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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

'Local Control' of Public Lands Already Happening

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Wednesday, April 29, 2015   

BOISE, Idaho - Transferring control of public lands has been a hot-button topic throughout the West - and recently in Congress. Legislation seeking state control of federal public lands didn't succeed in Idaho this year, but it's expected bills will surface again.

Holly Endersby, Idaho chapter representative for Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, said the public needs to know that a form of local control already is at play through collaborations for forest restoration. More than two dozen are designing, planning and carrying out timber harvests and other projects, while keeping public access open for recreation and preserving wildlife habitat.

"We work hand-in-hand with the Forest Service," she said, "and we've just seen a remarkable amount of success and money flowing to the Nez (Perce)-Clearwater."

Proposals to transfer public lands threaten the progress and benefits achieved through collaborations, Endersby said, adding that she would like to see more legislative focus on supporting the local efforts to restore forests.

Brad Brooks, associate director at The Wilderness Society, said poll after poll shows bipartisan support for keeping public lands in public hands so they can be accessed for hunting, fishing, camping, biking, hiking and ATV-ing. He said he wants to see sharp questioning of lawmakers as to why legislation keeps popping up.

"State management, transfer, call it what you want, it's all part of the same goal and effort," he said, "and that is to take public land away from the public for the use and benefit of a very narrow set of interests."

Idaho's U.S. senators, Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, recently voted in favor of a nonbinding budget resolution, SA 838, that would allow for the sale of public lands to private interests. The resolution is online at congress.gov. A map of forest collaborations in Idaho is at idahoforestpartners.org.


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