Green Scissors 2003 Public Lands Overview

Green Scissors Public Lands Targets

1872 Mining Law Reform

BLM Public Domain Forestry

Forest Highway Program

Land Exchanges

Rangeland Reform

Recreational Trails Program

Stewardship Contracting for Forests

Timber Roads Construction

Timber Sales

Tongass National Forest

University of Alaska Land Grab

U.S. Forest Service "Replanting Fund"

U.S. Forest Service Salvage Fund

In the 19th century, the federal government initiated policies to encourage the development of the western United States. These policies helped to make resource extraction from public lands cheap and easy. More than a 100 years later, the West has been developed, and resource extraction industries have matured to the point where they no longer need federal assistance. Nevertheless, many archaic federal land policies continue to exist and each year taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize destructive practices on public lands.

The Green Scissors Campaign supports the idea that public lands, and the resources therein, are assets held in trust for all citizens. The federal government should ensure that public lands remain a source of environmental wealth and should be managed to provide a fair return to all taxpayers. However, many enshrined federal public land programs waste billions of taxpayer dollars on extractive development and seriously damage ecosystems that were once pristine. For example, the 1872 Mining Law has allowed mining companies to take more than $245 billion worth of precious minerals from public lands without paying a dime in royalties to taxpayers. Even more scandalous is the fact that taxpayers have been left with a $32 to $72 billion cleanup bill for the half a million polluted abandoned mine sites, more than 70 of which have been designated as Superfund sites.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Service is effectively robbing the public purse while leaving a legacy of environmental destruction. Two reports released by the General Accounting Office (GAO) document that the Forest Service's commercial timber program lost more than $2 billion between 1992 and 1997. More recently, the Forest Service announced numerous proposals that would reduce environmental analysis and opportunities for public involvement in the management of our national forests. Additionally, the administration has said it intends to propose changes to the widely popular roadless area conservation rule that protects 58.5 million acres of our last wild forests.

Unless otherwise noted, the Green Scissors Campaign opposes any funding for the following programs.




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