In the last hours of his presidency, Barack Obama designated two new national monuments — Bears Ears in Utah and Gold Butte in Nevada. That’s more than 1.5 million acres.
The Bears Ears monument takes up an amazing 1.35 million acres, a region larger than the state of Delaware.
Today, President Donald Trump took a first step to reverse Obama’s last-minute Federal land grab, and begin to restore power over land in the state of Utah to the people of Utah.
President Trump traveled to Salt Lake City to sign the National Monuments Proclamation, which shrinks the Bears Ears and the Grand-Staircase Escalante national monuments spanning millions of acres in Utah, returning about 2 million acres to the people of Utah. The two national monuments were among 27 that Trump ordered Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review earlier this year.
As of 2012 – before Obama’s action last December – the Federal government had control of 66.5% of all land in the state of Utah – or 35,033,603 acres. That is a pretty large percentage of land in the state, and it is not even the most extreme example. That prize goes to Nevada, where the Federal government controls more than 80% of the land – 81.1% in 2012, or 56,961,778 acres. If you are interested in seeing statistics for all of the states, you can see them here –
From 0.3 to 81.1: What percentage of each state is owned by the federal government?
Stella's Place 
Well, that’s depressing, as I expected it would be. My two heart-states are Montana and Oregon. Montana – 28%.Oregon – 59%. (I think – short term memory is a challenge on some days)
Makes me mad. Bureaucrats and politicians just take what they want and then say, “It’s mine.”
And then the taxpayers are forced to give them money to finance whatever they have decided to do with it, to the extent of prevent the public from using public lands.
One of my favorite visuals from the obama regime was the day that the thousands of good people in Washington that one day carried all of those “people-barriers” away – that were intended to keep them out of monuments, and stacked them up at the White House.
Obama just needs to be slapped. Retroactively.
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https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=91Q%2bgech&id=2FBA65F7894A0F1EEE5BEAE877ACEBB209449169&thid=OIP.91Q-gechROtf6yLMaMrqfQEsDA&q=people+barriers+in+Washington+stacked+at+the+white+house&simid=608022862577535759&selectedIndex=7&ajaxhist=0
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I loved watching the people carry away the “people barriers”, too. Some congressmen went down and started it, I think.
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It does bother me that so many people didn’t realize what Obama did. I had a pretty smart friend who said it was saving money and wouldn’t believe that it actually cost money to do it.
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According to the article I linked about the percentage of each state owned by the Federal government:
When states have federal lands within their borders, those states can receive Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT), which are federal monies given to local governments as payment for property taxes lost to non-taxable federal lands, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. In 2013, the states received roughly $400 million in PILT payments, up from the $393 million sent out in 2012.
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That is interesting. I didn’t know that.
My post should have been under Sharon’s. I was referring to when Obama closed off the parks and had guards to keep people out when normally there weren’t any. Then, he had to rent the barriers, I believe. It was ridiculous.
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Here’s a source of mapos on how much of any state the Feds own: https://nationalmap.gov/small_scale/printable/fedlands.html#ut
I remember when I lived in Utah the screams about how much of the state the Feds own vice how little the state did. If the Feds wanted to they could close the land and strangle much of the state’s economy. Time to beatch slap the Department of the Interior and USDA (I just threw the USDA in as I wanna slap the **** out of it for GP), bring them back to earth and get their Beltway hands offa state lands.
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Under no circumstances, however, give any piece of land back to California. Stats for CA: 47, 797,533 acres. I wouldn’t trust them not to give the land to Mexico.
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Much of it already has Mexicans Mexico gave us on it.
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stipulate no drug crops can be grown ever on the land
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During the Bundy Ranch standoff, I think it was, someone made the point that according to the Constitution, the Feds are only allowed to have 10 square miles for the Federal capital (Washington, D.C.) and whatever land is required for military bases, which the Feds must buy from the States in which they reside.
So, it seems to me that all non-military federal lands should be turned over to the States in which they reside. Good-bye BLM.
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Mao: Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.
James Madison: Second Amendment
Any other questions?
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“Power to the People”
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Only if the people refuse to relinquish their power.
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