Public lands institutions and their discontents

The history of the federal lands has been marked by recurring debates over the nature of the land tenure system in the West. The fundamental and enduring nature of these debates has been quite apparent recently, for serious attention has been paid to the following specific proposals. Should the ownership of the public lands be transferred to the states in which they are located? Should large portions of the federal lands be sold off to the private sector? Should the states be permitted to undertake major programs of land exchange and consolidation with the federal government, to create contiguous landholdings for both the states and the federal government? Should the Reagan administration be allowed to implement a major administrative land management proposal that systematically exchanges land management responsibilities between the Interior and Agriculture departments throughout the federal domain?1