In This Issue
The struggles continue over a number of environmental controversies, including oil and gas drilling in the Rockies, the proposed sale of national forest land, Jet Ski use at national parks, forest fires, and the future of the Arctic Refuge. These and a dozen other issues are highlighted below. Each is followed by the name of a Wilderness Society person to contact for more information.
OFF-ROAD VEHICLES: Do Jet Skis belong in National Park System units such as Cape Lookout, Padre Island, and Gulf Islands? Should trucks be driving along the beaches at Cape Hatteras, even if they are crushing piping plovers? These questions are being hotly debated as the peak visiting season approaches. In a study released earlier this year, the Park Service recommended continuing a Jet Ski ban at Padre Island National Seashore (Texas). We expect Gulf Islands National Seashore (Mississippi/Florida) to release a study and recommendation soon. This is also a contentious issue in national forests. The Forest Service is moving, slowly, to implement a rule that it issued last November. (Kristen Brengel, 202-429-2694)
THE FIRE SEASON IS COMING UP: The Bush administration wants to slice some $23 million (almost 30 percent) from the current state fire assistance program, bringing it down to $56 million. This is money that states and forested communities use to get rid of brush and develop plans to reduce the risk posed by wildfire to people and their homes. At an April 5 Senate hearing, Senator Wyden (D-OR) said he is not convinced that the U.S. Forest Service is spending money in the right way in the right places. The agency recently issued its annual forecast for the 2006 wildfire season, indicating that large portions of the country, particularly the Southwest, are tinder-box dry and are highly vulnerable. (Tom Fry, 303-650-5818, x110)
AFRICAN AMERICANS AND THE ENVIRONMENT In 1995 Frank Peterman and his wife set off from Florida on a national park tour. "We saw 16 parks and two black people," he recalls. So they created an organization to get African Americans more involved in the lands owned by all Americans -- a mission he has continued to pursue since joining our staff in 2003. "Frank is doing ground-breaking work to diversify the face of the conservation movement," says former National Park Service Director Robert Stanton. Peterman, who is an African American, is based in Atlanta and has created a number of initiatives to build bridges between the conservation community and African Americans in the Southeast. (Frank Peterman, 404-872-9453)
"THE BEST LAW NO ONE’S EVER HEARD OF": That may describe the Antiquities Act, which celebrates its centennial June 8. And there is a lot to celebrate: Grand Canyon, Acadia, Zion, and Olympic National Parks, and 118 other special places were originally protected by this venerable law. The Antiquities Act was drawn up mainly to enable the president to act quickly to save "objects of historic or scientific interest" found on public lands. Fifteen presidents have put the Antiquities Act to work, often provoking controversy. The only three who failed to use it were Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Richard Nixon. Thirty of the national monuments eventually were turned into national parks by Congress, confirming the wisdom of safeguarding them under the Antiquities Act. The centennial occurs at a pivotal time for the newest national monuments created under the act: The BLM is drawing up long-term management plans for many of them. How much off-road-vehicle traffic will be allowed? What commercial use will be permitted? These decisions will determine what these special places look like decades from now. (Wendy Van Asselt, 202-429-7431)
A NEW PATH TO FOREST PROTECTION IN NEW ENGLAND: Independent artisans in western Maine have banded together to make a living while showing how sustainable use of the forest can work. Take a trip to Farmington and stop in at the SugarWood Gallery, where they showcase their wares. The gallery was an instant success and now has expanded, while over in Rutland, Vermont, a similar venture has started up. There are some wonderful individual stories. The small-business people are part of Maine WoodNet, created by The Wilderness Society to illustrate how a healthy forest and a healthy local economy can go hand-in-hand. (Christine Krauss, 207-645-2241)
LAND SALES: The administration's proposal to raise money for rural roads and schools by selling some 300,000 acres of national forest land has created a firestorm. An editorial in the Louisville Courier-Journal put it this way: "Few issues have so regularly divided Republican and Democratic administrations as how best to manage the forests. But this proposal's shortsightedness, combined with the stark, nothing's-sacred ethos of the free-market ideologues pushing it, has managed to bridge even that enduring divide." But it has not been withdrawn, and the Forest Service is now reviewing public comments received by the May 1 deadline. At the same time, the administration is suggesting the sale of up to a half million acres in the West overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. (Dave Alberswerth, 202-429-2695)
