Number for you. Whether theto know federal government has been a good land. If you live in the pacific time zone 2027488001 is your number. Everybody else can dial in at 2027488002. You can also make a comment via social media and join the conversation going on on our facebook page. Just facebook. Com cspan. At can also send a tweet http twitter. Com cspanwj. Especially if youre a rancher or summary with the federal government, when it comes to public land, we would love to hear your experience as well. This was the recent article in the Washington Post. Oregon, frustration over federal land has been building for years. The federal government owns half the land in the state of oregon. As it does across the west. It used to be routine for ranchers to get permits to work the land or grace. That was a way to make a living off the land. Then, came increasing regulations. The federal government became for the own benefit than for local people trying to feed their family. This is for a man who lives 100 miles from the site of the rebellion in oregon. So, what people in the western states are doing with is the destruction of their way of life. For it was once a professional rhodiola writer. When frustration builds up, people lash out. Angered the federal government boils over this past weekend. A small group of people took over a remote federal wildlife refuge east of oregon. Aim was tofic support to local ranchers sentenced to prison over arson charges. Issue is a decadelong struggle over federal land rights in the west. It often flies under the radar and much of the country. Acording to john freeman professor at boise state university, in recent decades the federal government has placed increasing emphasis on the environment which has led to more restriction on ranching, grazing mining and other traditional uses of the land. That has led to frustration among many westerners feel a sharp disconnect with the federal government run by people in urban centers. That is in the Washington Post. Some of the Facebook Comments that we are getting me want to share with you. Posts when it comes to whether or not the federal government has been a good steward of public lands, it depends on what youre taking at some points we were right now not so much. The reduction of fossil fuels has driven greed to want to invade these lands and toomey politicians are willing to let that happen. Also, they are not protected nearly as strictly as they should be. , the federal government has not been a good steward of the land. The bom is not part of the federal government. Is an outside organization paid for with our money, research it as i did. Diane said it sucks when the government is looking for bribes. To do cokeent wants owned georgiapacific that have overpriced Paper Products angelique comments that the government has fallen down as a steward it is not doing too little is not doing too much. The apa has been weekend and overly politicized. Well begin with a call from. Att in carson washington matt, go ahead with your comment. Has the government been a good steward . Caller yes. I work out there in eastern oregon. I met a lot of people out there. Sincel of a sudden president obama has been elected everybody is up in arms about the federal government. It is the same group that is down there if they were not armed. They wouldve already been arrested. Now, what armed insurrection can you have. You can go out to dinner and burn and and go back to your hold up in the wildlife building hostage. You said you work out in eastern oregon. What kind of work do you do yet go do . Caller im a carpenter. I work with fellow carpenters that believeth Teddy Roosevelt was the worst president. He started the National Park system. He thought all the land should be private. It is our land. It is everybodys. They cannot stand it. Thereguys are down packing cons, they do not know what it they are talking about. That thee is a map Government Accountability office has put out that shows where the government controls the land. , it is centered in the west. Yellow area is the bureau of Land Management. Green is forced service. This color, the reddish color is the National Park service. The blue is the fish and wildlife service. You can see here that much of nevada, oregon, wyoming, utah etc. , a lot of the western states are managed by the federal government. We have a republican from oregon. He represents this area where the insurrection and takeover has happened. He spoke about it on the house floor. There are good people. Sons and daughters. They have a high proportion fighting our wars. They die. I have been to their funerals. Across eastern oregon, i will always fight for you. Understand there is a. Ime and a way hopefully, the country understands we have a real problem. America, how we manage our lands and how we are losing them. It is not take we have not tried. Year after year we pass morelation to provide active management in our forests so we do not lose and to fire. We are losing them to fire. We are losing firefighters , and, homes, watersheds great resources in the west. Teddy roosevelt would roll over in his grave. That is greg walden. A republican from oregon. We want to hear from you in the mountain and pacific time zones. Because of the issue of the government control is so much land. If you look at that time zone you can dial in at 2027488000, for those of you the pacific time zone dialin at 2027488001, and all others dial in at 2027488002. Here is some more of the Facebook Comments we have received. The government has not been a good steward of public lands. The government has a starved them of funds. Continuously tried to invade them. And it should not be intimidated by these armed crazy people in oregon who want to use federal land to cattle graze for free. Scott said the government is not a good steward of anything it does. 80 of the government is a joke. Yes, for the most part. Gop keep your hands and your big corporate interests out of our federal parks. And, those are some of the comments that have been received on facebook. Back to the Washington Post. The extension of federal Land Ownership is often not well understood by people from other parts of the country. Report, the a 2014 federal government owns 27. 