This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated.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.
For a person to see the folly of the state of Utah taking control of public lands, he or she only has to see Ken Burns' national parks series on PBS.
Compare the early commercialization of Niagara Falls by private developers and the state of California's management and commercialization of Yosemite to the United States government's management of Yellowstone. I frankly do not trust our elected politicians to do anywhere near the job done by professional federal land managers.
I experienced the flip side of the public lands debate in the late 1960s. The expansion of Canyonlands and the movement from national monuments to nationals parks of Arches and Capitol Reef were opposed by developers and local politicians as a federal land grab.
I think that time has shown that the economic value to Utah from tourism and environmental protection from these and other federally managed lands has been a great benefit to Utah.
Brent Cameron
Former state administrative assistant to Sen. Frank E. Moss