I love the West. It has always been my home. I have farmed, travelled, explored, studied, and lived in the "West". In fact I continue to do all these things. Over the past several weeks I have read a number of editorials, "news" articles, blogs, and social media posts about the situation/takeover/standoff at Malheur Wildlife Refuge in rural eastern Oregon. In my opinion and as a citizen and taxpayer there is an important fact that is generally left out of the discussion and/or commentary regarding these public lands. They are in fact publicly-owned lands. They belong to you, me and every other one of the nearly 320 million United States citizens.
Philosophical arguments may be made regarding methods used when the U.S. government acquired what are now public lands, even though much of the land became property of the U.S Government with the Louisiana Purchase. However, in order to discuss "taking of lands", we would have to look back in history much further than a couple generations, prior to and during the time that white settlers migrated west. At this time I do not intend to debate the governments acquisition of lands, from Tribal Nations, individuals, or other governments whether it be foreign, city, state, or county.
For those that are unaware, most federally-owned lands are managed for multiple, often competing and/or conflicting uses. These uses include recreation, grazing,oil and/or gas, mining, forestry, wildlife and endangered specie protection, cultural resource protection just to name a few. Various groups compete for their own needs and uses of public lands while land managers weigh the need and wants of public and private interests, analyze data collected on the resource and determine the best methods to manage the land for us, the citizenry, the owners of the land. No one has or should have exclusive use of the National parks, forests, lakes and reservoirs, deserts, or rivers which are entrusted to the Federal agencies by the landowners, the public.
Some would say that the lands would be better off being managed by someone other than the government. I for one do not want our resources managed by the people who profit from them. Imagine if you will, oil or mining companies making the rules on the extraction of oil, gas, or coal from our lands. Now, I am not implying that farmers and ranchers or others are not good stewards of the land. When you make your living from the land you learn what works and what does not, as well as how to care for the land for generations to come. However, there are competing uses that must be taken into account and ranchers, farmers, fisherman, or others do not have exclusive use of the land. Additionally, laws, policies, and rules govern the use of and how lands and resources are to be managed. Again, individuals or corporations are not as likely to take the landowners (us) best interest into account in following laws, and carrying out policies and rules. Likewise there are particular tasks that are inherently governmental, managing government assets is one such task.
Like it or not, we are a nation of laws and if a person does not like the law, rule, or policy, there are avenues to prompt change. There are public participation processes followed when government agencies begin rule making, develop short or long term management plans, or conduct business that will affect people and the environment. Public meetings, comment periods and such are usually widely advertised through press releases, open letters, signage,and through the agencies website. The problem with public meetings and obtaining comments on any action is that the public simply does not participate. Apathy is rampant in the United States today. People would rather sit comfortably and watch television than to educate themselves and participate in the process of planning, rule making, policy review, or implementation of such. Anyone who organizes public meetings, comment periods, or methods to engage the public will tell you that public involvement on the majority of issues is near non-existent. The easy way out is to wait, see if the rule, policy, project, or plan affects your life. If the result affects someone in a real or perceived negative way, they react and begin throwing rocks. Possibly the outcome may have been different had they participated and made their concerns known. It is easy to be cynical and believe their views do not matter and the government will do what they want anyway. The government will have no choice but to determine how things are done if no one participates and helps shape the outcome. Watershed, rangeland, comprehensive land-use, resource management, are examples of plans in which public participation is a key component.
In the words of Woody Guthrie, "This land is your land, This land is my land". Take note, educate, participate.
