[Nhcoll-l] _Fossil News_ seeks one or more writers to discuss BLM-NPS-USFS regulations...

[Doug Yanega]

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 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.gop.com_the-2D2016-2Drepublican-2Dparty-2Dplatform_&d=CwIC-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=15-T-9sZyoBifeRm1o6dkyY5fe6AY30RqHY3h29Zq_k&s=nZ5KyNESuFjxkzbAE9SWE92lSSNP3iRs1A63ze5juYQ&e= ) 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:

" 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."

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).

The bottom line is that if land is no longer going to be BLM or NPS 
property, etc., then *existing Federal regulations will no longer 
apply*. 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 *new* regulations for those lands that DO remain under Federal 
control.

Sincerely,

-- 
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)
              https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__cache.ucr.edu_-7Eheraty_yanega.html&d=CwIC-g&c=-dg2m7zWuuDZ0MUcV7Sdqw&r=CLFZJ3fvGSmDp7xK1dNZfh6uGV_h-8NVlo3fXNoRNzI&m=15-T-9sZyoBifeRm1o6dkyY5fe6AY30RqHY3h29Zq_k&s=MKr-m-TkKMPWJU8-d8nQuyZwE4xnavZuBW4j9qfcTyA&e= 
   "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
         is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82

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