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Bill would transfer some fed lands to state

Rep. Mark Amodei says he expects a hearing in the U.S. House this year on his bill to transfer a handful of federal land in Nevada to the state.

But to hear those on the eco-left describe it, you’d think Rep. Amodei had proposed turning over Great Basin National Park and the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area to the Koch brothers and Donald Trump.

In fact, the folks at the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada really hate the idea. Not only is the proposal “bad for ordinary Nevadans,” PLAN director Bob Fulkerson huffed, it’s also “a gift-wrapped package to private developers and other wealthy interests yearning to make a quick buck by closing off our lands.”

Oh, my!

In once sentence, Mr. Fulkerson deftly worked in a trio of collectivist bugaboos that serve as a dog whistle to the like-minded. Translation: “private developers” (read: evil capitalists), “wealthy interests” (read: the dreaded 1 percent) and “quick buck” (read: the amoral profit motive).

Despite the hyperventilating, Rep. Amodei’s plan makes eminent sense. A great majority of the 7 million acres targeted in the legislation consists of either checkerboard real estate — a hodgepodge of private and public land — across the Interstate 80 corridor in Northern Nevada or property the federal government already seeks to dump. There’s nothing “environmentally sensitive” involved.

It’s especially amusing that Mr. Fulkerson expresses concern for private owners “closing off our lands.” Washington currently lays claim to about 85 percent of Nevada’s 70 million acres, which are subject to dozens of federal designations, all of which — in one way or another — restrict use. Nevadans worried about limited access to the state’s great outback should point a finger toward the D.C. beltway.

Nevada lawmakers have already approved a joint resolution urging the federal government to release more land to the state. Gov. Brian Sandoval supports such transfers as a means to kick-start rural economic development. Officials in several other Western states in which the federal government manages significant acreage have mounted similar campaigns to gain more local authority over land-use decisions.

This is not some radical proposal cooked up in a survivalist bunker by Cliven Bundy sympathizers.

In fact, this debate has nothing to do with national parks, recreation centers or conservation areas. Instead, it’s about giving Nevadans a bit more control over a slice of the wide swath of land within the state’s borders that is currently under the thumb of the federal bureaucracy.

Rep. Amodei’s bill would leave the federal government in charge of more than 70 percent of Nevada’s acreage, the most of any state in the country. Isn’t that plenty?

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