Squirrel Hill Land Exchange
Introduction The issue I am going to discuss in this paper is proposed Grand Targhee-Squirrel Meadows Land Exchange. I will use a case study of the Grand Targhee-Squirrel Meadow proposed land exchange as a background to explore the economic implications of a land exchange. I want to discuss how the Forest Service and BLM decide how to undertake a land exchange, what are some of the reasons for conducting land exchanges and what kind of polices are in place. ... The Targhee-Squirrel Meadow issue, because it is relevant to me personally, since I grew up skiing at Grand Targhee Ski Area, and my parents maintain a house in Driggs, ID. The main problem with the issue is that the Forest Service undervalues the land that it is going to sell, and they may not always be acting in the publics best interest when it sells federal land. Land Exchange Policies One of the first questions that I came to was the question of where the BLM and Forest Service received the authority to conduct land exchanges. ... Congress granted the Forest Service and BLM the power to conduct land exchanges under authority of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA. This act was amended in 1988 by the Federal Land Exchange Facilitation Act (FLEFA). ... Most land exchanges are completed under the FLPMA. However, occasionally the Congress enacts legislation to direct the Secretary of the Interior to complete specific land exchanges. Some examples of these kinds of exchanges include the Arkansas - Idaho Land Exchange Act of 1992, Utah School and Land Exchange Act of 1998, Oregon Land Exchange Act of 2000 and the Utah West Desert Land Exchange Act of 2000. In Alaska the BLM also has authority to exchange public lands under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. (BLM) The BLM and Forest Service’s goal in conducting land exchanges is to enable the BLM and other land owners better manage and protect environmentally sensitive areas. By trading land that is difficult to manage or with low resource values, the BLM and Forest Service is able to acquire prime areas with high conservation values, such as recreation, wildlife, fisheries, wetlands, habitat for threatened and endangered species, wilderness, open space, scenic, cultural and other important resource conservation values. ... (BLM) Recently the BLM and Forest Service Land Exchange Policies have come under fire. The BLM/Forest Service is supposed to trade land with “equal property values.” Investigations by the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, reveled that for years the BLM/Forest Service has been low balling the value of the land they are swapping and thus dumping land at very low prices, going against existing “equal” property values policy. The investigation by the GAO led to the dismissal of the high level land appraiser in Utah, and reveled past land exchanges that had ignored the fact that millions of dollars of federal land was under apprised. The BLM/Forest Service suspended all proposed land exchanges, while they reviewed their guidelines and amended policies in response to the allegations. The BLM and Forest Service have now continued with their new land exchange policy in place. ... Over the period of 1996 to 2000, the OIG and the GAO issued a number of external audits criticizing the BLM=s land exchange program. ... The issues raised in the reports have also generated a high level of internal concern from the Department, Office of the Solicitor, and the Director related to improving management of the land exchange program and elevating the level of confidence in the benefits of land exchanges.