Problem of U.S. federal government ownership in western states

Abstract

U.S. Federal government is an owner of more than 28% of area of the country. This has a big impact on a social and economic life, especially because it is a significant disproportion in treatment between Western and Eastern states by U.S. C ongress. This problem has lasted for decades. The federal ownership of public lands began when 13 mother-states ceded their rights to lands west from the Mississippi River after Treaty of Paris had been enacted in 1783. The initial federal policy to dispose public lands into new-formed states and privet individuals was formally ended in 1976 when the Congress enacted Federal Land Policy and Management Act. Since this moment it has been the increased dispute between federal government and state governments. In 2012, Utah passed Transfer of Public Lands and Related Study, which has opened a new chapter in this controversy because of using different arguments to the advantage of transferring rights to public lands than previous ones. TPLA bases on a contract theory which should be applicable to Utah’s Enabling Act of 1894. This article shows a general problem of the federal ownership in lights of economic, historic, ecological and law arguments. These latter ones refer to the arguments from TPLA.