Nick Snow
Washington Editor
Jan. 18 was not just any Tuesday in Washington. It was the day the US Department of the Interior tried to shed light on Interior Sec. Ken Salazar's Dec. 22 order directing the Bureau of Land Management to "maintain wilderness inventories on a regular and continuing basis for public lands under its jurisdiction."
Coincidentally, it also was the day when The Wilderness Society (TWS) outlined its public lands priorities for 2011. William H. Meadows, the group's president, acknowledged in a statement that there has been confusion recently about this.
"We have long been advocates for multiple uses of our public lands and want to ensure that the government continues to manage these special places in a way that is consistent with the needs and wants of local communities," he said.
TWS intends to work with those communities to help them understand how fishing, grazing, hunting, hiking, biking, and many other activities bring dollars to local business owners, Meadows said. "But this is about more than jobs and the economy," he asserted. "This is about protecting our natural heritage and the laws that have been established to ensure that [DOI] manages our lands in ways that benefit a myriad of interests."
Rocky Mountain governors feel differently. Idaho's C.L. (Butch) Otter and Wyoming's Matt Mead, both Republicans, separately wrote Salazar expressing concern over Secretarial Order 3310.
Mead noted in his Jan. 18 letter that the order was issued just before Christmas holiday, when his and other governors' offices were in transition. "Though you will seek feedback from state BLM offices prior to issuing final agency guidance, the opportunity for public input on the policy itself was never afforded," he told Salazar.
De facto wilderness
Kent Holsinger, a Denver attorney who specializes in land, wildlife, and water law, said on Jan. 17 that the order could create de facto wilderness areas, which can only be authorized by Congress under Sections 2 and 3 of the 1964 Wilderness Act.
"Action under this order could render debate over wilderness bills in Congress meaningless," he warned. "Instead, BLM could manage huge areas as wilderness without any action by Congress."
House Natural Resources Committee leaders also weighed in on the order. Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) condemned it, while Ranking Minority Member Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) hailed it for reversing policies from George W. Bush's administration which he called an "8-year campaign to subjugate all other uses of public land—recreation, water quality, habitat, ranching—to rampant energy development."
Salazar's order at least has spawned a new federal abbreviation: LWCs, or "lands with wilderness characteristics." What they actually are will be subject to further debate.
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