4 of all u. S. Land. The vast majority of that territory is concentrated in a handful of western states. According to the report, the federal government controls 85 of nevada, 65 of utah, 62 of alaska, 53 of oregon, and 48 of wyoming. Mark is calling in from ohio. Go ahead. It helps if i push the button. Sorry about that. Caller ok. Hello. Think the government does a good job. Im a fly fisherman. I fish in the low National Forest by montana every year. I go out there six or seven weeks a year. They do a wonderful job. We catch 20 inch rainbow and ground trout. That is every year. The stream fish is unbelievable. There is nothing like it. It is so good, you cannot describe it. All these people go ahead. Host i want to ask. You go out in the area. The land that you go to, is it controlled by the bureau of Land Management . Caller i am fishing in the low National Forest. I think that is the federal government. Host do you have to get a permit . Outofstate member, all i have to get is a license. It is about 70. That is the best deal going in the world. Host thank you. What you do for living . Caller i retired. Host what he retired from . Caller i work in a Family Business here. My exwife left me for her boyfriend and fired me. Everything worked out. Host there you go. Up next is fred in maryland. Fred, you are on. Please go ahead. Caller my line got cut off. Host you are on the air. Caller ok, i am sorry. I wanted to point out the power of the epa has grown so much. It has become a political tool. It has become a weapon. The obama regime has been after republicans. Inis another way to stick it the eye of the average american. People who work hard. On,e controlled burns going the reason why these people were the government does it every year. Controlled burns get out of hand. When firefighters die they blame it on a campfire. It is the epa. It is a Miss Management of land. They do controlled burns every year. It gets out of hand. There is a double standard. If youre going to hold people at west accountable, the same has to be for the government. It is too big now. Host thank you. Another Washington Post article this past week. The west is uniquely impacted by federal control of public land. , justing to 2010 data all the land with in the nations 13 western states was under federal control. Last year, nearly one dozen western states had bills related to the issue. Ranging from creating committees to requiring the federal government to transfer control of public lands to the states. According to an august report by the center for western priorities, the conservation organization. Governor vetoed two bills asking the federal government to hand over public lands. They wanted to find another to create a committee to study the issue. Montana, the governor vetoed a similar bill. My position on the us she was crystal clear. I do not support any effort that jeopardizes the future of public land. The Nevada Legislature passed the bill urging congress to transfer 7 billion acres million acres with the support of top about a republicans. I think that most people from nevada would like to see more of the federal land turned over to the state, for us to manage and care for ourselves. The governor said in an interview. Carl is in new york. Caller good morning. Question answer the with my opinion on how the federal government hinders their responsibility. I work for the National Park service. Celebrate its 100th birthday this year. I can tell you that from time to time, it seems like there are groups, civilian groups that monitor federal lands going yound the property where hear they may be privatizing our jobs or a real estate conglomerate may want to take over. Maybe to build expensive housing. In new york city there is something called the gateway. Wadsworth which has a 300yearold fort. Millers field which was when of the first commercial airports in new york city. There were 4 Million People visited the site. There is a fantastic management team. A young lady who is 35. A superintendent who makes it known to the employees that you should extend your hand to friendship with everybody. Be proficient at your job. You will not have any problems. For any young people out there, there are jobs that run the scope from roads and grounds crew all away to the archaeologist within the realm of the National Park service. It is a good place to work for. 22,000 strong. One last thought. I was selected because i did a good job one i was employed. I had a fulltime permanent job doing something similar to what i did when i served in the marine corps. It requires a security clearance that is no taking over a year to obtain that clearance. They have me in limbo. I am annoyed about that. Thatll, i love the fact when you work for the federal government, your trusted. They count on you to do a good job and be a public servant. Overall, i love my time at the National Park service. That is all i have to say. Host when it comes to being a good steward, do you ever see any conflicts or issues . Those are the ones i brought up. You hear people using military terminology in the sense that there are developers constantly looking at what is available for them to make a play for. The land lobby to get away from the federal government and do whatever they want to do with it. Develop condos or a Recreational Area where they will turn around and charge citizens to enter the property. That is what i see as far as conflict goes. Host thank you. Brett is calling in from denver colorado. Hello. You are on the washington journal. Caller good morning. My comments are as follows. I saw the beginning of the problems of stewardship with federal lands in the administration. That is when the federal government saw it to limit access of federal lands. They did so by road closures and limiting motorized access. They further limiteds by specifying things that might be ok for atv travel. They would limit horseback travel. With certain limits they would use horses by saying that you would have to have horse feed that had to have seedlings from Invasive Plant species. 