THE BIRDS ARE IN FLIGHT: It is spring migration season, but many of our 545 national wildlife refuges are facing serious problems. These sanctuaries are used by more than 700 bird species, often serving as way stations on migratory routes. Along the Atlantic Flyway, for example, the Navy wants to build a fighter jet strip close to Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in coastal North Carolina and schedule 31,000 landings a year, while at Prime Hook NWR in Delaware genetically engineered crops have been planted. Development threatens refuges along all four north-south flyways, including Stone Lakes (CA) and Cape May (NJ). Due to Katrina, 50 to 70 percent of the land mass at Breton NWR (LA) is gone. Before the hurricane, Breton had been an important stopover for migratory songbirds and had the nation's largest tern colony. Compounding these problems is decreasing appropriations by Congress. (Leslie Catherwood, 202-454-2524)
COULD BE A BIG WILDERNESS YEAR: Will the National Wilderness Preservation System grow in 2006? Since the Wilderness Act created this system in 1964, Congress has passed bills adding public lands to it in 18 of the 20 even-numbered years. In large part, this reflects the way things work on Capitol Hill. In fact, 97 percent of the 106.6 million acres of protected wilderness were added in even-numbered years. Among the best bets for 2006 are lands at Oregon's Mount Hood, in Vermont's Green Mountain National Forest, along the North Coast of California, and in Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. (Bart Koehler, 720-530-9538)
SECRETARY KEMPTHORNE?: The Senate Energy Committee has approved the nomination of Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne as the next Interior Secretary, and a full Senate vote is expected later this month. During his six years in the U.S. Senate, he had a one percent rating from the League of Conservation Voters, and recently he has supported the administration's efforts to eliminate the rule protecting national forest roadless areas. We sent the committee's chairman and ranking member a letter outlining our serious concerns about the direction taken by the Bush administration in managing our public lands and resources during the past five years, suggesting that the committee use this nomination as an opportunity to review and seek changes in a host of policies that cater to special interests. (Dave Alberswerth, 202-429-2695)
PLUM CREEK PROJECT IN MAINE You may be running out of time to see the celebrated Moosehead Lake area in its relatively natural condition. With a number of timber and paper corporations seeking to turn their forestland into real estate gold, Seattle-based Plum Creek Timber Company has rolled out a truly massive proposal: nearly 1,000 houses (575 on the shorefront), two resorts (including "eco-friendly" golf courses), an industrial area, and more. On March 30 Plum Creek and three conservation groups announced a tentative agreement to conserve 400,000 acres in the vicinity, but significant questions remain as Maine's Land Use Regulatory Commission continues to review the company's scheme. The scale and location of this development would irrevocably alter the scenic and rural character of the region and threaten the ecological health of sensitive areas such as the Lily Bay peninsula. Once subdivided, will this special region be off-limits to hunters, birders, campers, and boaters? (Jeremy Sheaffer, 207-626-5553)
SAVING LAND IS GOOD BUSINESS: With the heaviest vacation season approaching, business owners near national forests, parks, and other popular getaways are gearing up for the visitors that make the companies viable. This economic impact is growing rapidly across the country and is one reason for the birth of regional groups such as Businesses for the Northern Forest. Nationally, Business for Wilderness (303-444-3353) is actively engaged in a wide range of land protection campaigns and can hook up reporters with businesspeople who are part of this movement. On March 31 nearly 50 brand-name outdoor businesses and local retailers sent a letter to the U.S. Forest Service requesting that roadless backcountry lands remain protected, and that any current or proposed development in these areas be withdrawn. Here's how Patagonia CEO Casey Sheahan sees it: "America’s pristine roadless areas are public assets that provide our customers with incredible recreational opportunities. Without these wild backcountry lands, our business opportunities would be significantly restricted."
