HOME PAGE
|
Sunday, February 07, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Administration seeks change in lands policy
By Clyde Weiss
Donrey Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration plans to ask Congress this year for authority to sell excess public lands in the West and to steer the profits into resource protection, building on an initiative established through law last year for Southern Nevada.
If approved by Congress, the plan would constitute a major change in federal lands policy.
The Bureau of Land Management currently sells off only a small fraction of what it disposes each year from its inventory of 264 million acres. BLM typically negotiates land swaps to get rid of low priority holdings.
Additionally, profits from land sales now go into the federal Treasury -- not necessarily into preservation.
The proposal was tucked deep within budget documents released last week. Congressional officials and interest groups said they were not aware of it. The administration has yet to present lawmakers with draft legislation.
BLM spokesman Larry Finfer said the plan could be modeled on a law passed by Congress last year requiring the land agency to hold auctions to dispose of up to 20,000 acres of land in Clark County.
Money raised from such sales will be directed toward local education programs, water treatment plants and pipelines in Southern Nevada and for purchases of other environmentally sensitive lands in the state.
Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., who sponsored the legislation, said the proposal has merit as long as it follows the model of the Southern Nevada bill, which ensures revenue from sales stay in the state.
"You don't want a situation where the federal government unilaterally comes in, disposes of property that is contrary to a master plan that's been developed by local and state governments" and spends the money to acquire land in another state, he said.
"We have been victimized by that interstate lands process in the past," he noted.
The administration's proposal also "should require a concurrence of local governments, so that they have a strong voice in the disposal process," Bryan said.
In this week's budget, the administration disclosed it "will propose new authority to conduct sales of lands that have been classified as suitable for disposal under current resource management plans."
Sales proceeds "may be used to acquire nonfederal lands with significant resource values," the administration added. No other details were given.
While the plan specifically mentions BLM land transactions, the administration also said it would direct the Forest Service to study land sales and make recommendations how to "avoid potential land sale abuses."
Alleged abuses involving federal land transactions have plagued both agencies in recent years. For instance, a July 1996 report of the Inspector General's office found the BLM office in Nevada might have lost $4.4 million through land exchanges that included property in the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
Auditors concluded the BLM "did not ... ensure that fair and equal value was received."
Jim Lyons, undersecretary for natural resources and the environment in the Department of Agriculture, which administers the Forest Service, said the proposed sales initiative would not necessarily solve all abuses.
"This (proposal) simply would provide an additional source of revenue for land acquisition," he said. Abuses, mostly involving disputes over appraisals, could happen in land sales as well as swaps. But he said sales could make such abuses less likely.
"When you find a willing seller, you reach an agreement on the price based on appraisals on the market," Lyons said. "That's the simplest transaction we can implement."
Land exchanges are time-consuming and more costly, he said.
Also, in a fast-growing area like Las Vegas, an appraisal done today "could be off in six months."
Finfer said the agency will not abandon land trades altogether. "Exchanges will always be the preferred method of land transactions," he said. "But there are a number of instances in which sales may be useful, particularly where property values are escalating rapidly."
E-mail this story to a friend:
Give us your FEEDBACK on this or any story.
Vote for the 1999 BEST OF LAS VEGAS
Fill out our Online Readers' Poll
|
Printable version of this story
|
