politically connected mega-devlopers, blocked all public
access to appraisals for the lands involved. Later, after
news stories in Electric Nevada disclosed the officials'
actions, low-level agency personnel acknowledged the
secrecy had violated BLM regulations.
Do these stories reflect a chronic situation
in the federal agencies?
It would not be trivial matter, if so. About
47 percent of the land in the 11 western states is
controlled by either the U.S. Forest Service or the
Bureau of Land Management. In Nevada, only about 13
percent of land within state borders is NOT under federal
control.
That's why that Electric Nevada, after
a year of reporting many of these controversies, decided
to step back and see how the agencies' look to other,
national, observers.
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Specifically, we wanted
to know, how do public policy experts at some of the
nation's major think-tanks view the job the Forest
Service and BLM are doing?
Surprisingly, it appears there's a pretty wide
consensus.
Whether the policy houses lean Democratic or
Republican, and whether they seem oriented to
environmentalist or resource concerns, any of them that
address Western land issues pretty much agree: the
federal land bureaucracies are essentially dinosaurs, not
capable of doing the job they've been assigned.
In this and upcoming issues, we'll report how
the policy analysts at these institutions view the
agencies and what solutions they would offer.
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