Bill Would Open Public Land

[catbirdseat]

Thousands of Acres Could Be Privatized

 

Folks, this is pretty big. Here are some excerpts from the article in the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

 

Critics who have dissected the language of the bill say it would make it easy to use a law passed 133 years ago to speed deveolpment of ski resorts, golf course and the like in the backcountry today.

 

"It could be the biggest privatization of public lands in a hundred years", said John Leshy, a law professor considered one of the nation's experts on the mining law. who worked to limit its effect as a Clinton adminitraitn official. "This is all written in terms of mining claims, but it's realy a real estate development law...

 

...Critics note that bill would allow someone to claim 20 acres, perform $7,50 of work on it - easily blown through in a consultant's study of some drilling work - and then sell the land for development."

 

It should be noted that North Cascades Park is pockmarked with these old mining claims.

 

Rep. Jay Inslee is on record as opposing the legislation, while Rep. Dave Reichert is in favor of it.