State-federal land swap bill could aid conservation

[Cara J]

A newly introduced bill in the House of Representatives aims to “maximize land management efficiencies, promote land conservation, generate education funding” and more. The Advancing Conservation and Education Act of 2016 (H.R. 5758), also known as the ACE Act, was introduced with bipartisan support by Congressman Chaffetz (R-UT) and Congressman Polis (D-CO) on July 13, 2016. The primary focus of this bill is to streamline the process by which state land management is transferred to the federal government, and vice versa. Upon statehood, Congress granted western states land – referred to as “land grant parcels” – which they could then develop to fund public schools and other institutions. However, the federal government often uses these same areas of land to establish national wildlife refuges, parks, or other federal designations. This potentially results in conflicting management objectives for the same parcels of land and tension between state and federal governments. The ACE Act attempts to relieve this tension and more effectively manage land to meet identified objectives both at the state and federal level. The bill would enable a process by which states could relinquish control over any land grant parcel which the federal government has used to establish refuges, parks, [...]

 

Read more: http://wildlife.org/state-federal-land-swap-bill-could-aid-conservation/