has spent the latter half of his life teaching sheriffs that they are the top law enforcement officers in their counties despite continuing federal intervention attempts. The ears that were deaf for so long may finally be starting to hear.
“It’s becoming a national movement now,” Mack told AFP, citing Immigration and Naturalization Service failure at the Mexican borders, the phony drug war, plus IRS and other unconstitutional intervention within these states.
His plans to take this movement national will be launched at a January meeting, where he anticipates 200 sheriffs will be in attendance.
“The county sheriff is the last line of defense guarding our people’s liberty,” he said.
Retired USAF Col. Richard Niemela of Reston, Va. has been exposing the federal monster for years.
He told AFP: “It’s the surreptitious domination by international globalists insidiously using unauthorized and illegal tactics to render null and void those historic and unique powers of the sheriff.”
American Free Press
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Sheriff Swat Team
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Re: Obama Administration plotting to seize Western lands without congressional approv
About friggin time. I sure hope a lot more counties in the USA get the hint and start standing up to these guys.
