News Releases
NEWS RELEASE
USDA Forest Service
Washington, D.C.
FS-0012
Contact: Joe Walsh 202-205-1134
FOREST SERVICE, NATIONAL ASSOCIATIONS RENEW COMMITMENT
WASHINGTON, April 11, 2000 - The USDA Forest Service will sign an agreement today with two national associations of state land commissioners, renewing their commitment to work together to maintain and strengthen the management of public lands and resources in the United States.
The original agreement, signed in 1995, was the first agreement the Eastern Lands and Resources Council (ELRC) and Western States Land Commissioners Association (WSLCA) signed with a federal agency. The renewal signed today continues federal and state cooperation on efforts that benefit public lands and resources. Cooperative projects include land exchanges, land management planning, forestry assistance to state and private landowners and forest health issues. There are several additional elements in this agreement including cooperation on invasive species, pest control, fire management, and inventories of threatened and endangered species.
"This agreement reaffirms the Forest Service's commitment to building strong government to-government relationships at national, state and local levels," said Phil Janik, Chief Operating Officer of the Forest Service. "This agreement serves as the vehicle to improve communication between the Forest Service and the state land managers in 38 states and to reach out through the land commissioners to other organizations and involve them in our efforts to improve forest management nationwide," he continued.
The agreement will be signed at a luncheon here at noon at the joint, four-day spring conference at the Radisson Barcelo Hotel.
The ELRC is an organization that provides public land professionals in the eastern United States a forum for enhancing land stewardship and conservation. The ELRC fosters communication, strengthens professional development, and promotes sound policies and practices among those involved in the management and administration of public lands, records and natural resources.
"I am pleased with the renewal of this agreement as it continues a framework for the cooperative management of public lands between the Forest Service and the ELRC member states and the citizens we represent," said Jim Lawler, president of the ELRC. "This agreement will also be a good working document since it was created out of a desire to make improvements and to be proactive instead of reactive with each other's public land management decisions," said Lawler.
Land commissioners from 23 states make up the WSLCA. Together they manage more than 390 million acres of state subsurface and surface land throughout the West. The objectives of WSLCA are to maximize and preserve the assets of the member states' educational trusts and encourage their prudent administration; to collect and evaluate information regarding public land, water, and resource management policies; to develop prudent public land and water management policies; and to provide information, education, and assistance to the member states and interested parties.
"Even though state trust land and federal land managers have different mandates and objectives in managing the natural resources entrusted to us, we cannot manage those resources in a vacuum," said Jeff Hagener, president of WSLCA. "The nature of state and federal lands being intermingled throughout the west demands that resource managers recognize each others objectives and work collaboratively to minimize conflict. This agreement is a major step in bringing about that critical interagency cooperation," said Hagener.
The Forest Service manages the nation's 192 million acres of National Forest System lands, provides a world-class natural resource research program, and provides management assistance to state foresters and private landowners who manage an additional 490 million acres of state and private forests.
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Archive - News Releases
Thursday, May 07, 1998
LAND COMMISSIONERS OPPOSE WHOLESALE BLM LAND SALES; URGE RESTRAINT IN FOREST ROAD DEVELOPMENT
The Western States Land Commissioners Association has adopted resolutions urging its members to oppose the wholesale land sales by the Bureau of Land Management and to support a fiscally and environmentally sound road-building program in the national forests.
The resolutions were adopted at the "Building Partnerships" conference, WSLCA's annual joint meeting with the Eastern Lands and Resources Council in Washington D.C. The conference was highlighted by appearances by Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, BLM Director Pat Shea, Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck, and U.S. Senator Dale Bumpers of Arkansas.
The meeting was the first that included a joint session of the WSLCA, the ELRC and the Bureau of Land Management's Executive Leadership Team, which includes all of the agency's state directors and senior staff. A major focus of the agenda was land exchanges and other successful cooperative projects between the state and federal land agencies.
"We have developed a productive and respectful relationship with these federal agencies. They are extremely important to our success as state trust land managers," said Ray Powell, New Mexico's Commissioner of Public Lands and president of the WSLCA.
