Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a hearing to examine how litigation and increasingly excessive environmental analysis facing the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) has exacerbated the ongoing forest health crisis.
“We are bankrupting the future,” witness Lyle Laverty, Certified Forester and President of the Laverty Group, said. “America’s green infrastructure is on life support,… Read more »
NOTE: “Consider how far the Antiquities Act has strayed from its original intent: The act states that monument designations should be limited to “the smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.” In recent years, however, it has been used as a large-scale conservation policy, dictated by presidential decree. Many recent monuments have… Read more »
Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a legislative hearing on H.R. 2199 (Rep Cramer, R-ND), the “Federal Land Asset Inventory Reform Act of 2017” or the “FLAIR Act.”
The federal government owns an estimated 640 million acres of land, although, amazingly, the actual acreage number is not definitively known. The bipartisan FLAIR Act requires the Secretary of the Interior to… Read more »
Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a legislative hearing on two bills to promote economic development, improve conservation and address targeted federal land management challenges.
H.R. 2423, the “Washington County, Utah, Public Lands Management Implementation Act,” (Rep. Chris Stewart, R-UT) fulfills a promise made to Washington County, after years of negotiations and… Read more »
Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands held an oversight hearing on “Seeking Better Management of America’s Overgrown, Fire-Prone National Forests.” Members and witnesses called for a paradigm shift in the way we manage the nation’s increasingly overgrown, disease infested and fire-prone federal forests and grasslands.
“Our forests are dying […]Nationwide, the Forest Service reports it… Read more »
Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a legislative hearing on a slate of bills that would approve targeted land transfers to facilitate critical infrastructure development and job creation.
“Sadly, these bills are necessary because the federal government has not recently been that good neighbor, and ideological zealots in our land management agencies have been obstructing vital… Read more »
Today, President Trump signed H.J. Res 44 (Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY), a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act to repeal the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Planning 2.0 Rule.
“This rule would have given even more power to the bureaucracy in Washington when what we need is the exact opposite. Reversing this rule is just one of many actions we will take to… Read more »
Today, the Senate passed H.J. Res. 69 sponsored by Rep. Don Young (R-AK). The joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act will overturn the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) rule on “Non-Subsistence Take of Wildlife, and Public Participation and Closure Procedures, on National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska.”
“This CRA ensures that the role of states will not be… Read more »
Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands held an oversight hearing on ways to improve infrastructure and management at the National Park Service (NPS) and the Forest Service (USFS).
“A reasonable person might conclude that federal agencies with deferred maintenance backlogs of $6 billion [USFS] and $12 billion [NPS] should first take care of the land it currently administers before… Read more »
By: Valerie Richardson
Another piece of President Obama’s energy legacy: Oil and natural gas production on federal lands tanked under his tenure even as private activity increased.
From 2008 to 2016, major indicators of federal onshore and natural gas operations declined, including the number of leases, acres leased, permits approved and wells drills, according to the Western Energy… Read more »
