To secure and defend local control of land access, land use and land ownership

www.AmericanLandsCouncil.org

Be Part of the Only Solution Big Enough!

"The three great rights are so bound together as to be essentially one right. To give a man his life, but deny him his liberty, is to take from him all that makes his life worth living. To give him his liberty, but take from him the property which is the fruit and badge of his liberty, is to still leave him a slave." - George Sutherland, U. S. Supreme Court Justice, 1921.

www.AmericanLandsCouncil.org@AmericanLandsCn

801.571.5515 ◆ info@AmericanLandsCouncil.org

You and a few polite, but persistent, friends can mobilize a chamber of commerce, farm bureau chapter, school district, city or county to take official action (Ordinances, Resolutions of support/coordination). Your one voice is now leveraged into tens of thousands, or more.

County governments combine jurisdictional power and agility - they can act year round on a few weeks notice. A network of counties, cities and organizations can be leveraged into sustained state action. Now, your one voice is leveraged into millions.

A sustained network of states, counties, local and national organizations, can be leveraged into congressional action to honor the promise to transfer title to the public lands to willing western states.

Recent U.S. Supreme Court opinions remind us that jurisdiction over the lives, liberties and properties of the people is “possessed by the States but not the federal government” - it is an “independent power [that] serves as a check on the power of the federal government.” The High Court admonished “States are separate and independent sovereigns. Sometimes they have to act like it.” NFIB v. Sebellius, June 2012.

With Your Support ...• Individuals and businesses are joining and

helping to fund the mission of ALC;‣ Join ALC and Donate now - and encourage

friends, businesses, organizations and govts;‣ Sign the Petition;‣ Follow and regularly share ALC info;

•Counties are joining ALC, teaching their citizens, establishing networking committees, and leveraging state action action:‣ Dozens of resolutions from organizations, school

districts, cities, and counties to compel state and congressional action for the transfer of public lands;

‣ Leveraged action to introduce and pass Transfer of Public Lands Acts (TPLA) in 7 western states and groundbreaking jurisdiction bills.

• States are running TPLA legislation and networking public lands transfer efforts:‣ UT passed HB148 (2012) and HB142, HB155,

HB164, HB166, SJR13, HJR14 and HJR15 (2103;‣ WY passed HB228 (2103);‣ ID passed HCR21 and HCR22 (2013);‣ NV currently running AB227 (2013);‣ AZ passed HB2438 (2012;‣ NM, CO and MT are working on TPLA bills.‣ South Carolina House passed H.3552 Resolution

supporting the transfer of public lands to the western states.

• Congressional action to transfer public lands requires networked state and community leverage to educate, negotiate, legislate and, if necessary, to litigate.

Your Additional Support Is Needed Now More Than Ever

To Bring About The Only Solution Big Enough!

Under federal management of the public lands:• Tens of thousands of roads on public lands have been closed denying access for hunting, fishing, recreation, ranching, grazing, mining, fire breaks, evacuation;• Forests are now weapons for Al Qaeda to ignite according to FBI alerts as so-called “preservationist” policies have foreseeably increased the intensity, acreage and cost of wildfires, killing millions of animals, polluting the air, decimating the watershed, and destroying life and property;• More than $150 Trillion in minerals remain locked while massive national unemployment, debt and deficits persist along with an increasing dependence on foreign sources for natural resources that we have in abundance;•Western States continue to struggle to adequately fund education and other services as many counties have less than 10% taxable lands;• Businesses and jobs are going to other states where they can develop on state and private lands more quickly and with greater certainty than dealing with costly, time-consuming and arbitrary federal regulations;• States and local governments remain dangerously dependent on a financially reckless federal government for as much as 40% of state spending, PILT and SRS payments are always on the chopping block and are only pennies on the dollar of tax revenue values, and mineral lease payments and other funds promised to states will continue to be cut back.

We have the resources (human and natural) to produce education equality, greater environmental quality, and economic self-reliance, if we have the will!

The Promises are the Same! It’s Been Done Before! Be Part OfThe Only Solution Big Enough!For decades, the federal government

controlled as much as 90% of the lands in Illinois, Missouri and other states (IN, IL, MO, AR, LA, AL, MS, FL). They complained that because of this, they could not fund education, grow their economies, or responsibly manage their abundant resources.

(The legal, constitutional, and historic foundation for the Transfer of Public Lands to the States is laid out in this Legal Overview available to read and share at www.AmericanLandsCouncil.org)

However, because those states (i) knew their history, (ii) knew their rights, (iii) banded together, and (iv) refused to take “NO” for an answer, they compelled Congress to transfer title to their lands. Today, the federal government controls less than 5% of all land in states east of Colorado.

It’s Already Been Done Before!

The promise of the federal government to “extinguish title” (transfer title) to the public lands is the same to all newly created states - both east and West of Colorado -. The U.S. Supreme Court refers to these statehood contracts (Enabling Acts) as “trusts,” “solemn compacts,” and “bi-lateral agreements” to be performed “in a timely fashion.

So, Why The Difference?It’s Not ... when the states were created (e.g. OK-1907 and CA-1850, or ND-1889 and ID-1890). It’s Not ... the terms of transfer in their Enabling Acts because those are materially the same.For nearly 200 years, Congress recognized its duty to disposed of the public lands. It wasn’t until 1976 that Congress passed the Federal Land Policy Management Act (FLPMA) unilaterally declaring that it was their new “policy to retain these lands in federal ownership.”

However, in 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously declared that Congress doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally change “the uniquely sovereign character” of a state’s admission into the Union, particularly “where virtually all of a state’s public lands are a stake.” Hawaii v. OHA.