How Obama Is Locking Up Our Land

Michelle Malkin
August 13, 2010, 9:00 am

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Have you heard of the
"Great Outdoors
Initiative"? Chances are, you haven`t. But across
the country, White House officials have been meeting
quietly with environmental groups to map out government
plans for acquiring untold millions of acres of both
public and private land. It`s another stealthy power
grab through executive order that promises to radically
transform the American way of life.

In April, President Obama

issued a memorandum outlining his

"21st century
strategy for America`s great outdoors." It was
addressed to the Interior Secretary, the Agriculture
Secretary, the head of the Environmental Protection
Agency and the chair of the Council on Environmental
Quality. The memo calls on the officials to conduct
"listening and
learning sessions" with the public to
"identify the
places that mean the most to Americans, and leverage the
support of the Federal Government" to
"protect"
outdoor spaces. Eighteen of 25 planned sessions have
already been held. But there`s much more to the agenda
than simply "reconnecting Americans to nature."

The federal government, as the memo
boasted, is the nation`s
"largest land
manager." It already owns roughly one of every three
acres in the United States. This is apparently not
enough. At

a "listening
session" in New Hampshire last week, government
bureaucrats trained their sights on millions of private
forest land throughout the New England region.
Agriculture Secretary

Tom Vilsack crusaded for
"the need for
additional attention to the Land and Water Conservation
Fund—and the need to promptly support full funding of
that fund."

Property owners have every reason
to be worried. The
Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is a pet
project of green radicals, who want the decades-old
government slush fund for buying up private lands to be
freed from congressional appropriations oversight. It`s
paid for primarily with receipts from the government`s
offshore oil and gas leases. Both Senate and House
Democrats have included $900 million in full LWCF
funding, not subject to congressional approval, in their
energy/BP oil spill legislative packages. The Democrats
have also included a provision in these packages that
would require the federal government to take over energy
permitting in state waters, which provoked an outcry
from Texas state officials, who sent a letter of protest
to Capitol Hill last month:

"In light of federal failures, it is incomprehensible that the United
States Congress is entertaining proposals that expand
federal authority over oil and gas drilling in state
water and lands long regulated by states… Given the
track record, putting the federal government in charge
of energy production on state land and waters not only
breaks years of successful precedent and threatens the
10th Amendment to the United Sates Constitution, but it
also undermines common sense and threatens the
environmental and economy security of our state`s
citizens."

This power grab, masquerading as a
feel-good, all-American recreation program, comes on top
of a separate, property-usurping initiative exposed by
GOP Rep. Robert Bishop and Sen. Jim DeMint earlier this
spring. According to an internal, 21-page Obama
administration memo, 17 energy-rich areas in 11 states
have been targeted as potential federal
"monuments." The lives of coyotes, deer and prairie dogs would be
elevated above states` needs to generate jobs, tourism
business and energy solutions.

Take my home state of Colorado. The
Obama administration is considering locking up some
380,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land and
private land in Colorado under the 1906 Antiquities Act.
The Vermillion Basin and the Alpine Triangle would be
shut off to mining, hunting, grazing, oil and gas
development and recreational activities. Alan Foutz,
president of the Colorado Farm Bureau,

blasted the administration`s meddling:
"Deer and elk
populations are thriving, and we in Colorado don`t need
help from the federal government in order to manage them
effectively."

Indeed, the feds have enough
trouble as it is managing the vast amount of land they
already control. As the Washington, D.C.-based Americans
for Limited Government group, which defends private
property rights,

points out:
"The (National Park Service) claims it would need about
$9.5 billion just to clear its backlog of the necessary
improvements and repairs. At a time when our existing
national parks are suffering, it doesn`t make sense for
the federal government to grab new lands."

The bureaucrats behind Obama`s
"Great Outdoors Initiative" plan on wrapping up their public comment
solicitation by November 15. The

initiative`s taxpayer-funded website
has been
dominated by left-wing environmental activists proposing
human population reduction, private property
confiscation, and gun bans, hunting bans and vehicle
bans in national parks. It`s time for private property
owners to send their own loud, clear message to the
land-hungry feds: Take a hike