DC Public Lands Update
Wildlands
June 2003

Interior Attack on Wildlands Rage on

The Bush administration has not lightened up their attack on our remaining
wildlands. The media has gotten into the fray with numerous editorials,
letters, and opinion editorials decrying the Bush administration for their
recent RS 2477 and anti-wilderness actions.

Colorado joins the Mix
Colorado Governor Bill Owens following in the footsteps of the bad deal
that Utah struck with DOI on RS 2477 road claims has been working behind
closed doors to develop a broad proposal that would make it easier for the
state and its counties to pursue these claims. The proposal from the Owens
Administration, contained in a May 15 letter to Interior Secretary Gale
Norton, was even more radical and destructive than the Utah deal.

The letter to Norton suggests that the State intends to press claims to
highways through National Parks, National Monuments, National Wildlife
Refuges, and Wilderness Study Areas, as well as National Forests and Bureau
of Land Management lands. They don't want to limit their claims to
previously constructed roads. Their right-of-ways claims could include
cattle trails, hiking trails, riverbeds, and jeep trails, and the "mere
passage of vehicles"?or even no surface treatment whatsoever?could be
considered as "construction" of a "highway. They also state they should not
be have to follow federal environmental law when upgrading these roads.


Utah gets Warned by Recreation Industry

In a move that shocked the Gov. Leavitt of Utah, the Outdoor Industry
Association (OIA) threatened to pull its major trade show out of Salt Lake
City after the governor cut a deal with the Bush administration to scrap
protections on nearly 6 million acres of wilderness areas in the state.

Representing an estimated $18 billion in annual sales, the industry's major
trade group wields the kind of economic clout that makes pro-business
Western politicians sit up and take note. But in the past, the Outdoor
Industry Association's lobbying efforts on hotly contentious environmental
issues have been largely polite and genteel. With their industry threatened
by recent anti-wilderness decisions, they made a bold move that made Utah
take notice.

Leavitt has now held an initial meeting with representative from OIA, where
he made his case. Only time will tell if Leavitt sees that having a state
full of great wild places is a benefit, not a hindrance to the State of
Utah.

Congress Speaks Out

Over 100 members of the House of Representatives signed the Representatives
Hinchey (NY), Udall (CO), and Blumenauer (OR) letter opposing the
Administration's attack on America's wilderness heritage. In their letter
to the Department of Interior they expressed strong opposition to several
recent decisions that limit Congressional options and preclude action by
future Secretaries to protect millions of acres of some of our most
magnificent public lands as Wilderness or as Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs).
They ask the Department of Interior to reconsider it's recent decisions and
move forward with policies that fully consider all potential uses of public
lands including wilderness.


Wilderness Attack head to Supreme Court

The Bush Administration has signaled it is preparing to ask the US Supreme
Court to throw out a lower court ruling which found the public has a right
to enforce wilderness protections on public lands.  In May, the Bush
administration filed a 10-page brief with the Supreme Court outlining why
the lower court decision should be thrown out and requested an extension
for filing its request for review until June 18, 2003 - but stopped short
of asking the Court to take the case. Now, the administration has two weeks
to file.

The case, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) v. Gale Norton, centers
on whether the federal government should be held accountable for impairment
that has occurred in Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) due to uncontrolled
off-road vehicle (ORV) use. Designated Wilderness areas and WSAs prohibit
ORVs, mining, logging, road-building, and other development. Both must be
managed in a way so that their wilderness values are not impaired. If the
Supreme Court takes the case, and ultimately decides in favor of the Bush
administration, it would have a profound impact on public land management
across the West. The courts have been the last refuge for citizens seeking
to enforce environmental laws, and now the Bush administration is
attempting to take that away from the public, too.


Montana Activists and Doctors Hit the hill
to Protect Yellowstone National Park

The week of May 19, a group of Montana activists and health care
professionals visited Washington, DC to urge members of Congress to support
the Yellowstone Protection Act.   This bill, introduced by Senator
Reid(D-NV), Senator Chafee(R-RI), Representative Shays(R-CT), and
Representative Holt(D-NJ), would enact the Park Service's original phase
out of snowmobile use and promote public winter access to Yellowstone and
Grand Teton by multi-passenger snowcoaches. The YPA would uphold the strong
protections Congress intended for our first national park and stop the
deterioration the park has suffered due to snowmobile use.

Take Action:
Please help protect America's oldest national park - call or email your
representative and ask him or her to cosponsor the Yellowstone Protection
Act or take Action here :
http://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/yellowstone/index.asp \
For more information please contact [log in to unmask] .

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