Sagebrush rebels
Encyclopedia
Sagebrush rebels is a group that attempted to influence environmental policy in the American West during the 1970s and 1980s, surviving into the 21st century in public lands states (generally, the 13 western states where federal land holdings include 30% to more than 50% of a state's area), and surviving in organized groups pressuring public lands policy makers, especially for grazing of sheep and cattle on public lands, and for mineral extraction policies.
An extension of the older controversy of state
vs. federal
powers, Sagebrush Rebels wanted the federal government
to give more control of government owned Western lands to state and local authorities. This was meant to increase the growth of Western economies. Ronald Reagan
declared himself a sagebrush rebel in an August 1980 campaign speech in Salt Lake City, Reagan told the crowd, "I happen to be one who cheers and supports the Sagebrush Rebellion. Count me in as a rebel." Reagan was faced with opposition with conservation organizations. This struggle persists today after changing form, with the "wise use
movement" in 1988. George H. W. Bush
helped work around restrictive environmental laws to help mining, ranching, and real estate developing industries that created jobs in the states.
The term "Sagebrush Rebellion" was coined during fights over designation of National Wilderness lands, especially in western states, and especially after the National Forest Service (NFS) and Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) conducted required surveys of plots of public lands of at least 5,000 acres (20 km²) that were unroaded, after 1972, for potential designation as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System
. This process was known as the Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (RARE, or later, RARE I). The process developed significant opposition by environmental groups and by public lands users, and was challenged in federal court. Results of RARE I were tabled by the courts for lack of uniform criteria for evaluation of lands and other procedural problems, and a second review started in 1977, known as RARE II, involving more than 60 million acres (240,000 km²) of wildland under federal jurisdiction. RARE II was completed in 1979. Controversy, and lack of support from the Reagan administration starting in 1981, largely sidelined a formal, national wilderness assessment. Congress has designated several wilderness areas since 1981, sometimes using data acquired through the RARE processes.
The National Wilderness Preservation System grew out of recommendations of a Kennedy-administration Presidential Commission, the Outdoor Recreational Resources Review Commission (ORRRC) chaired by Laurence S. Rockefeller, whose 1962 report suggested legislation to protect recreational resources in a "national system of wild and scenic rivers," a national wilderness system, a national trails system, the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, and recreation areas administered by then-existing public lands agencies beyond National Parks and National Monuments (both of which are administered in the Department of the Interior by the National Parks Administration).
Much of the wildland was sagebrush, not particularly pretty to look at, but useful for grazing, off-road vehicle use, and other development. Some advocates urged that, instead of designating more federal wilderness protection, some or much of the land be granted to states or private parties. These advocates took on phrase "Sagebrush Rebellion" to describe their opposition.
Federal holding of public lands was originally an accident of history. Among the first pieces of legislation passed under the U.S. Constitution was the Northwest Ordinance
, which was designed to dispose of lands the federal government held after state claims were conceded, in the Northwest Territories
(now Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana). The Constitution makes no specific provision for the federal government to hold any lands other than the federal reserve for the capital (the District of Columbia); the hypothesis was that all lands would be sold or granted into private ownership.
In order to encourage settlement of western lands, Congress passed the Morrell Act in 1862, granting parcels in 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) increments to homesteaders who could maintain a living on land for a period of time. Congress also made huge land grants to various railroads working to complete a transcontinental rail system. Much of these latter grants intentionally included mineral- and timber-rich lands, so that the railroads could get financing to build. Again, the hypothesis was that the railroads would sell off the land to get money.
Ultimately, however, it turned out that much land west of the Missouri River was too wild for homesteading, because of mountainous terrain or lack of available water. By the early 20th century, the federal government held significant portions of most western states that had simply not been claimed for any use. Conservationists prevailed on President Theodore Roosevelt
to set aside lands for forest preservation, and for special scientific or natural history interest. Much land still remained unclaimed, even after such reserves were initially set up. The Department of Interior held millions of acres in the western states (with Arizona and New Mexico joining the union by 1913). President Hoover
proposed to deed these lands to the states in 1932, but the states complained that the lands had been overgrazed and would in other ways impose a burden on cash-strapped state budgets. The Bureau of Land Management was created to manage much of that land.
s were considered to be national treasures, and few legislators would concur with turning them over to the states.
The spark that turned these complaints into a "rebellion" was the enactment in 1976 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act
(FLPMA), which sought to establish a system of land management by the BLM, recognizing that most of the BLM holdings would not be turned into private hands. While FLPMA required BLM to plan land use accommodating all users, specifically naming ranching, grazing, and mining, it also introduced formal processes to consider preservation of the land from ranching, grazing and mining. Western land users regarded the act as a bureaucratic power grab at best, or the imposition of a totalitarian socialist regime at the radical worst.