SUBSIDIZED LOGGING IN AMERICA'S RAIN FOREST: Is this the summer you finally get to the world's last largely intact temperate zone rainforest? Biologist Glen Ith, a 25-year U.S. Forest Service veteran, sued his agency March 28, charging that officials had okayed four contracts to build logging roads into undeveloped parts of Alaska's Tongass National Forest without giving public notice and before analyzing the likely environmental effects. Tongass logging has been subsidized by U.S. taxpayers for decades, and these roads are being underwritten by a $5 million earmark added to an appropriations bill by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). Some of the towering trees in this rainforest were seedlings when the Magna Carta was written and are among the lures that draw close to a million tourists a year to Southeast Alaska. The week of May 15 the House is likely to vote on a bipartisan amendment to end the subsidy. (Deborah Perkins, 907-272-9453)
ROCKIES DRILLING The president may have said that the nation is "addicted to oil," but upcoming lease sales that include proposed wilderness areas confirm that his administration remains committed to promoting drilling across sensitive public lands in the West. In FY2004 the U.S. Bureau of Land Management issued a record number of drilling permits (6,052) and then ran the count beyond 7,000 in 2005. And the May 16 lease sale in Utah will be the largest in the state's history, according to the Utah BLM office. In fact, the BLM has issued so many drilling permits that the oil and gas industry has found it impossible to drill on thousands of them. The BL M data released last year indicated that only 2,700 new wells were drilled on BLM lands, despite the fact that over 6,000 permits were issued that year. And, of the approximately 36 million acres under lease, fewer than 12 million acres were in production. The government should be moving at a more measured pace. (Dave Alberswerth, 202-429-2695; Peter Aengst, 406-586-1600)
RATING REPUBLICANS: On April 4, Republicans for Environmental Protection issued its first-ever congressional scorecard. The highest rated of all 286 Republicans in Congress was Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (NY), who received 108 percent but is about to retire. (Extra points were available.) Coming in dead last were Congressmen Richard Pombo (CA) and Joe Barton (TX), with scores of -12 percent. Unfortunately, both chair pivotal committees. The lowest-scoring senator in 2005 was Ted Stevens (AK), at -10 percent. For details, click here.
WILL LAND ACQUISITION CONTINUE TO BE STARVED?: Each year $900 million in offshore oil and gas royalties flows into the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). It is supposed to be used to protect significant natural areas threatened by development. Yet the administration is proposing that less than 10 percent ($85 million) of these royalties go, as intended, into conservation of open space. The needs and opportunities have never been greater. International Paper recently sold more than five million acres of forest to timber investors, and more timber company lands are likely to come on the market. We need to significantly increase funding for programs such as LWCF and Forest Legacy to take advantage of these once-in-a-lifetime conservation opportunities. (Sarah Neimeyer, 202-429-2681; Tom Gilbert, 215-343-1110)
ARCTIC REFUGE: How many more votes will Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK) force Congress to take on whether the oil industry should be allowed to drill in the biological heart of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? If you were to take all the time spent on this and put it into real solutions to our energy problems, we might have made some significant progress by now. Once again this year, drilling proponents are trying to push this through Congress by tacking it onto budget resolutions. They succeeded in the Senate but have failed in the House. That would mean another year of wrangling in a House-Senate conference committee -- if the House manages to pass its version. Meanwhile, 140,000 caribou have begun their long journey to the refuge to bear their young. Millions of birds are in flight. (Eleanor Huffines, 907-272-9453, )
GALE NORTON'S FINAL GIVE-AWAY: In her last days as Interior Secretary, Gale Norton approved a policy (under a 140-year-old statute known as R.S. 2477) that could facilitate the transformation of thousands of miles of primitive dirt tracks into new highways through national parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas in the West. The state of Utah, for example, has claimed 100,000 R.S. 2477 highways, including every hiking trail in Zion National Park and segments in every wilderness area in the state. The new policy is virtually guaranteed to exacerbate off-road vehicle damage and tie land managers' hands if they want to limit ORV traffic in order to protect natural and cultural resources. The administration admits this is one of the most controversial public lands issues, and Norton's policy will only heighten tensions. You can read the policy here. (Kristen Brengel, 202-429-2694)
