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ALRA and its members are dedicated to the wise-use of our resources, access to our Federal lands and the protection of our private property rights.
American Land Rights Association started in 1978 as the grassroots organization National Park Inholders Association. Its mission was to protect private property landowners from unwanted acquisition by the National Park Service. (An inholder owns private property or some other equity interest inside or adjacent to a Federally managed area.) There are thousands of inholders across the United States.
So much success came our way reducing land acquisition that inholders from national forests and wildlife refuges came to NPIA for help. In 1980, we changed our name to National Inholders Association (NIA). In 1982, NIA began working with over 15,800 recreational cabin permittees and successfully fought off a huge fee increase and the threatened removal of permittees by the Forest Service.
In 1985, green-sponsored legislation threatened the 27,000 grazing permittees on federally-controlled land. Thousands of them joined the NIA to successfully fight that bad legislation. Along the way, NIA had thousands of ranchers, private property owners and others join to protect their rights from the excesses of regulations such as the Endangered Species Act, wetlands, etc.
In the early 1990s, continuous green attacks on mining and mining-claim owners escalated. Thousands of miners joined NIA in an attempt to stop legislation that would wipe out small miners and mining in America. Mining claims are simply another form of private property. NIA helped defeat the most serious threat to mining in 1994 but the Clinton Administration and environmental extremists have not stopped.
In 1995, the NIA changed its name again to the American Land Rights Association (ALRA) in order to best describe the interests of our diverse membership. With 26,000 members located in all 50 states, ALRA is an activist grassroots association growing to meet the demands of various groups and individuals needing help.
ALRA is a national clearinghouse and support coalition encouraging family recreation, multiple-use, commodity production, and access to federally-controlled and state lands. Its purpose is to oppose selfish, single-use, restrictive land use designations that damage local economies, schools and roads in rural America.
ALRA works to educate the urban population of America about the positive benefits to them from continued broad based family recreation and multiple-use on federally-controlled lands. Converting these lands into wilderness and parks often removes people from the equation and discriminates against the handicapped, elderly and very young.
ALRA's efforts are pro-people, not anti-park. Parks and wildernesses can be positive and should be established where they do not damage the socioeconomic fabric of rural America. Just like two aspirin, parks can be very beneficial. However, a hundred aspirin will put you in the hospital. Many rural communities and economies are in need of economic hospitalization because their economic infrastructure has been destroyed by removing too much land from the tax base.
For More Information Contact:
American Land Rights Association
Tel: 360-687-3087 - FAX: 360-687-2973
Email us with questions or comments about this web site.
All pages on this website are ©1999-2006, American Land Rights Association. Permission is granted to use any and all information herein, as long as credit is given to ALRA
