ABSTRACT
For a nation with an economy based on capitalism and private property, governments in the United States own a large amount of land. Although states and local governments have extensive holdings, it is the federal lands, concentrated in the western part of the country, that are caught up in the most contentious environmental issues. This chapter discusses four issues: logging (primarily on national forests), grazing (primarily on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land), mining, and federal water projects, and considers what kinds of policies might come from applying conservative principles. The Forest Service is supposed to determine which of its lands are suitable for timber production and which are not. A recent development that seems to be spreading is the formation of local "consensus groups" or "collaboration groups". Divergent local interests that have been fighting each other in the forest planning process, in the political realm, and in the courts get together to see what common ground they can find.
