Western Lands Project monitors public land privatization

Privatization does not always happen directly. Western Lands Project looks at the sneaky ways-

Wilderness Dedux. From the Goat Blog in High Country News.

In recent years we have seen the emergence of “quid pro quo” Wilderness, where Wilderness is designated only if some developors are authorized to do something bad in exchange. This was not the way Wilderness designation used to take place. It was done simply top protect a pristine place. Conflicts were worked out. If they could not be, the Wilderness proposal died.

Now proposals are made with the intent of weakening the act itself in exchange or facilitating some unrelated project. Western Public Lands has a free book (as a download). This book ($10 if you want a printed version) looks at the details of five of these wilderness proposals so to “illustrate the elaborate machinations and distortions” that we find in them. A number of these involve privatization in exchange for Wilderness designation.

Oregon deserves another bowl of Wilderness

More wilderness, please.  Oregon still lags behind other Northwest states. Register-Guard.

Yes! but no cow Wilderness, please!

Vilsack Takes Over Roadless Rule

Obama begins to put his imprint on the much litigated “roadless rule”-

Bill Schneider at New West has followed the long battle of what was originally Bill Clinton’s roadless rule for the national forests.  Today the Obama Administration made its first move.

Schneider tells the story in New West.

Vilsack Takes Over Roadless Rule.

“After hearing conservation group recommendations, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has decided to take over authority to approve any development in national forest roadless areas, taking this decision away from district rangers and forest supervisors, where local politics often has a big impact.”

Update . . . more. This article from the New York Times. One-year delay on roadless rule for federal lands expected. By Noelle Straub and Eric Bontrager.

The Return of Citizen King

Long time Idaho resident Carole King is in Washington pushing for passage of the most ambitious wilderness bill, NREPA-

The Return of Citizen King. By Todd Wilkinson. Huffington Post.

House Holds Hearing on Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act

House Natural Resources Committee has hearing on the ultimate Wilderness bill for the Northern Rockies-

While collaborationism puts the local political power structure first in determining the use of America’s public lands, NREPA does the opposite. It puts the national interest first. This Congress is the first real chance that it could pass.

Bill Schneider reports in New West on the recent House hearing.  “WILDEST BILL ON THE HILL ADVANCES. House Holds Hearing on Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act.
With lots of support, but none from local delegations, NREPA backers remain optimistic. Will it make it out of committee this time?”

Business People Call for More Wilderness in Northwest Montana

But Montana’s congressional delegation refrains as they have for 26 years-

Bill Schneider believes the anti-wilderness attitude of Montana business is changing, but the view of Montana’s congressional delegation (which includes two Democratic senators) has not.

“JOBS, JOBS, JOBS
Business People Call for More Wilderness in Northwest Montana.
Another sincere call for Montana’s delegation to designate Wilderness; this time because it’s good for business. Will it finally prompt our elected officials into action?”  By Bill Schneider. New West.

On the other hand, Schneider doesn’t like the wilderness bill being pushed by the Montana Wilderness Association, Nature Conservancy and National Wildlife Federation. It is another collaborationist “wilderness” bill. FIX IT OR KILL IT. Montana Delegation Wise to Avoid Current Beaverhead-Deerlodge Plan. By Bill Schneider. New West.

Note that the Beaverhead-Deerlodge is in Southwest Montana.

Ninth Circuit puts hold on expansion of the big Smoky Canyon phosphate open pit mine

Successful appeal by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition sends case back to district court-

Federal appeals court blocks mine expansion. By Rebecca Boone. AP.

I was told that

In summary, the appellate court:
1.  Issued a stay of mine development activities;
2.  Ruled that the Idaho magistrate judge erred in disregarding GYC’s demonstration of harm to the Sage Creek roadless area from mine develoment activities;
3.  Sent the case back to the magistrate judge for reconsideration of the preliminary injunction issue in light of the threat of harm to the roadless area;
4.  Ruled that GYC had raised very serious questions on the merits; and
5.  Provided that any future appeals in this litigation will go back to the same 9th Circuit panel.

Earlier on this issue http://en.wordpress.com/tag/smoky-canyon-mine/

Bridger-Teton National Forest begins implementation of Snake River Headwaters Wild and Scenic Rivers bill

Thirteen rivers and creeks in the headwaters were protected by the Omnibus Public Lands Bill-

Forest staff to implement Snake protections. By The Associated Press. Billings Gazette.

Because the point of the bill is to keep things the way they are, keeping things the way they are doesn’t require a great amount of work to implement. However, there is some.

The bill designated 388 miles of wild, scenic or recreational rivers. The creeks and rivers included are portions of Bailey Creek, Blackrock Creek, Buffalo Fork of Snake River, Crystal Creek, Granite Creek, Gros Ventre River, Hoback River, Lewis, Pacific Creek, Shoal Creek, Snake River, Willow Creek, and Wolf Creek.

Obama signs the omnibus public lands bill

Channels Bush and adds a presidential signing statement-
Updates to 4-2. State specific information added at end of post

There was much rejoicing as the President signed the Omnibus Public Lands Bill, usually and incorrectly called the giant new “wilderness bill.”

It does add 2-million acres to the National Wilderness Preservation System, but it does many other things, including protect 1.2 million acres of the Salt River Range, Wyoming Range, and Commissary Ridge areas in Western Wyoming from oil and gas leasing (and hence drilling). These areas will not be managed as Wilderness, although as a result of the bill, large parts of them will remain roadless. Drilling in these scenic, but unstable, wildlife rich areas would cause immense devastation. They still suffer from excessive livestock grazing.

The bill also designates new Wild and Scenic Rivers, including the first in dry Utah, where building dams on rivers has been a tradition. To win support for the bill, money was provided to study the rebuilding of the Teton Dam in Eastern Idaho, which failed catastrophically in 1976 when it was first being filled after a long fight with conservation groups who predicted it would not hold water. I should note that fighting this dam was my first major conservation issue.

There are 500,000 of new official Wilderness in Idaho and 316 miles of wild and scenic rivers  included in the larger Owyhee Canyonlands bill. This bill has sparked conflict among conservation groups, not because it designates Wilderness, but because it also releases to livestock development a number of roadless areas, plus other provisions. I have heard that the bill did undergo some improvement in the U.S. Senate when it was “cleaned up” by Committee Staff.

Salazar is drilling home renewables’ new power

The great misfortune of “renewables” seems to be that wildlife habitat is expendable…

Salazar is drilling home renewables’ new power.By Michael Riley. The Denver Post