This document promotes the transfer of public lands from federal to state control through the American Lands Council organization. It argues that western states are unable to properly fund education and economic development due to the large percentage of federally controlled lands. It outlines a strategy of gaining support through local resolutions, legislation, and eventually congressional action. As evidence, it notes that many eastern states were able to achieve land transfers in the past through persistence and collective action.

1. 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.
@AmericanLandsCn
www.AmericanLandsCouncil.org
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!

2. The Promises are the Same! It’s Been Done Before! Be Part Of
For decades, the federal government The Only Solution Big Enough!
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
respons ibly manage thei r abundant
resources.
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 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.