Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) joined in land transfer legislation efforts in 1977 after loud complaints from ranchers and oilmen from Utah, coupled with strong support from several Utah county governments. By late 1979, Hatch was the legislator who was the most interested in land transfers. He sought to introduce a transfer bill that would get hearings and potential action. Upon the advice of members of the Utah Wilderness Commission, appointed by Utah Governor Scott Matheson, Hatch agreed to leave National Parks and National Monuments in federal hands, and he drafted a bill that would allow states to apply for control over selected parcels. With 16 cosponsors, he introduced the bill in 1979, and again in 1981. Partly because Hatch's bill dealt with major objections to previous bills, news outlets for the first time covered the bill as if it had a serious chance of passing. That started a two-year newspaper, radio, and television fight for the legislation. Ultimately, Hatch's bill got little more than press attention. The election of Ronald Reagan as president put a friend to the Sagebrush Rebels in the White House, James G. Watt, and his appointees slowed or stopped wilderness designation legislation. By Reagan's second term, the Sagebrush Rebellion was back to simmering on the back burner of federal land management agencies. See also Bundy standoff, 1993-2018 Bureau of Land Management Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, 2016 Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act, passed into law in 2012, effective after 2014. References Further reading R. McGreggor Cawley, [ Federal Land, Western Anger: The Sagebrush Rebellion and Environmental Politics], University Press of Kansas, 1993. . Wayne Hage, Storm Over Rangelands: Private Rights in Federal Lands, 1989. Daniel Kemmis, This Sovereign Land: A New Vision for Governing the West, Island Press, 2001. Robert Henry Nelson, Public Lands and Private Rights: The failure of scientific management, Rowman & Littlefield, 1995. External links A brief history of the Sagebrush Rebellion from High Country News, hcn.org. A Guide to the Records of Sagebrush Rebellion, 85-04. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Reno. "SageBrush Rebellion Collection No. 32" at the University of Colorado Denver Library The Oregon standoff is far bigger than a group of armed men in a refuge, Washington Post, January 4, 2016, on the roots of the western land ownership disputes with the Federal government in multiple states. States' Rights Timeline, including the 1980 Sagebrush Rebellion, from