Don’t let Congress sell off our public lands

I f you hunt and fish in Idaho and Washington, go right now to your computer and call up the Web sites for your members of the House of Representatives.

Go ahead. I’ll wait. But we don’t have much time.

OK, go to the contact page for your representative, fill out the contact form, and in the little box where you type your message, write the following: “Please don’t let Richard Pombo sell my favorite places to hunt and fish.”

Then type, “In the name of all that is holy, please vote ‘no’ on HR 4241.”

Why?

Rep. Pombo, R-Calif., has inserted a provision into the bill now known as the House Reconciliation Bill – it’s legislation that is meant to reduce our country’s swelling budget deficit. Included in it are some very valuable provisions, including methods the government is considering to pay for victims of the recent spate of natural disasters.

But Pombo’s provision is a tricky little rider that essentially allows mineral extraction interests to purchase public land now in the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management systems for as little as $1,000 an acre. After mining or drilling the land, the company that bought it is free to turn around and sell it.

Imagine a “posted” sign in the middle of your favorite hunting unit, or, God forbid, a condo overlooking your favorite little trout stream in what was once accessible national forest land.

Seem unlikely? It’s entirely possible. The section in the bill allows the Secretary of the Interior to “make mineral deposits and the lands that contain them, including lands in which the valuable mineral deposit has been depleted, available for purchase to facilitate sustainable economic development.”

In Idaho and Washington, the pursuits we undertake on public lands – hunting, fishing, riding, hiking, camping – are sustainable economic development. With our license fees, the gas we buy at the pump, the equipment we purchase, the meals we eat, rooms we rent and vehicles we drive, we provide a sustainable, long-term, renewable economic injection every single year. And most of us, at one time or another, hunt and fish on public lands. In fact, our region’s best asset consists of its vast tracts of unspoiled public property presently under ownership by the U.S. Forest Service and the BLM.

For Pombo to slide such an egregious section into a bill aimed at helping our country pay down a deficit is short-sighted, offensive and selfish.

Unfortunately, because the bill is due for a vote this week, there isn’t much time. If you have the means, please call Reps. Inslee, Larsen, Baird, Hastings, Nethercutt, Dicks, McDermott, Dunn and Smith – and Simpson and Otter in Idaho – and ask them to vote against this public lands fire sale.

As sportsmen and women in Washington and Idaho, our public lands are invaluable, and they’re not for sale for “$1,000 per acre, or fair market value, whichever is greater.” We use these lands for so many pursuits – hunting and fishing among them – that it would be impossible to attach a “fair market value” price tag to them.

Allowing mining leases has been the government’s practice for over 130 years. The 1872 Mining Act is one of our government’s longest-standing pieces of legislation. If we’re going to change that act, it ought to change for the better. Allowing a private interest to buy public land that has immeasurable value for the rest of us is unacceptable.