LAS VEGAS – People who support federal public lands are holding rallies in Las Vegas and Carson City at 12:30 P.M. Monday afternoon, as lawmakers consider three related bills this week. At 1:30 P.M., the Committee on Natural Resources, Mining and Agriculture will hear a bill declaring support for Gold Butte National Monument, which was designated by President Obama using the Antiquities Act just before he left office.

Shaaron Netherton, the executive director of the Friends of Nevada Wilderness supports the move.

"For our Gold Butte National Monument, that was decades long, people advocating for the protection of those incredible cultural resources," she said. "So we believe that the presidential declaration of a national monument was totally appropriate."

The bill also supports Basin and Range National Monument. It is unclear whether President Trump will try to reverse the national monument status of the two parks, but in January, Nevada Congressman Mark Amodei and Sen. Dean Heller introduced bills to guarantee that any future monuments declared under the Antiquities Act in Nevada would require congressional approval.

On Monday, the State Senate Committee on Legislative Operations held a hearing on a bill to rescind a declaration by the 2015 Legislature that supported a transfer of federal public lands to the state, something Netherton says would end up putting public lands in private hands.

"We're very concerned that we have no funds to manage those lands and they would sell them off to create an income stream in order to manage them," she added. "And on so many levels it's ridiculous and makes no sense."

The State Senate Committee on Government Affairs also considered a bill to create a Public Lands Day in Nevada, mirroring the national event. Each of the public-lands bills are due for a vote in committee sometime before Friday.


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Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, has announced plans to reintroduce a public lands sell-off amendment to the big budget reconciliation package in Congress, after a similar proposal was rejected in the U.S. House.

The House version would have facilitated the sale of thousands of acres of public land in Utah to local governments or private buyers. Backers of the idea said it could help address the housing shortage, improve public infrastructure and allow industries to expand. Similar arguments are now being made by Senator Lee.

Steve Bloch, legal director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said the idea is "wildly out of step" with what Utahns want.

"We're all deeply concerned about the precedent that this could set," Bloch explained. "This would start to sell off the fabric of the American West to pay for tax cuts. And if it starts here in Utah and adjacent western states, it can really spread anywhere across the West and into Alaska."

Bloch pointed out the amendment would be only the beginning of public lands being sold. In recent polling, a majority of Utah voters said they oppose giving control over national public lands to state government.

Lee has been an advocate for selling them, especially in Utah, which is made up of about two-thirds public land. But the amendment could prove to be another hurdle for Republicans who want to pass the bill by July 4.

Bloch would like state leaders to have meaningful conversations with public lands advocates. He noted it is a group that includes people from all sides of the political spectrum.

"This is a far cry from your Schoolhouse Rock 'How a Bill Becomes a Law,'" Bloch asserted. "This is not some stand-alone piece of legislation. This is trying to insert public land sell-off into a budget bill, expressly for the purpose of selling them off to pay for tax cuts."

The budget bill now awaits revisions in the Senate and will then go back to the House. In the meantime, Bloch encouraged Utahns and other westerners to voice their opinions.

"We're encouraging our members and supporters to reach out to Senator Lee and tell him that he is simply out of touch with what Utahns, and other westerners, want," Bloch underscored.


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New Mexicans will gather in Las Cruces, Taos and other locations tomorrow for a day of action to defend national monuments and public lands.

The second Trump administration has renewed calls to sell off public lands to save the government money.

Miya King-Flaherty, program manager for the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, said advocates will rally to prevent public lands from being turned over to states, industry groups and developers.

"We're really trying to inform the public about these senseless attacks on our public lands that the administration is moving forward with," King-Flaherty explained. "To call on our Congressional delegates in New Mexico to keep pushing back and letting them know that their constituents are behind them."

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., is pressuring Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to release a list of 400 national parks he cited in Congressional testimony which could be transferred to states or localities as the agency seeks to cut 30% of its operating budget.

On June 8, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt, an avid outdoorsman, signed the Antiquities Act, the first U.S. law to provide legal protection of cultural and natural resources on federal lands. It authorizes presidents to establish national monuments to protect historic and scientific sites.

King-Flaherty pointed out in contrast, the Trump administration's approach aims to maximize economic output from federal lands.

"These policies are really meant to allow corporations, multimillionaires, billionaires to exploit our lands at the expense of what the public wants," King-Flaherty contended. "It really just undercuts our democracy."

Earlier this year, the Washington Post reported the Trump administration had included New Mexico's Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in a list of six national monuments for potential mining activities and a reduction in protections. President Donald Trump has already signed a proclamation opening up the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument to commercial fishing.

California's Habitat Conservation Fund escaped the budget axe for the past two years -- but this week, the state Senate is considering a bill to extend it through 2035.

The money goes to buy land to establish wildlife corridors and keep habitat pristine.

Beth Pratt, California regional executive director for the National Wildlife Federation, said the fund benefits species all across the state.

"Whether you're a humpback whale in the Pacific Ocean, a monarch butterfly overwintering on California's coast, a Chinook salmon spawning in the Sacramento River, or mountain lions roaming in L.A.'s Santa Monica Mountains," said Pratt, "this fund is critical to ensuring that wildlife have a future in California."

In 1990, voters approved Proposition 117, which established the Habitat Conservation Fund and allocated $30 million per year.

It has been central to the new wildlife crossing, currently under construction, over the 101 Freeway in Southern California. The crossing will allow mountain lions access to other breeding populations.

Since 1990, the fund has provided more than $1 billion to conservation efforts and has protected more than 1.2 million acres. State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, authored the bill.

"Our entire state budget is $320 billion," said Blakespear. "So this $30 million every year for habitat conservation is not going to make a difference in that overall budget, but it is critically important to support our ecosystems."

Other projects made possible by the Habitat Conservation Fund include the trail gateway into Redwood national and state parks, open-space preservation and wetlands restoration across the Sacramento and Central valleys, and the return of ancestral land to tribes in San Bernardino County.