As mentioned in the material, land use raises lots of passion. If you’ve followed the news over the past few years you’ll know that public lands have become highly politicized with some factions demanding local control over federal public lands and, often, denying the constitutionality of federal land ownership. This is happening in the west particularly. The Previous Administration attempted to return public land to local control, scale back the size of public lands, and open some public lands, including parks and national monuments, to oil, gas, and mineral extraction. Needless to say, it created a great deal of opposition. The current Adminisration is restroing some protections.
Here are two opposing positions.
1. More land should be preserved (i.e, parks and wilderness) and the limitations on use of existing lands ought to be tightened.
2. Public Lands need to be opened up for economic use as unemployment is high and economic growth is stalled. Public lands should be returned to local control.
