Essay Example on Public Land Scarcity: Conflicts and Deviant Behaviors

Conflicts or Deviant Behavior in Public Lands

With the current scarcity inland as a natural resource, the increasing population has created a demand for land worldwide. Subsequently, land scarcity leads to different forms of conflict and associated deviant behaviors associated with public areas. Land includes the natural resources that are available for exploitation. Besides, any element that rests on the ground, such as plantations, forms of construction, and water make up the land. Public land or Crown lands are words used to refer to the piece of land that is held in trust by the government. It is the government's mandate to govern the exploitation of the property for the benefit of the community in question. In the United States (US), public land is estimated to be between 25-75 percent of the entire land owned by the States (Wilkinson 1980).

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People are expected to behave in a specific manner concerning the utilization of public land as guided by the federal government. Any irresponsible behavior that is aimed at affecting the natural resource is termed as deviant. When a person is abnormal, they act contrary to what the norms in the society expect of them. According to a post by Gabrielle Canon, on The Guardian, titled, the vigilante shaming influencers for lousy behavior in national parks is a clear indication of the deviant behavior towards public land in our society. This paper aims at identifying such abnormal behavior and illustrate the potential threats that such activities pose to the public areas bussed on current trends. The specific conflicts related to public lands will be reviewed to help understand the long term solutions that need to be employed in creating long-lasting effects on these resources. The implications of the impact of the conflict or deviant behavior on other aspects of operation on public lands will also be covered.

Potential conflict and threats to the public or resources based on current trends

There is an increase in commercial pressure on public lands. Investors and government authorities offer to buy these resources and hence increasing the vulnerabilities that the local communities around these areas have. The vulnerability is the loss of these vital elements on which their daily lives depend upon. These lands are either economically exploited for the production of food or biofuels. Some use these lands for private recreational purposes. Research has also proven that the human disturbance in any wildlife setting in public lands tempers with such life behaviors. Wildlife is more vigilant whenever human interference is in the vicinity. This, in turn, causes such wildlife to reduce the amount of intake of its healthy foliage. After that, the wildlife's reproduction is reduced as indicated by the research on elk behavior in Canada concerning both human and predator dominated Alberta landscapes. In developing countries, peasants and herders may encroach public lands for exploitation. This encroachment reduces the area that is available for wildlife hence leading to human-wildlife conflicts whose impacts are the extinction of wildlife species or death of human beings. Environmental pollution is also a result of urban development that may have been established on public land.

Specific conflict-related to Public Lands

According to Freemuth and Skillen (2020), several competing demands are in constant change. Through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) headquartered in Washington DC, the reduction of conflict over public lands has been the driving objective in the policies established by the department of the interior with 500 million acres of land under its management in the US. The specific causes of conflict include livestock grazing, recreation, and harvesting timber. While it would be expected that local issues arising from the user groups of the public lands be addressed by local managers of the same, decisions are made from the headquarter. The result is a cycle of continual regional conflict that needs to be addressed but from the local authorities' point of view other than the federal governments.

Regarding Ryan Zinke, the interior secretary, maintenance of public lands has been differed in most cases, raising concerns with a backlog estimation of around $11 billion. According to Ryan, this backlog is more than four times the amount that the congress had initially set aside for the maintenance of National park services (Wheeler 2019). The budget that the congress sets apart for this purpose over the years is not considered the problem. Hence an increase in that amount would not solve the issue. The number of park units has been adding more pressure to the National Park Service as they record a boost from the 2006 record of 390 to 417 by 2018. This increase calls for a solution to prevent the backlog figures from further escalations.

Long term solution to reduce these specific threats.

To identify the most vulnerable public lands, local park managers are in the best position other than the members of the federal government before making maintenance or conflict resolution decisions. As proposed by the Farm Bill of 2014, both the Forest Service and BLM can serve the general public better when they agree on policies that recommend the management of specific land resources by the state as the case of Forest Service. While the federal government retains the ultimate authority over critical issues, the state implements customized conflict resolution projects. The resultant is a more localized approach that acts under the guidelines of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to help mitigate the sources of conflict resulting in the use of public lands. The management issue is, therefore, a threat that would be permanently reduced by the "Good Neighbor Authority" kind of agreements with individual states (Ager et al. 2019).

