PUBLIC LANDS: Bishop proposes axing BLM conservation office
Phil Taylor and Manuel Quiñones: E&E News
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Congress should eliminate a Bureau of Land Management office that oversees national monuments, wilderness and conservation sites, according to House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop.
The Utah Republican's recommendation is part of a committee policy briefing on President Obama's fiscal 2016 budget, which it submitted to the House Budget Committee, as required by House rules.
The briefing, which was obtained by E&ENews PM, claims that BLM's National Landscape Conservation System is redundant and antithetical to BLM's multiple-use mission.
"As well as eroding the mission of BLM, NLCS has also become a duplicative office that imposes another layer of bureaucratic, centralized, and unnecessary management," the briefing says. "The committee recommends eliminating the office of the NLCS and restoring management of 'units' to BLM state offices."
It also recommends that the federal government convey lands "without strings" to state, local and tribal governments. It urges the Budget Committee to "eliminate barriers" for those conveyances in its budget resolution and build in $50 million to offset potential losses to the U.S. Treasury.
The briefing makes a set of other Interior Department budget recommendations, including to redirect land acquisition funds to address park maintenance; eliminate funds that would be paid to environmental groups that successfully sue the government; find a solution to the "quagmire" of Forest Service wildfire funding; and address proposed changes to mine-land cleanup funding.
Bishop's proposal to ax BLM's conservation office drew fire from outdoor outfitters and conservationists.
NLCS includes more than 30 million acres of the nation's "most prized public lands," including more than 40 national monuments and national conservation areas and hundreds of wilderness areas, said the Conservation Lands Foundation, a national group based in Durango, Colo.
NLCS -- also known as BLM's National Conservation Lands -- is currently funded at $31.8 million, but BLM's 2016 budget requests upping that to $48.5 million.
"Gutting the budget for the National Conservation Lands would put local economies at risk, threaten nationally significant natural and cultural resources, and deny Americans access to their public lands," the Conservation Lands Foundation says.
The group warns that dozens of BLM-managed conservation areas -- such as the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area outside Las Vegas -- would have to close under Bishop's proposal.
But Bishop's camp said BLM will continue to manage the NLCS lands regardless of whether there is a separate conservation office. NLCS "does nothing to improve the recreation, conservation or wilderness value of these BLM lands," Bishop spokeswoman Julia Bell said. NLCS takes up a significant chunk of funding that would otherwise go to land management, she said.
"Our committee recommends eliminating the NLCS office -- not funding for public lands managed under NLCS -- so the claim that national monuments would have to close their doors is false," she said. "We recommend they be managed by state BLM offices like all other BLM lands rather than an unnecessary, bureaucratic, centralized NLCS office in Washington, D.C."
It's not the first time Bishop has proposed closing the office.
He made a similar proposal in 2011, calling NLCS a "double administration" that adds unnecessary costs and bureaucracy, but he eventually withdrew his proposal.
NLCS was sustained thanks in part to Democrats controlling the Senate. But Bishop is now working with like-minded GOP colleagues leading the upper chamber.
NLCS was established administratively by President Clinton and became law in March 2009 when President Obama signed a massive omnibus public lands package. Republicans have been highly critical of the system. A report from the Interior inspector general in 2009 found that NLCS managers had a too-cozy relationship with environmental groups (Greenwire, Oct. 5, 2009).
Bishop critiques Obama mining policy
When it comes to mining and coal, Bishop is taking issue with the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's continued spending on developing the forthcoming stream protection rule. It has been a target of Natural Resources panel Republicans for years.
They are now also questioning OSMRE's decision to develop regulations for strip mine blasting. The agency's actions follow a petition from the group WildEarth Guardians.
"OSM continues to be extorted by environmental special interest groups attempting to advance their war on coal," Bishop's briefing said.
The Obama administration proposed spending $1 billion from an OSMRE-administered fund for reclaiming abandoned coal mines to help stimulate the economy in Appalachian communities hit by the mining downturn (E&E Daily, Feb. 3).
But Bishop warned the panel wouldn't support spending the money "to plant orchards on reclaimed coal mines." Instead, he called for funding priority cleanups.
The administration made only rough proposals for spending the $1 billion. Lawmakers would have to work out the details by amending the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. And states are already expressing concerns that changes will jeopardize a 2006 compromise.
Separately, Bishop expressed concerns about an Office of Natural Resources Revenue proposal on mineral valuations and complained that maintenance fee increases on non-coal mining claims had resulted in a loss of almost $50,000 in claims and an $8.3 million revenue drop between fiscal 2013 and 2014.
