Brown will support some federal land transfers

Sen. Dee Brown, R-Hungry Horse, says she supports transferring some federal lands to the state.

“I think we should prioritize some lands transfers in Montana,” she said last week. “As far as selling them off, it shouldn’t be in the conversation.”

Brown said federal timberlands in the western half of the state likely have greater value than federal grasslands on the east side, and state management of those timberlands could benefit the state school trust. The state could do a better of job of managing such lands, she said, but the state needs to prioritize which lands would be best suited for the school trust.

The idea of transferring federal lands to state control has gained some traction in recent years as states are increasingly frustrated by the way the federal agencies manage public land, particularly timber management.

Opponents call the idea a thinly-disguised land grab. Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, a nonpartisan sportsmen’s group, says hunters and anglers rely on public land for recreation and their livelihoods.

Montana received $25.4 million from the federal government as payments in lieu of taxes in 2014, and the federal government spent $103 million in firefighting costs alone in 2012, the group said in a recent report

The report found that 81 percent of all hunters used public land and spend $983 million annually. In 2014, about 335,000 hunters and anglers used public land.

The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation also opposes transferring federal lands to the states.

“Federal public lands are vitally important habitat for elk and many other species of wildlife. They are also where we hunt, camp, hike and, in some cases, make our living,” RMEF president and CEO David Allen wrote to members of Congress. “The notion of transferring ownership of lands currently overseen by the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management or any other federal land manager to states, or worse yet to private interests, is not a solution to federal land management issues, and we are opposed to this idea.”

Aside from the fiscal issues is the concern that states will sell federal land once they discover they can’t afford to manage the land.

Sen. Jennifer Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, last week introduced Senate Bill 215 which is meant to address that issue. That bill would prohibit the sale of any land that was transferred from the federal government to the state.

Conservation groups still weren’t impressed. They held a rally against land transfers at the capitol in Helena on Feb. 16.