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As a not-so-insignificant aside, and with a sincere wish to inform
(rather than to provoke any political tirades), it is important to
note that the official GOP Party Platform (a 66-page document online
at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.gop.com_the-2D2016-2Drepublican-2Dparty-2Dplatform_&d=CwMC-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=15-T-9sZyoBifeRm1o6dkyY5fe6AY30RqHY3h29Zq_k&s=nZ5KyNESuFjxkzbAE9SWE92lSSNP3iRs1A63ze5juYQ&e=">https://www.gop.com/the-2016-republican-party-platform/</a>)
explicitly calls for the release of present Federally-owned lands to
individual states, in the immediate future. Here is an excerpt from
the actual text, on page 21:<br>
<br>
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"
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The federal government owns or controls over
640 million acres of land in the United States, most of
which is in the West." "It is absurd to think that all that acreage
must remain under the absentee ownership or
management of official Washington. Congress shall
immediately pass universal legislation providing for
a timely and orderly mechanism requiring the federal
government to convey certain federally controlled
public lands to states. We call upon all national
and state leaders and representatives to exert their
utmost power and influence to urge the transfer of
those lands, identified in the review process, to all
willing states for the benefit of the states and the
nation as a whole."<br>
<br>
Based on this document, along with comments made by various GOP
senators and congressmen over the past year, this may mean
significantly less Federally-controlled land in the very near
future, to the extent that this platform agenda is enacted when the
new administration takes office next year (some rumors claim the
complete elimination of the NPS is a possibility, though that seems
an unlikely extreme).<br>
<br>
The bottom line is that if land is no longer going to be BLM or NPS
property, etc., then <b>existing Federal regulations will no longer
apply</b>. As such, researchers and hobbyists alike will need to
keep track, over the next few years, of (1) which lands are
earmarked for release from Federal oversight, and what STATE
regulations may then come into play, and (2) the planned
restructuring of administration and priorities in existing Federal
agencies that may very likely mean entirely <b>new</b> regulations
for those lands that DO remain under Federal control.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Doug Yanega Dept. of Entomology Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314 skype: dyanega
phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__cache.ucr.edu_-7Eheraty_yanega.html&d=CwMC-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=15-T-9sZyoBifeRm1o6dkyY5fe6AY30RqHY3h29Zq_k&s=MKr-m-TkKMPWJU8-d8nQuyZwE4xnavZuBW4j9qfcTyA&e=">http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html</a>
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82</pre>
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