Feds Rebuff Activists’ Public Land Claims Legal Tussles Become Latest Chapter In Sagebrush Rebellion Ii

The battle cry of rural Western land rights activists intent on wresting public lands from the federal government is falling on deaf ears.

The movement - frequently referred to as Sagebrush Rebellion II or county supremacy has led to local resolutions and ordinances that seek to claim public land or at least allow for more local voice in how the land is managed.

But Interior Department Deputy Secretary John Garamendi says Westerners will not succeed.

“We’re not in the business of negotiating the transfer of these state and federal lands based upon those resolutions,” Garamendi said. “It’s not our place to give it away, nor is it our place to stand by and let the individual county or state take that interest away from the American people.”

The one-time cattle rancher from Calaveras County, Calif., has seen the public land movement sweep his home county. Calaveras County leaders adopted an ordinance in August that demands more local input in federal regulations.

Nye County, Nev., is considered a leader in the movement and is battling the U.S. government in federal court here over who has the right to manage about 10 million acres in southern Nevada. Both sides still are waiting for a decision in the lawsuit.

The civil action was brought by the U.S. Justice Department after Nye County Commissioner Dick Carver bulldozed a portion of national forest land in July 1994. The event followed two 1993 resolutions claiming the right to manage public land and all roads within county borders.

The Justice Department, in a statement issued on Wednesday, claimed its position was upheld last week by U.S. District Judge David Hagen in Nevada when he ordered an Elko rancher to move his cattle off National Forest Service lands the rancher claimed were actually owned by the state.

Garamendi contends the owner or manager of public land is burdened with hidden costs, and if counties realized that, “I think it’s a gift that they would not want.”

Although Garamendi emphasized that the federal government was going to hold tight to its property title, he said it would part with “limited areas” of land.

Clark County land under the Bureau of Land Management fits that category, said Garamendi, who was appointed deputy secretary in August. In the past year, BLM land in Clark County has been swapped for prized pieces of property near Lake Tahoe and elsewhere.

Federal officials also have indicated that they are receptive to a land swap with Nye County.

Congressional leaders have directed the county to ask for land as compensation should Nevada get an interim nuclear waste storage site at the Nevada Test Site, County Manager William Offutt said. During testimony before a House subcommittee Monday, Nye County leaders asked for 1,200 acres for an industrial park and landfills.

Garamendi said he is receptive to the idea, although he said the Interior Department is not negotiating such a swap.