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Show 108 Early in 1979. the Nevada legislature passed a bill challenging federal ownership of 50 million acres of Nevada territory, hoping to push the battle into the Supreme Court to force a test of federal land control. In June of that year California passed a similar bill. In Alaska, feelings ran so high that a small group of citizens talked about breaking away from the United States and forming a new country. The group's leader, Joseph Volger, said, "I want to die in a free country. The original thirteen colonies got their land. There is unfair and unequal treatment of Alaska and other Western states. There is total federal domination." As this movement of discontent spread among Westerners, it picked up the name "Sagebrush Rebellion." Not all Westerners, by any means, supported the rebellion. Environmentalists and conservationists were delighted that so much land was going to be preserved in a natural state for the enjoyment of future generations, and BLM employees were unanimous in their support of the new policy. Jan Knight believes, "The public lands should be maintained for posterity, and the resource values should be guarded. People appreciate that the public land is here for them to use. If it were given over to private ownership, the land would be posted with No Tresspassing signs and the public would be shut out. Resource values would be exploited for immediate financial gain." Another thorn in the sides of the Sagebrush Rebels was the BLM's wilderness study. As part of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the BLM has been directed to study the wilderness potential of all roadless tracts of BLM land measuring 5.000 or more acres. If the areas |