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] . - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp