Heller Is Right

From the Pahrump Valley Times:
U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., was supportive of a task force commissioned by the Nevada Legislature to study a state takeover of public lands managed by the federal government, during a conference call with rural reporters Wednesday.
Much of the discussion revolved around public lands issues, mainly the closure of 600,000 acres in northeastern Clark County by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for the roundup of cattle they claim rancher Clive Bundy has been illegally grazing and concerns over the possible listing of the sage grouse as an endangered species.
The Nevada Land Management Task Force was set up under Assembly Bill 227 during the 2013 state legislative session to recommend how federal land could be transferred to the state. Ninety-seven percent of Nye County land is under federal management, though the task force has looked at excluding federal installations like the Nellis Air Force Range and the Nevada National Security Site from the transfer.
“I think what’s going on in Mesquite, in Clark County, is a pretty good example of why we might be better off if the state ran this property not the federal government. I think the overreach of the federal government down there is pretty outlandish at this point,” Heller said.
Heller said between federal entities, including the BLM, U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal government owns 87 percent of the land in Nevada.
“If you can bring it down to the state level it will be better managed and if it’s brought down to the local level it will be even better managed,” he said....
Heller said with 87 percent already in federal ownership the federal agencies want 11 million acres for sage grouse habitat. It’s an issue even in Clark County, he said, adding the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce met with him Wednesday morning, one of the first things they asked about was the sage grouse, speculating that’s due to seeing the impacts on development due to the desert tortoise. The mining industry is also getting on board about the sage grouse issue and Heller said his counterpart, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., is also committed to trying to prevent the listing.
“If we don’t do anything there’s probably a 99 percent chance this bird gets listed and that won’t do anything good,” Heller said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week a 60-day extension of the comment period for the proposed listing, which would impact 1.86 million acres along the California-Nevada border. The USFWS hopes to make a final determination on that listing by April 28, 2015.  http://pvtimes.com/news/heller-supports-takeover-public-lands.html?j
The Fed's control way too much land in Nevada and other States, especially in the West.  Those who live in the Easteran half of the country don't understand what is going on because the Fed's control very little land there.
But imagine you live in Vermont and the Fed's come in take the entire control the entire state and they tell Vermont citizens what to do and not do with their land, tear down thousands of homes to protect a bird or turtle or create green space an close down all the recreation areas so a fish or bird can survive.
So, hopefully Nevada can gain control over the Federal land that doesn't belong to the military.