Inequality of Western States can be Resolved by Local Stewardship

Federal land agencies have managed the West like a museum for years. This hands-off management approach has resulted in watershed destruction, air pollution, and forest and wildland fires. Our communities and the environment deserve better. States have the know-how and incentives to repair decades of federal neglect by tending to the environment like the garden that it is. For Stewards of San Juan County this is encouraging news.  

While most of us have been nonchalantly living our lives, The Utah Commission for the Stewardship of Public Lands compiled a world-class legal team of renowned constitutional scholars and litigators to examine the legal theories surrounding the transfer of public lands to the states. This article has links to their efforts, and answers questions that have stopped others from even trying.

Historic direction on how public lands can be managed by states

More...
For detailed information on how a land transfer would work, read this

Has it been done before? 

Which famous U.S. senator successfully made this argument to compel the federal government to transfer title to the vast stretches of federally controlled land in the west? Republican Senator Mike Lee of Utah whose state is 65% percent federally controlled? Or, maybe Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona whose state is nearly 50% federally controlled? Maybe it’s a trick question. Could it be Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas whose state has about 1% federally controlled land? Give up?

It’s Democratic Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri whose state at the time was 90% federally controlled for decades. You may be thinking, “Benton is not a famous U.S. senator.”  Well, tell that to John F. Kennedy who included Thomas Hart Benton as one of eight prominent U.S. senators in his best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning book Profiles in Courage. Or, consider that Teddy Roosevelt wrote a 372-page biography of Thomas Hart Benton.