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http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bwxec/2003/apr/11/041105105.html
Interior Says No to New Wilderness Areas
By ROBERT GEHRKE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Interior Department intends to halt all reviews
of its Western land holdings for new wilderness protection and to
withdraw that protected status from some 3 million acres in Utah, it
informed Congress on Friday.
By suspending wilderness reviews, the department would limit the
amount of land held by its Bureau of Land Management eligible for
wilderness protection at 22.8 million acres nationwide - a figure
that environmental groups say leaves millions of pristine acres
vulnerable to oil and gas development and off-road vehicle use.
Congress, however, could order additional areas protected.
"The Department stands firmly committed to the idea that we can and
should manage our public lands to provide for multiple use, including
protection of those areas that have wilderness characteristics,"
Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in a letter sent late Friday to
members of Congress.
The wilderness decisions Norton advised Congress about are contained
in a legal settlement of a lawsuit brought by Utah. The settlement
must be approved by federal judge in Utah, who also has yet to rule
on efforts by environmentalists to intervene in the case.
Norton said in 1976 Congress gave the Interior Department 15 years to
inventory wilderness areas, and only those areas identified by 1991
as having wilderness characteristics qualified for protection.
But environmental groups objected when they learned of the decisions.
"This administration's assault on America's wilderness continues,"
said Jim Angell of EarthJustice. "What they're saying is these
wilderness-quality lands throughout the West will continue to be
degraded and continue to lose their eligibility for wilderness. ...
It's just appalling."
Norton also said she was setting aside the 2001 Wilderness Handbook -
a land management policy implemented in the waning days of the
Clinton administration - which required the BLM to protect the
wilderness qualities of lands that could qualify as wilderness areas.
The requirement created millions of acres of de facto wilderness,
even though only Congress can make such designations.
Wilderness areas, as defined by the 1964 Wilderness Act, are those
areas "untrammeled by man," and are protected from oil and gas
development, off-road use, and various types of construction.
The policy changes come as part of a settlement that was to be filed
Friday in federal court in Salt Lake City. Utah had sued the Interior
Department in 1996 over a reinventory of 3 million acres conducted by
then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.
Most of the lawsuit was dismissed, and it sat dormant for years until
the state amended its complaint last month.
In Utah, specifically, the announcement means that the department
will disregard the results of Babbitt's 1996 reinventory. That
inventory identified 5.9 million acres of Utah land that qualified
for wilderness protection, 3 million acres more than found in the
original inventory during the Reagan administration.
The BLM had been managing the land to preserve its wilderness
characteristics. Now it can be used according to the land-use plans
that had been prepared previously by the BLM, which could include
mining and recreation. Norton noted that wildness quality areas also
could be protected in land use plans without ever being designed as
wildness areas.
"It looks like Interior agrees with me and my Western colleagues that
the BLM does not have the authority to designate new wilderness study
areas, ... doesn't have authority beyond what Congress gave it," said
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "Secretary Norton's actions will bring
resolution to the illegal activities of the past administration."
This was the second time this week that the department has made a
major policy announcement resulting from secret settlement
negotiations with the state. On Wednesday, Norton and Utah Gov. Mike
Leavitt agreed to a process for transferring disputed roads across
federal lands to state ownership.
--
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to:
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml>http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Interior Says No to New Wilderness Areas
By ROBERT GEHRKE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Interior Department intends to halt all reviews
of its Western land holdings for new wilderness protection and to
withdraw that protected status from some 3 million acres in Utah, it
informed Congress on Friday.
By suspending wilderness reviews, the department would limit the
amount of land held by its Bureau of Land Management eligible for
wilderness protection at 22.8 million acres nationwide - a figure
that environmental groups say leaves millions of pristine acres
vulnerable to oil and gas development and off-road vehicle use.
Congress, however, could order additional areas protected.
"The Department stands firmly committed to the idea that we can and
should manage our public lands to provide for multiple use, including
protection of those areas that have wilderness characteristics,"
Interior Secretary Gale Norton said in a letter sent late Friday to
members of Congress.
The wilderness decisions Norton advised Congress about are contained
in a legal settlement of a lawsuit brought by Utah. The settlement
must be approved by federal judge in Utah, who also has yet to rule
on efforts by environmentalists to intervene in the case.
Norton said in 1976 Congress gave the Interior Department 15 years to
inventory wilderness areas, and only those areas identified by 1991
as having wilderness characteristics qualified for protection.
But environmental groups objected when they learned of the decisions.
"This administration's assault on America's wilderness continues,"
said Jim Angell of EarthJustice. "What they're saying is these
wilderness-quality lands throughout the West will continue to be
degraded and continue to lose their eligibility for wilderness. ...
It's just appalling."
Norton also said she was setting aside the 2001 Wilderness Handbook -
a land management policy implemented in the waning days of the
Clinton administration - which required the BLM to protect the
wilderness qualities of lands that could qualify as wilderness areas.
The requirement created millions of acres of de facto wilderness,
even though only Congress can make such designations.
Wilderness areas, as defined by the 1964 Wilderness Act, are those
areas "untrammeled by man," and are protected from oil and gas
development, off-road use, and various types of construction.
The policy changes come as part of a settlement that was to be filed
Friday in federal court in Salt Lake City. Utah had sued the Interior
Department in 1996 over a reinventory of 3 million acres conducted by
then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt.
Most of the lawsuit was dismissed, and it sat dormant for years until
the state amended its complaint last month.
In Utah, specifically, the announcement means that the department
will disregard the results of Babbitt's 1996 reinventory. That
inventory identified 5.9 million acres of Utah land that qualified
for wilderness protection, 3 million acres more than found in the
original inventory during the Reagan administration.
The BLM had been managing the land to preserve its wilderness
characteristics. Now it can be used according to the land-use plans
that had been prepared previously by the BLM, which could include
mining and recreation. Norton noted that wildness quality areas also
could be protected in land use plans without ever being designed as
wildness areas.
"It looks like Interior agrees with me and my Western colleagues that
the BLM does not have the authority to designate new wilderness study
areas, ... doesn't have authority beyond what Congress gave it," said
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah. "Secretary Norton's actions will bring
resolution to the illegal activities of the past administration."
This was the second time this week that the department has made a
major policy announcement resulting from secret settlement
negotiations with the state. On Wednesday, Norton and Utah Gov. Mike
Leavitt agreed to a process for transferring disputed roads across
federal lands to state ownership.
--
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted
material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit
research and educational purposes only. For more information go to:
<http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml>http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml