Battle Lines Over Trump’s Lands Policy Stretch Across 640 Million Acres

"DENVER — Uranium mines around the Grand Canyon. Oil drilling rigs studding the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. New coal and timber leases in the national forests. States divvying up millions of acres of federal land to dispose of as they wish.

To environmental groups, it would be a nightmare. To miners, loggers, ranchers and conservative politicians in resource-dependent areas, it would be about time. Either way, Donald J. Trump’s election presages huge potential change on America’s 640 million acres of federal public lands, from the deep seas east of Maine to the volcanic coasts of Hawaii.

“Into a new world,” said Bruce Babbitt, who ran the Interior Department under President Bill Clinton."

Jack Healy and Kirk Johnson report for the New York Times November 18, 2016.

Source: NY Times, 11/18/2016