Giving Federal Land to the States (Week of January 13)

This week, Randy and I are kicking off a series about public land transfer and how the same old ideas of selling and transferring public lands are popping back up. We’ll revisit how Utah has been pushing the idea of transferring federal land to the state and how the Supreme Court recently shut them down. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case was certainly a win for public land advocates, but this idea and movement are not going away anytime soon. So, Randy is going to break down the idea of land transfer topic by topic over the next few weeks. Legislatures across the country are now in session, and there are plenty of good things that could benefit hunters and public land users, but there are also a LOT of bad bills that could make things worse for us. In Montana, a hot-button bill that immediately raised eyebrows was one to prohibit the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Commission from closing down rut hunting of mule deer within the state. In Wyoming, a bipartisan bill has been filed that would make corner crossing legal across the entire state. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently rejected petitions from Montana and Wyoming to delist grizzly bears as threatened from the Endangered Species List. In Oregon, the Army Corps of Engineers plans to draw down Detroit Lake by around 55 feet, essentially temporarily transforming the system back into a river to help juvenile salmon migrate downstream and more easily pass through the dam. The National Elk Refuge is reevaluating its elk feeding program, where thousands of elk are concentrated and fed every year in northwestern Wyoming. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices