Government land management and the free market in southern Nevada

About 93.4 percent of the land area of southern Nevada is controlled by government agencies. The control of such a great amount of land may represent an impediment to the action of a free market in southern Nevada; The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the largest of several government land managers, consequently this paper concentrates on BLM regulations and practices. The BLM had little power until the passage of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976; In addition to the FLPMA, four other laws have particular significance to BLM land management actions in southern Nevada: the Mining Law of 1872; the Wilderness Act of 1964; the Endangered Species Act of 1973; and the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971. These laws and BLM actions are examined with examples of how their implementation impedes the free market; The solution is privatization of the BLM controlled land