Interior Dept. faces resistance in push for more public lands

[CG6468]

McClatchy Washington Bureau

Posted on Wed, Feb. 15, 2012

Interior Dept. faces resistance in push for more public lands

Rob Hotakainen | McClatchy Newspapers

last updated: February 16, 2012 07:49:00 AM

WASHINGTON — It's cost $15 to shoot a duck since 1991, but that will change if President Barack Obama gets his way. Under the president's new budget proposal, the cost of the federal duck stamp required for hunting would rise to $25 next year, a move aimed at making it easier for the Interior Department to buy more land for migratory waterfowl.

It's just a small example of how the Interior Department wants to get both larger and leaner in the coming year, relying more on fees and less on tax dollars.

Seeking a budget of $11.5 billion, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has big plans. He wants to make the U.S. the world's top tourist destination and to get more visitors into the national parks. Appearing before a House of Representatives committee Wednesday, Salazar called the parks "the envy of the world."

The department, which already controls 20 percent of the nation's public lands, is proposing to use $212 million in public funds to buy land for more parks and wildlife refuges, including multiple sites to commemorate the Civil War.

In addition, the department wants to buy more land with $450 million from the nation's Land and Water Conservation Fund, a 30 percent increase from this year's purchases. It's a separate fund that doesn't rely on tax dollars, instead using royalties from oil and gas drilling.

In Washington state, for example, the Interior Department wants to use $1 million from the special fund to acquire 226 acres to expand Mount Rainier National Park, and another $1 million to pay for a 201-acre expansion of the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. Supporters of the Rainier expansion project say it would allow the National Park Service to protect the wild Carbon River — a habitat for salmon and steelhead — and give the public more recreational opportunities. Nisqually provides a habitat for waterfowl, songbirds, raptors and wading birds.

Since the conservation fund was created in 1965, it's helped protect many Washington state icons, including Mount Rainier, Olympic and North Cascades national parks, the Pacific Crest Trail and the Turnbull National Wildlife Refuge.

The expansion plans could pose a big challenge for the National Park Service, which runs 397 parks in 49 states but would lose 218 employees under the new budget. Like most other federal workers, the remaining 25,000-plus employees would get pay raises of 0.5 percent next year, coming on the heels of a salary freeze this year.

It also could be a heavy lift for Congress.

Critics, including Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, contend that the federal government already has too much property to maintain.

Is your back yard next in line for a takeover?

[Rugnuts]

well i do have issues with eminent domain here but i actually encourage more fee based funding instead of general taxation.

inefficient bureaucracy is still the main problem. so i am not saying the fee increase is justified. they could do alot more with less funding if it want the Federal govt.

[NHSparky]

Fee based funding?  AYFKM?  More like rape.  For instance a RESIDENT freshwater fishing license here costs $35.  Seriously?

[Rugnuts]

Fee based funding?  AYFKM?  More like rape.  For instance a RESIDENT freshwater fishing license here costs $35.  Seriously?

it costs that because of the bureaucracy in charge of running it. dont like the fee, dont get a licence. if everyone stops getting licenses then your states DNR will wonder why. if they want to fix the problem, they will have to lower fees. MN did it with the whitetail licensing system.

its not rape when you volunteer to participate. now if it was mandated that every citizen obtain a fishing license or face fines, then thats rape.

once again i am not justifying the amount, just the method. pay to play.
if i had it my way, there would not be licensing at all.                   

[Rugnuts]

Fee based funding?  AYFKM?  More like rape.  For instance a RESIDENT freshwater fishing license here costs $35.  Seriously?

it costs that because of the bureaucracy in charge of running it. dont like the fee, dont get a licence. if everyone stops getting licenses then your states DNR will wonder why. if they want to fix the problem, they will have to lower fees. MN did it with the whitetail licensing system.

its not rape when you volunteer to participate. now if it was mandated that every citizen obtain a fishing license or face fines, then thats rape.

once again i am not justifying the amount, just the method. pay to play.
if i had it my way, there would not be licensing at all.                   

[Rebel]

well i do have issues with eminent domain here but i actually encourage more fee based funding instead of general taxation.

inefficient bureaucracy is still the main problem. so i am not saying the fee increase is justified. they could do alot more with less funding if it want the Federal govt.

How about just stop taking so much private land?

[JohnnyReb]

Fee based funding?  AYFKM?  More like rape.  For instance a RESIDENT freshwater fishing license here costs $35.  Seriously?

For years in SC you didn't need a license to fish in your own pond/lake and the ocean....now you do....IN YOUR OWN DAMN POND!

[Rebel]

For years in SC you didn't need a license to fish in your own pond/lake and the ocean....now you do....IN YOUR OWN DAMN POND!

Thinking about joining a hunting club across the river in Edgefield County. How much are your hunting licenses? I haven't looked them up yet.

...but to need a license in your own pond? Is BULLSHIT. You've already PAID for the starter fish. That's like having to pay the state to butcher your own cow. We don't need them on your own pond here in Georgia.

[JohnnyReb]

Thinking about joining a hunting club across the river in Edgefield County. How much are your hunting licenses? I haven't looked them up yet.

...but to need a license in your own pond? Is BULLSHIT. You've already PAID for the starter fish. That's like having to pay the state to butcher your own cow. We don't need them on your own pond here in Georgia.

That would be an out of state license and I have no idea what that would cost you.

I'm past 65 so hunting/fishing license is free to me...but still, IN YOUR OWN POND.

[Crazy Horse]

For years in SC you didn't need a license to fish in your own pond/lake and the ocean....now you do....IN YOUR OWN DAMN POND!

You've had to pay for the ocean for a long time.  They need that money to keep restocking the drum that are being overfished.  Pond is bullshit.

The duck stamp going to $25 is bullshit also, but this is encouraged by Ducks Unlimited.  The problem I see with this and it's stated in the article is that they will make more refuges.......AYFKM!!!!!  They already make all the damn birds stay in their protected refuges by buying the farm land around them and cutting the crops row by frickin row during the season ensuring that they will never visit the places open to public hunting.

[Rugnuts]

How about just stop taking so much private land?

yes, unless it was for sale or offered to the govt to begin with.
duck nests are not what eminent domain was designed for.

plus the sheer numbers of acres owned by the fed govt is ridiculous. they need to start liquidating.

[Chris_]

You need a license to hunt on your own land in TN as well unless you own 10 or more acres.

[Rugnuts]

you need a license to do anything anywhere in MN.
there are some free license situations, but you still have to obtain the license first.

[Eupher]

If Barry wins reelection, we'll all have to get a federal license for the privilege of breathing.

[Ptarmigan]

The government should sell land.

[Lacarnut]

The government should sell land.

True. They own a great deal of the land west of the MS River. This Interior Sect. is not fooling anyone. He wants to purchase more land so that there will be no exploration of natural resources like oil, natural gas, coal, etc. along with timber cutting. Like he could give a shit about duck hunting properties. Sect. Salazar is a lying POS.  

[JohnnyReb]

Y'all can have my share of the "Duck Stamps"...just call me when they issue "DUmmie Stamps".

[Ptarmigan]

True. They own a great deal of the land west of the MS River. This Interior Sect. is not fooling anyone. He wants to purchase more land so that there will be no exploration of natural resources like oil, natural gas, coal, etc. along with timber cutting. Like he could give a shit about duck hunting properties. Sect. Salazar is a lying POS.  

Government owning land is getting costly and burdensome. They should make cuts right there.