"The state and federal agencies are uniquely positioned to maximize conservation, resource use and overall benefits to the public by working together," Powell said. "This meeting was a continuation of our effort to achieve common understandings about public land management in the West."
The two resolutions were adopted at the closing sessions of the conference. Both relate to ongoing issues being addressed by Congress and the Clinton administration land agencies.
The BLM land sales resolution resulted from a Senate Budget Resolution provision that would require the BLM to sell up to six million acres of land - an area the size of New Hampshire - to subsidize private landowners for endangered species habitat conservation.
According to the resolution, the proposal would interfere with an ongoing initiative between the WSLCA and the BLM to develop a strategic, national, land exchange priority list and to dedicate effort and resources toward accomplishing those exchanges.
"State-federal land exchanges offer the best possible opportunity to rationalize land ownership and management in the West," said Powell. The resolution highlights several concerns with the proposal, including the sale of capital assets to finance ongoing operations or deficit reduction.
"It is unwise public policy and unwise business practice to sell capital assets in a time of record prosperity," Powell said. "Why would we ever consider selling off our remaining natural wild lands? We shouldn't even consider selling them in the worst of times."
"Now is the time to invest and re-invest in the health of America's public lands. We should be striving to leave a more valuable legacy to our grandchildren and their grandchildren," Powell said.
Secretary Babbitt also expressed opposition to the proposal, questioning its economics and land management effects. He said a comprehensive process of state-federal land exchanges holds great promise for allowing the federal government to achieve its conservation, recreation and resource objectives, and at the same time allow the state trust agencies to realize their mandates to generate revenues for public education.
The second resolution urges WSLCA land agencies to support a U.S. Forest Service policy and budget for road maintenance that meets the service's economic objectives, minimizes ecological impact, maintains access to state trust land inholdings and effectively uses the agencies' financial resources.
The conference featured several presentations on issues pending in the states and in Congress:
- Powell and BLM New Mexico State Director Michelle Chavez discussed the successful exchange of 100,000 acres of federal and state land in Catron and Socorro Counties of New Mexico;
- Citizens' use of the ballot box, through initiative and referendum, to influence natural resources policy. Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Jennifer Belcher discussed a private property "takings" issue in Washington, and Maine Forest Service Director Charles Gadzik discussed competing clearcutting proposals that failed at the ballot box last year.
- Royalty-in-kind proposals under discussion in Congress that would mandate the Minerals Management Service to take its crude oil in-kind and sell it directly, rather than collecting a royalty from private producers. Texas Land Commissioner Garry Mauro said the proposal was an inappropriate attempt by the oil and gas industry to shift more costs onto the government so the industry can make more money. The WSLCA adopted a resolution last January opposing the proposed mandated royalty-in-kind legislation before Congress.
- Shea, Assistant Interior Secretary Bob Armstrong and a number of other Interior officials discussed the agency's agenda and programs, including regional coordination among agencies and a national weed control initiative.
- WSLCA Vice President Robert Hight of California, California BLM State Director Ed Hastey and Colorado BLM State Director Ann Morgan discussed successful state-federal relationships.
- Senator Bumpers, invited by WSLCA executive committee member Commissioner Charlie Daniels of Arkansas, delivered an update on ongoing issues, including the perennial debate over reforming the 1872 Mining Act.
The conference concluded with a meeting of the state-federal task force on land exchanges, which is developing the national priority list for land exchanges, and working to streamline the process for land exchanges between state trust and federal land agencies. That task force, created through the work of South Dakota Commissioner Curt Johnson and Commissioner Belcher, has established a framework for pursuing land exchanges with Interior Department agencies.
The members of the WSLCA administer an estimated 146 million acres of surface land and more than 220 million acres of minerals and 81 million acres of submerged lands. The land and permanent funds, valued at more than $41 billion, distribute nearly $2 billion a year to public education and other beneficiaries in the 23-member states.
For further information, contact: Ed Moreno, New Mexico - (505)827-5765 / 505-466-1183.
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