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Legislation Introduced To Let States Manage National Parks, Other Public Lands

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In a move not entirely surprising, U.S. Rep. Don Young of Alaska has proposed legislation to create a mechanism for states to take over management of national parks and other federal lands.

It's not surprising in that a number of states -- Utah, Colorado, Arizona, South Dakota, New York, and Tennessee -- stepped up last week to underwrite the costs of reopening parks in their states during the government shutdown.

As written, the legislation would require a state to put up at least 50 percent of the costs of running the national park in question to have its petition considered by the Interior secretary. If a state provided 55 percent of the costs of operation, it would receive 55 percent of the revenues that park generated. States would not be given title to the land.

States that gain such authority could relinquish it by writing the Interior secretary and asking to be relieved of its authority. The secretary also could void the agreement if the state defaults on payments or is found to have breached its agreement.

Introduced this past Tuesday, the bill has no cosponsors.

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Horse damage on trails is a very sensitive subject here in the Smokies. Park leadership coddles the horse lobby at every turn and refuses to acknowledge a problem with them but hike any horse trail or speak with any non equestrian and you will incite a furor. Very fragile trails are wide open to horses and ruts, flies, manure and dangerous footing are the result. At one shelter, Laurel Gap, irresponsible equestrians tied their animals to the newly renovated shelter (renovated by volunteers and volunteer money, I should add) and allowed the shelter to be used as a barn during rain and the result was urine and feces that made the place uninhabitable for months, not to mention the physical damage to the structure as a result of these morons tying their stock to the building. This is but a slice of the thousands of similar stories any hiker can tell. Of all the stimulus funds conferred to the Smokies by Obama (4 times their annual budget, almost 80 million dollars) only half a million went to trails and guess what percentage of that was to fix horse damaged trails? Yep, you got it, all of it.

But backpackers are the ones who get to pay fees in the Smokies and horses pay nothing unless they overnight, which most don't. Does that seem fair? Of course it isn't. But "fair" isn't part of the NPS playbook.


Here's a link to an article in today's Salt Lake Tribune regarding ATV use in southern Utah. Another solid argument for allowing states to control public lands?

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57827295-78/blm-canyon-lyman-motorized...


"Lyman claims the damage [to artifacts] is not even visible." Oh, man.


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