Federal Government Should Relinquish Mismanaged Lands: Karla Jones in The Epoch Times
Hopefully the rule change will lead to the federal government relinquishing select federal lands under its purview that due to years of mismanagement have become very costly for the federal government to maintain.
Karla Jones, Senior Director for the ALEC International Relations and Federalism Task Force, recently told The Epoch Times she sees benefits to a new rules package adopted Jan. 9 by the U.S. House of Representatives loosening regulations relating to the transfer of federal select public lands.
ALEC Federalism and International Relations Task Force Executive Director Karla Jones told The Epoch Times the group “applauds” the rule change and will support bills that “facilitate the conveyance of more federal land, excluding national parks, national monuments, congressionally designated wilderness areas, U.S. military installations and tribal lands, to the states that want that authority.”
Jones said transferring certain types of land now under federal control to states “will ensure that territory is managed by those who have the greatest interest in its preservation and condition and the best understanding of how to care for it.”
There’s plenty of documented evidence refuting claims that federal agencies manage public lands better than states do, she said.
“The states are the optimal environmental and economic stewards of the lands within their borders and recent experience in America’s West underscores this conclusion,” Jones said. “The record-breaking wildfires that decimated New Mexico last spring originated from prescribed burns on federal lands–burns that local officials never would have authorized due to weather and other factors on the ground.
“Hopefully,” she continues, the rule change “will lead to the federal government relinquishing select federal lands under its purview that due to years of mismanagement have become very costly for the federal government to maintain, allowing the states greater access for restoration, recreation and revenue generation.”