This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The bad news is that the efforts by Utah's ruling class to wrest 30 million acres of federal land away from the people of the United States might encourage more of the tense, even violent, armed stand-offs instigated by some who are not willing to be patient about the process.
The good news is that at least a few of those Utah officials are well aware of that risk and are taking the careful steps necessary to prevent further bloodshed.
As outlined in an article in Tuesday's Salt Lake Tribune, Utah has so far avoided the armed confrontations of the sort that have occurred in Nevada and Oregon. This may be due, in part, to the fact that long-time Utahns are less hot-headed or generally more respectful of authority.
But an important factor must be that, even as some politicians spout off about lawsuits demanding land transfers that will never, ever happen, some of the more responsible public officials have built on that street — or sagebrush — cred to defuse the situation.
Tony Rampton, who runs the Public Lands Section of the Utah Attorney General's Office, is the most visible of those making this so-far successful effort. He has explained to Utah ranchers and others affected by federal land-use policies that neither violent protests nor open acts of disobedience are likely to get them anywhere. That such hooliganism will only hurt their cause.
Those efforts have helped to turn would-be anti-federal protesters away from various crackpot interpretations of the Constitution, away from wild theories that purport to give certain self-selected individuals the right to seize land that, by law and by rights, belongs to all the people of the United States.
Some argue that parts of Utah, Nevada and other Western states are economically disadvantaged by the fact that so much land in those states is owned by the federal government. That ignores the plain fact that depopulation and depression are endemic in all rural areas of the nation, even in states where little or no land is in federal hands, for reasons that include climate change, the consolidation of giant agribusiness interests and an information economy that draws young people to the bright lights of the big city.
Logical arguments can only go so far, though, when rural folks see lifestyles followed for generations fade away.
New ways of living, sustainable and legal, must be found, and soon. Economies built on preservation, tourism, respect for nature rather than futile attempts at dominance, must be embraced.
So the efforts by Utah leaders to talk residents of rural communities away from confrontation must quickly be shifted to talk that helps turn them toward true sustainability.
And to do so soon, while the folks being displaced by the 21st century are still listening.