Public-private partnerships should be adopted when dealing with the management of public lands through outsourcing (Davidson, Plumb and Selig 2016). The outsourcing agreements should be drafted in such a way that the federal government has the ultimate authority over the exploitation of the public lands. The federal government dictates the management objectives, the standards of maintenance, determinants of visitor fees, and the rules governing different site operations. The private contractor, therefore, collects the site visitor fees and is held responsible for the conservation of the resources under their care. Through the contracts of agreement, the private contractors are bound to address any future conflicts while under the oversight of the public land agency.

A franchising system to aid in the management of public lands should be promoted. The title of the public lands could be reserved, but the day to day operations be granted to the franchised party. This party could be a non-profit organization or an individual that can exercise private management of these lands. To bid for the franchising tender, the federal government should come up with the binding agreements that provide the basis of conflict resolution and mitigation. The interested potential franchise then proposes its managerial terms that align with the provisions of the federal government. These administrative plans are not limited to include the various ways through which the franchising organization aims at raising its revenue, with the oversight of the federal government.

The escalating amount of National Park backlog can be challenging to control, especially with the increased number of National Park units under the National Park Service. The root cause of the delay is considered to be as a result of the corrupt leadership. The channels of Park management are characterized with less accountability. When such parks are managed to ensure self-sustainability, there would be very few instances of backlog related issues that can have negative impacts on the management of the public lands.

How this affects other aspects of operations on public lands

When the federal government gets into agreements with state authorities that allow the sates to address local public lands conflict, the results are customized services. Different influences on the use and management decisions are reduced, leading to harmony for the benefit of these lands. The channels through which the federal authority reaches the natural resources are streamlined, and accountability makes the whole process transparent (McNeeley et al. 2017).

Following the administration of the state government on the public lands, public-private partnerships adopt the same channel to ensure the federal government maintains jurisdiction over the resources. Subsequently, the state gets into agreements with private contractors under strict contracts that benefit both the contractors and the public lands. There is harmony and satisfaction when these bodies work in unison for the protection of public areas. Visitors to these lands receive high-quality services in exchange for their site visit fees. A portion of the cost goes to the management of the public areas while the other part goes to the managing agency. Good stewardship is, therefore, inevitable for the private managers are greatly rewarded in their service as they conserve public lands.

Kansas' Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is an example of an innovatively managed public areas. The Nature Conservancy public-private partnership with the National Park Service. Under the standards of the National Park Service, the Nature Conservancy ensures the park is adequately managed and accessible to the general public at an affordable cost (Page, Hase and McCullough 2016).

Conclusion

Research proves that deviant behaviors in public lands are as a result of the overall management of these resources. When the channels are streamlined to allow for transparency and customized approaches, most of these conflicts are mitigated. The choice on the administration is critical, and innovation is inevitable with the upcoming changes and demands regarding public lands. Long term solutions are required while addressing different devious behaviors. The answer can only be achieved when the management of these resources is streamlined. Involved parties play their part to ensure that public lands are uniting and pillars of development in their locations as they generate their income from such innovative ideas as entry fees and donations in case of non-profit organizations with conservation agendas. The ultimate goal of having streamlined management for our public land saves congress lots of money for other development purposes. The administration will eliminate backlog on park maintenance. However, the parks still keep their operations healthy with or without congress involvement. Congress can only be eliminated when public lands are made self-sustaining in their services. Various approaches to the management of public lands have, therefore, been proposed in this paper for the same purpose. Park visitors would also have to pay less than being overcharged to meet the running costs of these lands while laying the grounds for a long term managerial conflict on public lands.

References

Ager, A. A., Day, M. A., Palaiologou, P., Houtman, R. M., Ringo, C., & Evers, C. R. (2019). Cross-boundary wildfire and community exposure: A framework and application in the western US. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-392. Fort Collins, CO: US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 36 p., 392.

Davidson, R., Plumb, S., & Selig, M. (2016). New Models for Funding Public Lands Management: A Case Study of the Northern Arizona Forest Fund. Ariz. St. LJ, 48, 111.

Freemuth, J., & Skillen, J. R. (2020). Moving Bureau of Land Management Headquarters to Colorado Won't Be Good for Public Lands. The Conversation.

McNeeley, S. M., Even, T. L., Gioia, J....