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Guest Opinion: Don't eliminate law enforcement Saturday Mar 25, 2017 at 12:01 AM By Tim Palmer A bill introduced on Feb. 13 by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, would "terminate law enforcement functions" of the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. This bill comes as the second set of trespassers were recently on trial in Portland for the armed takeover and 40-day standoff against federal law enforcement officials at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. The bill calls for unspecified "block" grants to go to states for law enforcement on federal land — a specious directive at best. President Trump has announced plans to severely cut domestic spending — not add to it. And, if you want to see what happens to federal money for local western needs, look no further than funds under the Secure Rural Schools Act, which have dried up in spite of advocacy by our Oregon delegation. National "security" is quite the mantra these days. Should we feel secure knowing that law enforcement on federal land, constituting half of Oregon, would become an unfunded mandate of the Oregon State Police? They're already $32 million short of annual needs according to an Oregonian report. State police can't do the job, which means it would revert to sheriffs of rural counties. But these are at the brink of bankruptcy. My own county, Curry, has cut sheriff's staff to the bone and considered closing the jail while somehow outsourcing the inmates. How would counties like this assume enforcement duties on 33 million acres of Oregon? We can't count on local law enforcement. The urgent need, for federal land, is to improve enforcement by federal agencies, not eliminate it. Flagrantly undermining law and order is not what one might expect from a red-state Republican, or any politician. So what's Chaffetz's goal? Well, just before he introduced HR 622 he introduced 621, requiring the federal government to give 3.3 million acres to state governments. It's clear that such transfers would soon end in private hands; consider Oregon's decision last month to sell Elliott State Forest to the timber industry. And that's in a state where support for public land is strong. Facing angry opposition from sportsmen who know the value of public land across the West, Chaffetz withdrew HR 621. But 622 remains, with intent that can only be surmised as cynical: If federal employees can be prevented from doing their jobs, then the federal presence in the West will fail, and the path will be cleared for public property to be turned over first to states and then to oil, gas and coal industries waiting, literally, in state capitols across the West and within the president's cabinet itself. Here's the other obvious outcome of the bill: Local officers would enforce only the laws they liked, or only the ones they have time to tend. In some parts of the West this would give Bundy-type anarchists a free pass in their gun-toting quest to claim our public land as their very own, just like they did at Malheur and at BLM property in Nevada before that. Most westerners and Americans appreciate and use our remarkable public acreage for hunting, fishing, recreation of all kinds, sustainable resource jobs, sources of clean air and water and open space virtually out the back door, altogether making our western communities livable, desirable and attractive as both home and real estate, for all of us and for all the generations to come. Chaffetz found that liquidating public land was too unpopular to fly. The bill that remains — HR 622 — would serve only to make law enforcement on that land a sham, and it would open the world's greatest public estate to the forces of lawlessness, thugs, and criminals. Vandalized outhouses, dumped garbage and pirated timber will rank among the lesser crimes destined to become commonplace across the landscape we love. Oregon's Democrats oppose this measure. The public affairs director for our one Republican congressman, Greg Walden, says that he has yet to take a position on the bill. — Tim Palmer of Port Orford is the author of Rivers of Oregon and other books about natural resources in the West.