April 23, 2003 (Washington, DC) -- The Department of the Interior (DOI) launched a devastating three-pronged attack on BLM wilderness in April, with decisions in Utah and Alaska that have broad implications for pristine but unprotected public lands throughout the West. These interconnected decisions open the door for a broad wilderness assault that is intended to lead to more drilling, mining, and road construction on these sensitive lands. The actions reflect a short-sighted, pecuniary perspective on our common natural heritage and, left unchecked, will result in the unnecessary despoliation of millions of acres of lands that should be protected in their natural state.
Click on one of the items below to view short summaries of the three actions.
April 8 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department of the Interior and State of Utah Regarding RS 2477 Right-of-way Claims
April 11 Wilderness Settlement Between the Department of the Interior and the State of Utah
April 11 Wilderness Agreement Between the Department of the Interior and the State of Alaska (and new RS 2477 revelations)
April 8 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department of the Interior and State of Utah Regarding RS 2477 Right-of-way Claims
On April 9, 2003, after more than two years of secret, closed-door negotiations between the State of Utah and the Department of Interior, a memorandum of understanding was signed to establish a process by which road rights-of-ways will be recognized on federal lands through the use of a loophole – known as RS 2477 – related to an outdated and long-repealed mining law. The agreement leaves open to road construction nearly 6 million acres of sensitive, roadless Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands in Utah and about 4 million acres of Forest Service roadless lands – an area roughly the size of the states of Massachusetts and New Jersey combined. Moreover, the agreement sets a precedent for opening millions of acres of public lands in other Western states to bogus road claims.
The agreement:
- Allows the state and counties to assert claims to "roads" across pristine public landscapes where no road actually exists.
- Provides no real protection for National Parks, Wildlife Refuges or Wilderness areas, since the state of Utah, counties, and all-terrain vehicle groups are free to pursue these claims in federal court
- Provides for no public involvement until after BLM has made a decision to turn routes on public lands over to states.
- Does not require any review of the potential environmental impacts of the wholesale give-away of routes.
- Will use the Bush administration's new, controversial, and illegal "disclaimer of interest rule" as the basis for decisions.
- Will likely use loosened standards that could permit states to allege that cow paths and foot trails are "constructed highways" and thus subject to giveaways.
- Invites other states and counties to apply for similar agreements.
- Leaves vulnerable much of Utah's most precious land, including much of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, roadless areas identified by the BLM in it 1997 state-wide inventory as having potential wilderness characteristics, and other areas proposed for Wilderness designation in America's Red Rock Wilderness bill.
April 11 Wilderness Settlement Between the Department of the Interior and the State of Utah
Late in the evening on Friday, April 11, the Interior Department entered into a settlement agreement with the State of Utah in which Secretary Norton committed to never again allow the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to designate Wilderness Study Areas on the public lands it manages. It's no coincidence that this decision came hot on the heels of the April 8 RS 2477 agreement described above; the April 11 agreement strips away special protections for millions of acres of pristine Utah lands, and the April 9 decision gives state and local governments the okay to obtain road rights-of-way across these lands, thereby damaging their pristine character and ruining their suitability for wilderness protection.
In a nutshell, under the proposed April 11 settlement, the Bureau of Land Management renounces any authority to conduct wilderness inventories in any state or to establish new Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in any state. The settlement also revokes the Wilderness Inventory Handbook (which guides BLM land managers in fairly inventorying and reviewing wilderness character lands and considering their protecting during comprehensive land use planning) and disowns the comprehensive 1999 statewide BLM re-inventory of Utah's public lands inventory, specifically barring the agency from using the information to designate new Wilderness Study Areas or protect the wilderness character of wilderness-character lands it identified. The same applies to wilderness-character lands inventoried in any other state.
April 11 Wilderness Agreement Between the Department of the Interior and the State of Alaska (and new RS 2477 revelations)
Continuing the midnight attack on wilderness, Secretary Norton instructed the BLM on April 11 to cease wilderness reviews in its resource management planning in Alaska and consider wilderness only where it is broadly supported by elected Alaska officials. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), passed by Congress in 1980, authorizes the Secretary to consider and recommend wilderness on BLM lands in Alaska. Although Secretary Norton's action implies agreement with that authority, her decision amounts to a de facto "no more wilderness" policy. In 2001, Secretary Bruce Babbitt instructed BLM to conduct wilderness reviews under this authority but none were completed before Secretary Norton's decision to rescind that order. There are potentially millions of acres of wilderness-quality land in Alaska that should be reviewed for that purpose.
Then, in an apparent confirmation that the April 9 RS 2477 agreement in Utah will serve as a national template, Gov. Frank Murkowski acknowledged that he will seek an agreement with the federal government that recognizes old trails as public rights of way across Alaska's federal lands. According to the Fairbanks Daily News (April 14), "The agreement sought would be similar to one that Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt and Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton signed Wednesday." According to the article, the Interior Department spokesperson "confirmed that the agency is not currently negotiating with Alaska on a broad agreement. However, he said, the administration is encouraging states to enter such negotiations."
For More Information
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- For other documents that support the anti-wilderness activities described above, contact Dave Slater at The Wilderness Society by email or at 202-429-8441.
