Big Fin for president..........
I've been following this thread with interest. I hunt and vacation "out west" - alot and have for the past 20 years. Interestingly I'm also a fed and work for DOI. I deal with multiple Fed agencies daily on ESA and permits on Fed lands. Here's my semi-related observations from a 20+ year career.
1. The Feds don't do anything better than private industry could - except have the bankroll to spend enormous amounts of money if/when needed, think purchase land, but more importantly are less influenced by big influence interests. Some will disagree with the last part but thats not been my experience. I've worked at all levels - industry, state, and federal. I've never gotten a call from the governors office telling me to issue ABC Co a permit regardless of the environmental impacts. I know many people that have. I have never received a call from any elected official or otherwise to issue ABC Co a permit while in federal employment - never and don't expect to.
2. The ESA is conceptually sound but abused and poorly implemented. I deal with the ESA daily. Implementation is governed by the biologist and associated management that implements it at the USFWS. A reasonable biologist, defined as one not interested in pristine preservation, can fulfill the intent of ESA while arriving at a reasonable solution for multiple land-use industries.
3. As Big Fin pointed out, once the land becomes part of a State 'trust' and I use the word trust generically, it is subject to a smaller pool of 'deciders'. If the deciders decide to implement some strategy, such as those pointed out by Randy, the rest of us are bound by those decisions - and screwed. As an analogy, I point to the state of WY law regarding non-resident access into wilderness areas. As I understand the most logical version of the story, and I've heard several from WY state officials ranging from grizzly bear protection to wilderness rescues, a lawsuit was decided in the 1980-90s that states can implement laws on NF as they see fit. I'm not sure who benefits from that law except the WY Outfitters Association. I can hike, fish, horse back ride in them but not hunt. I've somehow managed not to get lost in wilderness areas in every state surrounding WY. Suffice to say, I'm not keen on this smaller pool of decision makers when I see crap like that plus the issues Randy posted that restrict access.
I'm not in favor of private/local/state control of current public lands. The Feds don't do much well but I'd much rather fix the current system then gamble on private/local/state control. Thats a bridge too far IMHO.