1990s,ase, back in the ill say 1997, there is a large meeting there at the Federal Center. They saw people from the general public to come in and speak. They had the limitation of access. I was with a new company. I was aware of the meeting. So, i called the Federal Center and talked to the personnel. I asked them who was there to speak against the limitation of Public Access . I was told that nobody had come in to speak on the limitation. That surprised me. Unfortunately, i did not change my day. I did what was necessary for the family. Them whoent, i asked was there to speak for the closures . Was told they had 1520 speakers. They had various environmental groups in support of the closures. I personal feelings are this. Let me go on and say couple of other things. Host why dont you bring this to a conclusion . Caller ok. I will conclude like this. Im aware that there has been exchanging Forest Service lands for people to put up houses. Rich people there. On the southern borders. Of i 70 in colorado. See anything wrong with the exchange of lands. Not have with the exception of the people. As forest stewardship, in aseral, i look upon that poor. The reason it is poor is that it is used by the general public should not be restricted. Absent some malleus by the general public of the land. Host that is brent in colorado. Sharing his experience. A couple of tweets we have received. Robert, that land is not conducive to the reason of cattle. Need turn in wildlife over to the state. Means giving that public land to real estate developers. Read between the lines. , thethe Washington Times fed is spending millions to arm agencies that do not need guns. Howell writes that as the u. S. Engages in a national debate, the police and federal data shows the Government Agencies are charged with largely administrative roles. They are spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to purchase military style equipment. It seems the fiscal year 2006, administrative agencies have spent over 71 million on items like body armor, riot gear and shields. That is according to federal spending data. From the Watchdog Group open the books. Com. In addition to the 330 million spent on such equipment by Traditional Law enforcement agencies like the fbi, secret service, and dea. The purchases include new 2 million spent by the department of affairs and body armor, a mild return fire system. Armor shields. Kevlar blankets. Tactical gear and equipment for crowd control. On0,000 spent by the fda ballistic vests and carriers in 2014. 200,000 spent on body armor by the epa during the Obama Administration years versus just 30000 and three previous fiscal years. Than 28,000 at the Smithsonian Institution on body armor for police and security officers. In fiscal 2012. Juanita. What is your view . Caller well, frankly, looking ick on it, i think that cannot think of anybody more republican in Teddy Roosevelt. Thing with the calvary, the two black calories out west, commanded by lieutenant flipper, a west point graduate, they patrol wallace yellowstone park. It had the exact same problems than that they have now. Mr. Roosevelt put them in charge. Themnk mr. Roosevelt saw that they had to be a worker against this to unbridled commercialism. Number two, he had to make sure there would not be any corruption. My we really asking republican friends as im a very hawkish democrat, go back in history and see what Theodore Roosevelt said when he set the parks. And, the things that they used to put it in force. As we see now, it looks like he did the right thing. That is one need to in cincinnati. Hello. I live in arizona. The thing is that i think the federal government does as good as they can. Where theyike a war ,re spending mountains of money they are on a stair budget. And, i was born and raised in portland. My kids a night lived on mount adults thatbecame any way, we fished and hunted. You had free access to land. You did not have to get permission to be a place where you were, as long as it was federal. Oregon state, sometimes they block things off. They can block off and ignore it. Land, youthe federal can go just about anywhere you want, you can fish or hunt or pick berries or mushrooms. We did all that stuff. Indiana, i lived in cannot tell you, you walk across the street without getting permission from somebody. Because, it belongs to somebody. , i know that we would load up our truck on the weekends. We would spend all weekend on back roads. We wouldnt see another soul. Say, if i had to raise kids any other way, that is the way to do it. It keeps them out of trouble. That is carol and arizona. Originally from portland. In grants pass oregon. When you look at this map of oregon, where is it . Ifive north of the border. How close are you to wear ammon bundy is . Lived well, i previously in dance. Ive been in the county area just where your pen is. Several times, i recreate over there. We had all of these issues. But all the issues in oregon and actually the Mining Committee for the border commissioners, i have been personally involved with these issues with the dom. With the sugar mine. All of these people personally because of got up to their cant to investigate and see what they were doing. I have been involved directly with them. We were there for the organ state legislature testifying on issues. As many question you want. What is th