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Show Rep. Tom Hatch Addresses West's Issues In San Diego SAN DIEGO, Calif. Utah Legislative District 73 Representative Representa-tive Tom Hatch, who chairs the Council of State Governments -WEST (CSG-WEST's) Public Land Policy Committee, spoke recently at a committee meeting in San Diego. Di-ego. The CSG-WEST is a nonpartisan, nonparti-san, non-profit organization committed com-mitted to providing a platform for regional cooperation and collaboration collabora-tion among Western state legislatures. legisla-tures. In their Winter 2001 edition of Western Legislatures publication, Representative Hatch is quoted in an article by Kent Briggs entitled "Public Land Committee Outlines Pro-Active Strategy." Hatch opened his remarks with, "It's hard to recall a year when there have been as many things happen that affect the public Jands of the West and the people who care about them and depend upon them." He then introduced an agenda that was a snapshot of the multiple issues facing fac-ing the public land states of the West in the first decade of the new century. Committee presentations and discussions framed the concern that the West was moving toward a two-tiered two-tiered society defined by prosperous and growing urban centers surrounded sur-rounded by struggling and declining rural areas. Committee members expressed their belief that the erosion ero-sion of the traditional multiple use management policy is a major contributor con-tributor to these changes. Lawmakers also recognized the need to develop a pro-active and environmentally en-vironmentally sensitive strategy for the West's public lands to present to the new administration and Congress Con-gress in 2001. That strategy should include political, legal and collaborative collabo-rative tactics. The committee reviewed various legal approaches to resolving public land disputes. Utah Assistant Attorney At-torney General Steve Boyden briefed legislators on the Utah Quiet Title Litigation Agreement adopted by the Utah legislature to clarify access to roadless areas. Alaska Assistant Attorney General Gen-eral Bruce Botelho, Chair of the Western Conference of Attorneys' General, outlined areas of cooperation coopera-tion between the West's attorneys general and state legislators in the arena of public land litigation. The uses and successes of the collaborative model were presented by County Commissioner Randy Johnson from Emery County, Utah, whose Public Land Council has become a model for counties with large federal land ownership. Frank Gladics, President of the New Forestry Association, presented pre-sented a case history that demonstrated demon-strated how winning legislative coalitions coa-litions can be built across party lines. The Public Lands Policy Committee Com-mittee concluded its business for the year by endorsing a resolution from the Western Consensus Council Coun-cil in support of the collaborative process in public land matters. The CSG-WEST Executive Committee later adonted this resolution |
