Wayne N. Aspinall - Public Land Law Review Commission

Public Land Law Review Commission

Kennedy’s concession in 1963 to enact the Wilderness Act gave Aspinall the go-ahead to organize his pet project, the Public Land Law Review Commission (PLLRC) in 1965. The PLLRC reviewed all federal regulations affecting the control and uses of the nation’s public lands and recommended changes that would help the federal government manage these areas more efficiently. Aspinall served as the commission’s chair for its entirety, from 1965 until 1970.

The final report came out on June 23, 1970. Titled “One Third of the Nation's Lands,” it gave 137 recommendations to Richard Nixon and Congress. Among its suggestions:

• States should have a greater say in how public lands are managed
• Congress should have greater say in the uses of public land because the executive branch exerted too much singular influence
• All public-land issues should be concentrated under a new Department of Natural Resources, with committees in the House and Senate
• The Secretary of the Interior’s power to withdraw public lands from development without Congressional approval should be limited
• Regional mining, timber, and grazing needs should be supported to increase economic growth in local communities
• The federal government should help stimulate the oil shale industry

Environmentalists blasted its findings. The Sierra Club accused the study of being “oriented toward maximum immediate commercial exploitation...” predicated upon a world with an “ever-expanding economy and unlimited resources.” Others stated that the report only considered studies and opinions favorable to Aspinall’s political ideology. Many citizens were also still unhappy with Aspinall for blocking the creation of the Redwood National Park in California for half of the decade until its passage in 1968, and they saw this as more evidence that he served as a mouthpiece for the extractive industries’ interests in Congress.

Aspinall proposed HR 9211 in his final session in Congress to implement many of the PLLRC’s recommendations, but it failed to pass. During the height of the environmental movement, many of these suggestions were unacceptable to the public. However, later bills spawned from the ideas in the PLLRC, such as the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976.