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Report says transferring federal lands to state would cost billions

by MICAH DREW Daily Montanan
| April 22, 2025 7:00 AM

In Montana, where land managed by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management comprises 30 million acres — roughly a third of the state — the notion of turning swaths of terra firma to state control could be costly, according to a newly published report. 

The report, written by longtime natural resources manager John Tubbs, calls the financial implications of federal lands transfer “staggering and disproportionately impactful for a rural state with large swaths of national public lands.”

“The costs associated with maintaining national public lands at the state level — ranging from wildfire operations to the loss of essential federal funding for rural counties — would be far too great for Montana to bear per capita,” the report states. It amounts to an $8 billion “gamble on Montana’s future.” 

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