Newly-elected Senator Orrin Hatch
, R-Utah, joined in land transfer legislation in 1977, after loud complaints from ranchers and oilmen from Utah, coupled with strong support from several Utah county governments. By late 1979 Hatch was the one legislator most interested in land transfers. He sought to introduce a transfer bill that would get hearings and potential action. Upon advice of members of the Utah Wilderness Commission, appointed by Utah Governor Scott Matheson
, Hatch agreed to leave National Parks and National Monuments in federal hands, and he drafted a bill that would allow states to apply for control over selected parcels. With 16 cosponsors, he introduced the bill in 1980, and again in 1981. Partly because Hatch's bill dealt with major objections to previous bills, news outlets for the first time covered the bill as if it had a serious chance of passing. This provided a huge morale boost to long-aggrieved public lands users other than conservationists, and started a two-year newspaper, radio and television fight for the legislation.
Ultimately Hatch's bill got little more than press attention. The election of Ronald Reagan as president put a friend to the Sagebrush Rebels in the White House. Reagan appointees slowed down or closed down wilderness designation legislation, and by Reagan's second term, the Sagebrush Rebellion was back to simmering on the back burner of federal land management agencies.
An extension of the older controversy of state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
vs. federal
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
powers, Sagebrush Rebels wanted the federal government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
to give more control of government owned Western lands to state and local authorities. This was meant to increase the growth of Western economies. Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
declared himself a sagebrush rebel in an August 1980 campaign speech in Salt Lake City, Reagan told the crowd, "I happen to be one who cheers and supports the Sagebrush Rebellion. Count me in as a rebel." Reagan was faced with opposition with conservation organizations. This struggle persists today after changing form, with the "wise use
Wise use
The wise use movement in the United States is a loose-knit coalition of groups promoting the expansion of private property rights and reduction of government regulation of publicly held property. This includes advocacy of expanded use by commercial and public interests, seeking increased access to...
movement" in 1988. George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 41st President of the United States . He had previously served as the 43rd Vice President of the United States , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence.Bush was born in Milton, Massachusetts, to...
helped work around restrictive environmental laws to help mining, ranching, and real estate developing industries that created jobs in the states.
The term "Sagebrush Rebellion" was coined during fights over designation of National Wilderness lands, especially in western states, and especially after the National Forest Service (NFS) and Bureau of Land Management
Bureau of Land Management
The Bureau of Land Management is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior which administers America's public lands, totaling approximately , or one-eighth of the landmass of the country. The BLM also manages of subsurface mineral estate underlying federal, state and private...
(BLM) conducted required surveys of plots of public lands of at least 5,000 acres (20 km²) that were unroaded, after 1972, for potential designation as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System
National Wilderness Preservation System
The National Wilderness Preservation System of the United States protects federally managed land areas designated for preservation in their natural condition. It was established by the Wilderness Act upon the signature of President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964...
. This process was known as the Roadless Area Review and Evaluation (RARE, or later, RARE I). The process developed significant opposition by environmental groups and by public lands users, and was challenged in federal court. Results of RARE I were tabled by the courts for lack of uniform criteria for evaluation of lands and other procedural problems, and a second review started in 1977, known as RARE II, involving more than 60 million acres (240,000 km²) of wildland under federal jurisdiction. RARE II was completed in 1979. Controversy, and lack of support from the Reagan administration starting in 1981, largely sidelined a formal, national wilderness assessment. Congress has designated several wilderness areas since 1981, sometimes using data acquired through the RARE processes.
The National Wilderness Preservation System grew out of recommendations of a Kennedy-administration Presidential Commission, the Outdoor Recreational Resources Review Commission (ORRRC) chaired by Laurence S. Rockefeller, whose 1962 report suggested legislation to protect recreational resources in a "national system of wild and scenic rivers," a national wilderness system, a national trails system, the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, and recreation areas administered by then-existing public lands agencies beyond National Parks and National Monuments (both of which are administered in the Department of the Interior by the National Parks Administration).
Much of the wildland was sagebrush, not particularly pretty to look at, but useful for grazing, off-road vehicle use, and other development. Some advocates urged that, instead of designating more federal wilderness protection, some or much of the land be granted to states or private parties. These advocates took on phrase "Sagebrush Rebellion" to describe their opposition.
Public lands history
Complaints about federal management of public lands constantly roil relations between public lands users—ranchers, miners, researchers, off-road vehicle (ORV) enthusiasts, hikers, campers and conservation advocates—and the agencies. Ranchers complain that grazing fees are too high, that grazing regulations are too onerous, and that promised improvements to grazing on federal lands does not occur. Miners complain of restricted access to claims, or to lands to prospect. Researchers complain of the difficulty of getting research permits, only to encounter other obstacles in research, including uncooperative permit holders and, especially in archaeology, vandalized sites with key information destroyed. ORV users want free access, hikers and campers and conservationists complain grazing is not regulated enough, some mineral lease holders abuse other lands, and ORV use destroys the resource. Each of these complaints has a long history.Federal holding of public lands was originally an accident of history. Among the first pieces of legislation passed under the U.S. Constitution was the Northwest Ordinance
Northwest Ordinance
The Northwest Ordinance was an act of the Congress of the Confederation of the United States, passed July 13, 1787...
, which was designed to dispose of lands the federal government held after state claims were conceded, in the Northwest Territories
Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...
