Benjamin Spillman

bspillman@rgj.com

The House Committee on Natural Resources will get a sneak-peek at a bill that would transfer millions of acres of federal land to the state of Nevada.

The committee scheduled a hearing Tuesday on H.R. 1484, the Honor the Nevada Enabling Act of 1864.

The bill by Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Carson City, is controversial because conservation groups say it would undermine important federal oversight on land throughout the state.

Proponents say it would provide state and local officials more control over public land. Currently the federal government owns about 85 percent of land in Nevada, among the highest percentage of any state.

The first phase of Amodei’s bill would cover about 7.2 million acres and shrink the federal share to 75 percent.

Designated wilderness, conservation areas, national monuments, wildlife refuges, land managed by the defense and energy departments and American Indian reservation land would be exempt.

Subsequent phases could transfer millions more acres. A summary of the bill calls for non-exempt lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and Bureau of Reclamation to be, “conveyed upon request by the state or local governments.”

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Conservationists characterized Amodei’s bill as an attempt to appease the most extreme elements of the anti-public lands movement, such as members of Southern Nevada’s Bundy family who have engaged in multiple armed standoffs with federal authorities.

Ammon and Ryan Bundy were recently acquitted of charges related to a standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon and they’re currently facing charges, along with their father, Cliven Bundy, in Nevada over a 2014 standoff with Bureau of Land Management law enforcement near Mesquite.

“It needs to be pointed out that the sponsor and cosponsors of the Nevada legislation have made clear that public input is necessary as regards decisions about public lands. But, in the case of this proposed legislation, they have blatantly skirted public dialogue,” said Lynn Davis, senior field manager for the Nevada office of the National Parks Conservation Association. “Instead, they have chosen to side with the likes of Cliven Bundy and his followers who advocate – and sit in jail – for their attempts to take over federal lands.”

Nevada rancher Demar Dahl, also a member of the Elko County Commission and former chairman of the American Public Lands Council, said concerns from conservationists are overblown.

In written testimony submitted in advance to Congress Dahl said transfers would give more control to people who live on or near the land.

“If you can hunt, fish, camp, graze or prospect on the public lands now you will be able to do it after the transfer. In other words anything you can do on the public lands now you will be able to do after the transfer,” Dahl said “The difference will be the land will be owned and managed by the state and access will be better protected.”

By squeezing in a hearing at the tail end of the current Congressional session Amodei is giving the committee a chance to think about it in advance of 2017, when Republicans will return with control of Congress and the White House.

Despite Republican control nationally, the makeup of Nevada’s Congressional delegation will be mostly Democrats who are cool to the idea of relinquishing federal control, and potentially jeopardizing environmental protection, for public land.

Amodei is the only Nevada Republican returning to the House of Representatives.

Rep. Cresent Hardy, R-Mesquite, lost his re-election campaign to Ruben Kihuen, a Las Vegas Democrat, and Democrat Jacky Rosen defeated Republican Danny Tarkanian in the race for the seat vacated by Rep. Joe Heck, R-Nev., who ran a losing campaign for U.S. Senate.