Public lands

Federal land managers are recruiting volunteers for clean-up and restoration work around Nevada to mark National Public Lands Day this Saturday, The Associated Press reports. The Bureau of Land Management in Las Vegas “is teaming with the Public Lands Foundation and the UNLV Public Lands Institute for trail work, trash collection, tree planting and sign installation in the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area,” we’re informed.

Why, there’s even a “Volunteers in Action Photo Contest,” we learn at www.publiclandsday.org/.

Should certain lands be held in trust, allowing any member of the public who can get there to enjoy their natural beauty? Sure. Most citizens are happy and proud to do their part to see that Red Rock Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon and Zion are protected. But does the federal government need to control and administer 45 percent of all the land area of the state of California? Sixty-nine percent of Alaska? Eighty-six percent of the state of Nevada?

These lands are removed from the tax rolls and are largely off-limits to commercial development, leaving the Western states hard-pressed to generate sufficient quantities of either private commerce or government revenues when compared to their Eastern brethren.

An alternative way to observe Public Lands Day would be for Nevadans to contact their congressional delegates and ask why more can’t be done, quickly, to move at least half those lands into private hands, whether through homesteading or outright purchase.