These are the People Trying to Take Your Public Lands:
There are two camps of people who want to privatize out public lands. First we have the old sagebrush rebels, ultra conservative westerners. Second we have people on the payroll of the Koch brothers and one of their astroturf organizations. Let's keep an eye on these people:
1 The Koch brothers: Charles and David Koch are the primary funders of the public lands privatization movement in the West. They inherited a business empire from their father Fred which they have grown a $115 billion dollar business centered on oil refineries in the Midwest and on the Gulf Coast and on pipelines and tar sands in Alberta Canada among other things. They also own Boise Cascade lumber and Brawney paper towels among other brands.
They fund several anti government organizations such as the American Lands Council and Federalism in Action which are funded by Koch Industries. Their largest project that they help fund is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which write far right legislation to be introduced into state legislatures. This a a vehemently anti federal organization that is powerful and operates mostly under the radar. The Koch brothers have other interests in the land seizure movment as well.
2 Congressman Bob Bishop (R) of Utah is the outspoken leader of the federal land seizure movement. As Chairman of the House Natural Resource Committe, he is working hard to privatize public lands including national parks and monuments. He openly advocates "transferring" federal lands to the states, whether states can afford to manage these lands or not. He has attacked the Land and Water Conservation Fund which uses taxes on the oil industry to fund local and federal public land purchases for recreation. He is also working on repealing the Antiquities Act which protects archaeological sites on federal lands and allows all presidents to designate national monuments. Nonsensically, Bishop says public lands should be returned to their "rightful owners", the American people. Yet the American people already own these lands. (He means these lands should be owned by industry and "local" people.) BIshop has fought efforts to protect Cedar Mesa in Utah and has promoted oil and mining in Utah. Ironically, Utah earns far more from tourism to its national parks and public lands than it does from cattle, mining, oil and gas and other extractive industries.
3 Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R) of Utah is another champion of federal land disposal. Along with Bob Bishop he has introduced bills in the House to cut the budgets for federal land agencies and to abolish the law enforcement braches of federal land agencies despite the fact that vandalism is rampant and armed takeovers by militia radicals have taken place 5 times on publc lands since 2014. His efforts to remove protection of public lands is consistent with his push to remove conservation regulations and allow locals to do as they like on public land.
4 Ken Ivory is a leader of the American Lands Council and has been pushing Utah to pass legislation to sieze federal public lands within the state despite the fact that the Utah Constitution (State Enabling Act Section 3, paragraph 3) clearly states that Utah permanently relinquished all claim to public domain lands in the state in order to join the United States. Ivory has been pushing similar land siezure bills in other western states despite the fact that all western states relinquished all claim to federal public domain in order to join the United States of America. Ivory is in the Utah House from a place called West Jordan. His wife also works for the ALC.
5. Cliven and Aamon Bundy. Cliven Bundy is an elderly rancher from Bunkerville, Nevada who has been grazing his cattle on public lands managed by the Burea of Land Management and on lands manged by the National Park Service. He has refused to pay grazing fees for more than 20 years to the US Government despite several federal court orders that he do so. He called in far right militia members to threaten BLM law enforcement rangers who came to round up his cattle in 2014. The "standoff" ended with federal agents retreating. Cliven was arrested in Oregon and is being held without bail for his role in inciting violence in the standoff. His son Aamon is a auto parts dealer in Arizona who was acquited for his role in the Malheur National WIldlife Refuge standoff in 2015 when he and other militia members occupied the refuge headquarters and heavily vandalized the USFWS property and prevented employees from working at the refuge for weeks. These men are leaders of the far right anti federal lands movement among militias.
We will be expanding this list as our research continues.
There are two camps of people who want to privatize out public lands. First we have the old sagebrush rebels, ultra conservative westerners. Second we have people on the payroll of the Koch brothers and one of their astroturf organizations. Let's keep an eye on these people:
1 The Koch brothers: Charles and David Koch are the primary funders of the public lands privatization movement in the West. They inherited a business empire from their father Fred which they have grown a $115 billion dollar business centered on oil refineries in the Midwest and on the Gulf Coast and on pipelines and tar sands in Alberta Canada among other things. They also own Boise Cascade lumber and Brawney paper towels among other brands.
They fund several anti government organizations such as the American Lands Council and Federalism in Action which are funded by Koch Industries. Their largest project that they help fund is the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) which write far right legislation to be introduced into state legislatures. This a a vehemently anti federal organization that is powerful and operates mostly under the radar. The Koch brothers have other interests in the land seizure movment as well.
2 Congressman Bob Bishop (R) of Utah is the outspoken leader of the federal land seizure movement. As Chairman of the House Natural Resource Committe, he is working hard to privatize public lands including national parks and monuments. He openly advocates "transferring" federal lands to the states, whether states can afford to manage these lands or not. He has attacked the Land and Water Conservation Fund which uses taxes on the oil industry to fund local and federal public land purchases for recreation. He is also working on repealing the Antiquities Act which protects archaeological sites on federal lands and allows all presidents to designate national monuments. Nonsensically, Bishop says public lands should be returned to their "rightful owners", the American people. Yet the American people already own these lands. (He means these lands should be owned by industry and "local" people.) BIshop has fought efforts to protect Cedar Mesa in Utah and has promoted oil and mining in Utah. Ironically, Utah earns far more from tourism to its national parks and public lands than it does from cattle, mining, oil and gas and other extractive industries.
3 Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R) of Utah is another champion of federal land disposal. Along with Bob Bishop he has introduced bills in the House to cut the budgets for federal land agencies and to abolish the law enforcement braches of federal land agencies despite the fact that vandalism is rampant and armed takeovers by militia radicals have taken place 5 times on publc lands since 2014. His efforts to remove protection of public lands is consistent with his push to remove conservation regulations and allow locals to do as they like on public land.
4 Ken Ivory is a leader of the American Lands Council and has been pushing Utah to pass legislation to sieze federal public lands within the state despite the fact that the Utah Constitution (State Enabling Act Section 3, paragraph 3) clearly states that Utah permanently relinquished all claim to public domain lands in the state in order to join the United States. Ivory has been pushing similar land siezure bills in other western states despite the fact that all western states relinquished all claim to federal public domain in order to join the United States of America. Ivory is in the Utah House from a place called West Jordan. His wife also works for the ALC.
5. Cliven and Aamon Bundy. Cliven Bundy is an elderly rancher from Bunkerville, Nevada who has been grazing his cattle on public lands managed by the Burea of Land Management and on lands manged by the National Park Service. He has refused to pay grazing fees for more than 20 years to the US Government despite several federal court orders that he do so. He called in far right militia members to threaten BLM law enforcement rangers who came to round up his cattle in 2014. The "standoff" ended with federal agents retreating. Cliven was arrested in Oregon and is being held without bail for his role in inciting violence in the standoff. His son Aamon is a auto parts dealer in Arizona who was acquited for his role in the Malheur National WIldlife Refuge standoff in 2015 when he and other militia members occupied the refuge headquarters and heavily vandalized the USFWS property and prevented employees from working at the refuge for weeks. These men are leaders of the far right anti federal lands movement among militias.
We will be expanding this list as our research continues.