(now Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana). The Constitution makes no specific provision for the federal government to hold any lands other than the federal reserve for the capital (the District of Columbia); the hypothesis was that all lands would be sold or granted into private ownership.
In order to encourage settlement of western lands, Congress passed the Morrell Act in 1862, granting parcels in 40 acres (161,874.4 m²) increments to homesteaders who could maintain a living on land for a period of time. Congress also made huge land grants to various railroads working to complete a transcontinental rail system. Much of these latter grants intentionally included mineral- and timber-rich lands, so that the railroads could get financing to build. Again, the hypothesis was that the railroads would sell off the land to get money.
Ultimately, however, it turned out that much land west of the Missouri River was too wild for homesteading, because of mountainous terrain or lack of available water. By the early 20th century, the federal government held significant portions of most western states that had simply not been claimed for any use. Conservationists prevailed on President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
to set aside lands for forest preservation, and for special scientific or natural history interest. Much land still remained unclaimed, even after such reserves were initially set up. The Department of Interior held millions of acres in the western states (with Arizona and New Mexico joining the union by 1913). President Hoover
Herbert Hoover
Herbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was originally a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business...
proposed to deed these lands to the states in 1932, but the states complained that the lands had been overgrazed and would in other ways impose a burden on cash-strapped state budgets. The Bureau of Land Management was created to manage much of that land.
Congressional support for the Sagebrush Rebellion
Various bills to transfer federal public lands to western states had been proposed after 1932, all failing to garner much attention, let alone action. Among key objections to such transfers were the increasing value to the federal treasury of mineral lease receipts, and complaints that the "crown jewels" of the national lands holdings, the National Parks, could not be managed adequately or fairly by individual states. Yellowstone and Yosemite National ParkYosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...
s were considered to be national treasures, and few legislators would concur with turning them over to the states.
The spark that turned these complaints into a "rebellion" was the enactment in 1976 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act
Federal Land Policy and Management Act
Federal Land Policy Management Act, or FLPMA , is a United States federal law that governs the way in which the public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management are managed. The law was enacted in 1976 by the 94th Congress. Congress recognized the value of the public lands, declaring...
(FLPMA), which sought to establish a system of land management by the BLM, recognizing that most of the BLM holdings would not be turned into private hands. While FLPMA required BLM to plan land use accommodating all users, specifically naming ranching, grazing, and mining, it also introduced formal processes to consider preservation of the land from ranching, grazing and mining. Western land users regarded the act as a bureaucratic power grab at best, or the imposition of a totalitarian socialist regime at the radical worst.
Newly-elected Senator Orrin Hatch
Orrin Hatch
Orrin Grant Hatch is the senior United States Senator for Utah and is a member of the Republican Party. Hatch served as the chairman or ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 1993 to 2005...
, R-Utah, joined in land transfer legislation in 1977, after loud complaints from ranchers and oilmen from Utah, coupled with strong support from several Utah county governments. By late 1979 Hatch was the one legislator most interested in land transfers. He sought to introduce a transfer bill that would get hearings and potential action. Upon advice of members of the Utah Wilderness Commission, appointed by Utah Governor Scott Matheson
Scott M. Matheson
-External links:* from...
, Hatch agreed to leave National Parks and National Monuments in federal hands, and he drafted a bill that would allow states to apply for control over selected parcels. With 16 cosponsors, he introduced the bill in 1980, and again in 1981. Partly because Hatch's bill dealt with major objections to previous bills, news outlets for the first time covered the bill as if it had a serious chance of passing. This provided a huge morale boost to long-aggrieved public lands users other than conservationists, and started a two-year newspaper, radio and television fight for the legislation.
Ultimately Hatch's bill got little more than press attention. The election of Ronald Reagan as president put a friend to the Sagebrush Rebels in the White House. Reagan appointees slowed down or closed down wilderness designation legislation, and by Reagan's second term, the Sagebrush Rebellion was back to simmering on the back burner of federal land management agencies.
Further reading
- R. McGreggor Cawley, Federal Land, Western Anger: The Sagebrush Rebellion and Environmental Politics, University of Kansas Press, 1993.
- Wade Hage, Storm Over the Rangelands: Private Rights in Federal Lands, 1989. (A defense of grazing rights).
- Daniel KemmisDaniel KemmisDaniel Kemmis is an American attorney and the author of several books including:*Community and the Politics of Place, University of Oklahoma Press, 1990. ISBN 0-8061-2227-7...
, This Sovereign Land: A New Vision for Governing the West, Island Press, 2001. ISBN 1-55963-842-7 - Robert Henry Nelson, Public Lands and Private Rights: The failure of scientific management, Rowman & Littlefield, 1995.
External links
- "A Guide to the Records of The Sagebrush Rebellion, Collection No. 85-04 at the University of Nevada - Reno Libraries Special Collections
- "SageBrush Rebellion Collection No. 32" at the University of Colorado Denver Library
- "1980 Sagebrush Rebellion" from the Forestry History Society
- Text of a 1980 article in U.S. News and World Report from the University of Virginia Digital History Center