Plan To Sell Federal Land
Opposed By Usual Suspects

WASHINGTON —(AP)— In many Western states, Uncle Sam is the biggest landlord. Legislation moving through Congress aims to reduce those holdings by putting an estimated $350 million in federal acreage on the auction block.

But the plan is drawing protests from environmental activists and Clinton administration officials, state land managers, and even from some ranchers whose property adjoins the land.

The proposed land sale sounded simple when Sen. Pete Domenici, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, got enough votes to write it into the government's five-year spending blueprint.

The plan, which has been approved by the Senate and awaits House action, calls for $350 million in sales over five years to be used as an incentive to get landowners to protect endangered species.

"How could anyone argue against the notion that the federal government ought to get rid of excess land it owns?" asked Domenici, R-N.M. In New Mexico alone, he noted, the federal Bureau of Land Management has 850,000 acres it considers surplus.

No one is certain how much surplus land the government holds as part of its more than 500 million acres of rangeland, forests, wilderness and parks. BLM sells 2000 to 5000 acres a year for about $500 an acre.

The budget provision would be contingent on a revamping of the Endangered Species Act — separate legislation which now is in limbo. Nevertheless, even the possibility of a sale has some people worried.

"If the proposal became law we would have to sell a million acres, and that's an extraordinary fire sale," Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt told a conference of state land commissioners recently. "It's not a good idea."

The next day, the 23-member Western States Land Commissioners Association passed a resolution condemning Domenici's proposal. It said such an abrupt sale would ruin federal-state land exchanges, lead to a loss of wildlife habitat and recreation areas and probably depress land prices.

"It would destroy our ability to trade (state for federal) land," said Ray Powell, the association's president and New Mexico state land commissioner.

Powell, a Democrat, and Domenici have sparred over the issue in New Mexico. In a newspaper commentary, Powell said the plan would hurt the state's ranchers and jeopardize funds for school children.

Dominici called that contention "preposterous," arguing that the federal government has plenty of land it does not use or want.

"Why let this surplus land be unused and untaxed, when we could sell it and use the proceeds for an important national environmental policy?" he said.

But environmental activists contend the budget requirements under the endangered species incentive would likely grow in coming years and force the government to sell even more land.

"The idea of creating a program to be funded by the sale of capital assets that are our legacy to the future is just ludicrous," said Rodger Schlicheisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife.

Some ranchers oppose the proposed land sale, too, Powell said. Much of the federal and private land in the West is intertwined like a checkerboard, and some of the land that would be sold now is used by surrounding ranchers for grazing.

But nowhere has Domenici's proposal gotten a colder shoulder than in Nevada, where federal land managed by the BLM abuts Las Vegas, the nation's fastest growing urban area. It is some of the most valuable acreage the Interior Department controls.

"It would be a prime target to generate this kind of revenue," said Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev. He envisioned an "environmental disaster" with federal land sold to the highest bidder to get enough money to meet the budget target.

At the same time, Bryan and Nevada's other senator, Democrat Harry Reid, are sponsoring legislation that would require the BLM to sell 27,000 acres of federal land near Las Vegas. In return, however, the federal government would obtain an equally valued amount of land in the Lake Tahoe area. In addition, none of the proceeds from the land exchange would leave the state.

Under Domenici's plan, if federal land near Las Vegas were sold, the money likely would be used elsewhere to encourage landowners to protect endangered species. Reid is a co-sponsor of the bill that would revamp the Endangered Species Act, but he said the measure is dead if Domenici's land sale proposal is enacted.

As for selling that much land in a short time, Interior officials doubt it is even possible. "A substantial portion of it would be very difficult to move," said Tom Fry, BLM deputy director.