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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? e-edition | subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Guest Opinion: Medford should strive to be more like Bend ... Poison in the well ... Gold Hill rallies to save IOOF Lodge ... Guest Opinion: Medford should strive to be more like Bend ... Poison in the well ... Gold Hill rallies to save IOOF Lodge ... TIMBERLANDS County calls for local control of federal lands Commissioners want state in charge of forests Comment By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune Posted Dec. 3, 2014 at 5:41 PM By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune Posted Dec. 3, 2014 at 5:41 PM » Social News Jackson County commissioners unanimously approved a proclamation calling for control of federal lands to be handed over to Western states, a proposal environmental activists dismiss as extremist. Some residents have advocated that Jackson County work to gain control overT U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands, which make up about half the county. Commissioner John Rachor acknowledged achieving such a hand-off would be arduous. "It will be a long, slow process," he said. Rachor said the county is not equipped to manage federal lands, but Oregon — which has extensive experience managing state timberlands — is. Many rural counties have been hard hit by falling timber harvests and a decline in federal logging revenues shared with counties. Federal payments meant to offset those lost revenues are drying up. In the proclamation approved Wednesday, Jackson County commissioners called on the Oregon Legislature to study whether transferring federal lands to state control would economically benefit the state. If it would, the Legislature should pass a Transfer of Public Lands Act seeking state control of federal land, the commissioners urged. The state could manage lands for multiple uses, including grazing, logging, recreation and open space, the proclamation states. The commissioners said historical precedent is on Oregon's side. They said many states east of Colorado were once as much as 90 percent federally controlled. Those states succeeded in getting land shifted to state control, but Western states continue to have more than 50 percent of their land controlled by the federal government. About half of the land in Jackson County is owned and managed by the federal government, according to the county. Nearly 53 percent of Oregon land is federally controlled. Handing over control of federal lands to states is an extremist idea promoted by the right-wing tea party faction of the Republican Party, said George Sexton, conservation director for the Ashland-based Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center. "It's definitely not a serious proposal," Sexton said. The center has worked for years to block logging on federal land by filing administrative appeals and lawsuits. Sexton said federal lands belong to all Americans and there is a public process for deciding how those lands are managed. He said anyone who has seen the patchwork of clearcuts on state and private timber lands in the Oregon Coast Range can see what would happen to federal forests under state control. If Oregon took over control of federal forests but ran short of money to manage them, it might try to maximize harvests or start selling off land, said Joseph Vaile, executive director for the center. "The future of Jackson County would be forests sold to private timber interests. That would exclude the public from those lands," he said. Reach reporter Vickie Aldous at 541-776-4486 or by email at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/VickieAldous . By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune MailTribune.com By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune Posted Dec. 3, 2014 at 5:41 PM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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