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Show The Regional Public Those who live and work on and near the public lands have a separate, identifiable and special concern with those policies that go beyond their interest as members of the national public. This was made quite evident to the Commission at the various meetings held throughout the country. Identifiable concerns of regional publics occur wherever these lands may be located. The regional public in the area of the White Mountains National Forest in New Hampshire is as concerned about those public lands as is the regional public in the area of public domain lands in Alaska or in Montana. The interests of the various regional publics may be expressed in different terms, but there are common threads among them. We found, for example, that the people living in the immediate vicinity of public lands have a strong desire that these lands contribute meaningfully to the quality of the environment in which they live. Scars from poorly planned rights-of-way or siltation of favorite fishing streams are environmental impacts that are with the regional public every day of the year. And so are the contributions of the public lands to their way of life. The child who has ready access to the use of public lands for fishing and hiking, and whose father derives an income from these lands, grows to have an abiding interest in them as a member of the regional public. Taxes on private property ownership are a major source of revenue in public land states, particularly at the local level. They contribute significantly to public education and other governmental services in public land areas. It is in the regional public interest to have the Federal Government, as landowner, pay its fair share of the costs of adequate local and state governmental services. Public lands and their resources are an important part of the economic base in at least 22 states. There clearly is a regional public interest in laws and policies which permit public lands and their resources to contribute to regional growth, development, and employment. There is also a companion interest that the public lands contribute to the stability of the community. The Federal Government as Sovereign As a matter of constitutional law, there is no legal significance in the different roles of the Federal Government as sovereign and as proprietor, but it is useful to separate these two institutional interests in public land. By doing so, we may distinguish those interests which relate to governmental functions from those which are similar to the interests of any other landowner. 36 Through all its powers, including regulation and administration, the Federal Government has great influence on the economy and other aspects of our national life which only incidentally relate to public land. If it is to achieve its broad constitutional responsibilities toward the national community, public land laws and policies should complement and implement other nationwide programs and policies. Under the Constitution, it is the ultimate responsibility of the Federal Government to provide for the common defense and promote the general welfare. Public lands must be viewed as one of the tools that the Federal Government has available in pursuing its sovereign objectives. Control over public lands, for example, has been important historically in meeting various national defense needs. And the reservation of national parks and national forests from the public domain was accomplished to promote the general welfare of the Nation. We believe the public lands can be used in a variety of ways to promote sovereign objectives. We also found that present and proposed uses of public lands must be examined carefully to ascertain whether they might interfere with the pursuit of sovereign objectives. The nature of modern society, the pervasiveness of the Federal Government's objectives, and the large number of laws and treaties that define Federal sovereign objectives complicate this task. For example, the Federal sovereign interest lies in the efficient economic and noneconomic utilization of all the resources of our Nation and the avoidance of diversion of labor and capital to less productive enterprises. Consequently, from the sovereign point of view, laws and policies should be avoided which permit public lands and resources to be used in unfair competition with resources from other sources. Withholding of public land resources from development may in different circumstances either further or thwart the sovereign interest. The national interest requires users of public land and resources to contribute their fair share of Federal revenues. This principle precludes tax or pricing policies which unduly favor the users of public land. There is a sovereign interest in assuring access on equal terms to all potential users of the goods and services from those lands. The avoidance of monopoly and special privilege is the basic policy of many Federal laws, including, for example, the anti-trust laws. There is also a sovereign interest in the maintenance of quality environmental conditions on public lands at least equal to those standards legislated for the Nation generally. It would be unfair, if not impossible, to enforce on the private sector standards higher than those established for public lands by the very government charged with their enforcement. In a crisis, the sovereign responsibilities must over- |