Today, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation held an oversight hearing entitled “Threats, Intimidation and Bullying by Federal Land Managing Agencies.”  The hearing examined the ongoing and abusive conduct by federal land management agencies against private property rights. 

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U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (NGP Photo), Ron Wyden (NGP Photo), Mark Udall (D-Colo.), Dean Heller Ron Wyden, Lisa Murkowski, critical minerals policy act of 2013, wyden, U S Senate, Photo by Dave Harbour(R-Nev.), and 13 of their Lisa Murkowski, critical minerals policy act of 2013, wyden, U S Senate, Photo by Dave HarbourSenate colleagues today introduced legislation to prevent future supply shocks of critical minerals needed for the defense, energy, electronics, and medical industries.  The Critical Minerals Policy Act of 2013 would revitalize the United States’ critical minerals supply chain and help reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign suppliers. It directs the Secretary of the Interior to establish a list of minerals critical to the American economy and provides a comprehensive set of policies to address issues associated with their discovery, production, use, and re-use.  Murkowski: “Minerals affect our daily lives, our standard of living, and our ability to prosper, yet the United States lacks clear policies to ensure an affordable and abundant domestic supply. This is one of our greatest needs, and it’s going unmet. Our bipartisan bill will help solve that problem by providing clear direction to keep the United States competitive and begin the process of modernizing our federal mineral policies. While it took time to develop a bill we could all agree on, we have done just that – and the result will be more opportunities for domestic jobs, technological innovation, increased national security, and greater competitiveness.”

Witnesses who testified before the Subcommittee shared their personal experiences of abusive conduct by federal land management agencies and offered solutions on how to stop this behavior.

 

Lorenzo Valdez, who is a cattle rancher from Rio Arriba County in New Mexico, told the Subcommittee that he and other ranchers were denied grazing permits because they spoke out publically against the U.S. Forest Service’s actions to “destabilize and degrade” private property rights.  Valdez said, “The Forest Service has made it nearly impossible for these ranchers to sustain their grazing permits which results not only in a loss of their private property but in the slow destruction of their cultural fabric.”

 

In 1984, Tim Lowry bought a cattle ranch in Oregon’s North Fork Wilderness Study Area (WSA) only to find out that just months after his purchase, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was planning to drastically cut the grazing allotment on Lowry’s land.  Lowry proactively reached out to the BLM because he was “confident that working together we could solve any issues relating to grazing in the WSA.  I was wrong.”  Lowry added, “If family ranches are to remain intact, a functioning un-fragmented landscape maintained, the economy Owyhee County protected, and access for recreationists preserved, then this broken, dysfunctional land management must be fixed.”

 

Brenda Richards, Idaho rancher and Owyhee County Treasurer, shared one specific example of misconduct by federal land management agencies when it came to the Gateway West Power Transmission Line.  “Early on in this process these lines were to come across the public land, leaving as much private ground as possible” because private land is scarce in this area.  This decision was made with input from all stakeholders involved – the power company, recreational groups, county groups, county elected officials, and surrounding residents.  Unfortunately, one person in the BLM’s Washington office negated all the input, time, and money spent on arriving at a decision that was satisfactory to everyone involved. “The player in this game that we have found out to be playing by their own set of rules – and truly that is a form of bullying when you are aware you can get away with it – is the Bureau of Land Management,” said Richards.

 

Frank Robbins, a Wyoming Rancher who exercised his right to decline demands from the BLM for an uncompensated right-of-way across his private land, shared his experiences when the BLM began “engaging in a pattern of intentionally abusive conduct to coerce me to grant my property rights to BLM and punish me for not immediately capitulating to the BLM’s demands.”  Robbins called for a solution to stop this behavior by federal land management agency employees. “Win or lose, should private individuals and businesses have the chance to prove that that have been harassed, punished, and bullied by federal bureaucrats, there needs to be more accountability of federal employees and opening the courthouse door is one way to provide for that accountability.”

 

Nevada Rancher Wayne Hage, Jr. noted that since 1978 he has experienced a “disregard for my family’s property rights” by federal land management agencies and that these agencies “have punished us for making an honest use and assertion of these rights.”  For the past 23 years, Hage and his family have been in court protecting these property rights from the federal government.  From his experiences in dealing with “threats, intimidation, and bullying” by the federal government, Hage called for “harsh penalties to be placed upon employees who break the law and violate a person’s rights” and an “easier way to hold them accountable.”