News
ENLARGE
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Western Colorado Congress community organizer Lee Gelatt traveled to Washington, D.C., last week where he witnessed firsthand the U.S. House of Representatives in action — and where Gelatt said politicians were purposely confusing the issue regarding Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's new Wild Lands policy.
Elected officials were discussing and listening to testimony regarding the December Secretarial Order 3310, which directs the Bureau of Land Management to recognize wilderness characteristics on BLM lands. The agency is legally required to maintain an inventory of public lands and their resources, including wilderness characteristics.
In 2003, a controversial, legal settlement between former Interior Secretary Gale Norton and then-Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt revoked the BLM's wilderness inventory handbook — an agreement environmentalists charged was a “backroom deal” and would prevent the creation of future Wilderness Study Areas.
Gelatt was in D.C. to advocate for America's Red Rock Wilderness Act on behalf of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. SUWA has worked for two decades to secure permanent protection of a vast area of red rock canyon country in southern Utah, a landscape that includes massive cliffs and domes, deep broad canyons, as well as narrow slot canyons.
It was that landscape that introduced Gelatt to what he calls the “real West” when, in 1981, the BLM's Moab office hired him to inventory lands containing wilderness qualities. His boss gave him use of a Jeep, maps and a camera and told him to “find the ends of the roads,” Gelatt said.
Gelatt was tasked with confirming the existence of roads and other impacts that would preclude Wilderness designation by Congress. He was helping the BLM fulfill its obligation under the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act, which required the agency to inventory lands to determine whether it contained wilderness characteristics.
Coincidentally, during Gelatt's trip to Washington, the House Committee on Natural Resources was holding hearings regarding Salazar's recent order directing the BLM to resume the inventory of lands with wilderness characteristics.
The BLM's multiple-use mission includes consideration of all of its public land's resources — including conventional and renewable energy development, grazing, mining, off-highway vehicle use, and hunting. That multiple-use mission also includes noting lands with wilderness qualities.
“Basically, what Salazar has done, is restore balance, and make lands with wilderness characteristics an equally important part of the BLM's multi-use mission,” BLM spokesperson Mel Lloyd said Thursday, from her Washington office.
Republican lawmakers complained bitterly during the hearings about a lack of public input before Salazar issued his directive, Gelatt said.
The Wild Lands policy, though, directs the BLM to work collaboratively with the public and local communities to determine how best to manage public lands. The BLM has issued fact sheets to clarify that, Lloyd said.
Both Salazar and BLM Director Robert Abbey were assailed during the hearings, with claims the Interior Department was overstepping Congressional authority, Gelatt said.
Republican House members kept misusing the words “Wilderness” and “Wild Lands,” Gelatt said.
Wilderness area can only be designated by Congress via the Wilderness Act of 1964. It's a permanent designation, and prohibits motorized vehicles.
Wild Lands recognition is not bound by the Wilderness Act, and “is distinctly different than Wilderness or a WSA (Wilderness Study Area),” Lloyd said. For example, Wild Lands status can be reversed and motorized vehicles use is allowed.
Both Salazar and Abbey tried repeatedly to clarify the Secretary's Wild Lands policy, Gelatt said.
“The Congressmen kept confusing the issues. They weren't listening — even when Abbey tried to explain it over and over,” Gelatt said.
The Free Press contacted Colorado Rep. Scott Tipton's office for his perspective.
“He's very much opposed to the secretary's (Wild Lands policy) because it circumvents the authority of Congress. Our big problem is it goes against the authority of Congress,” Tipton's press secretary Josh Green said.
Not so, say Gelatt and Lloyd.
“This does not circumvent, or go around Congress,” Lloyd said. “Only Congress can designate Wilderness or make a decision about what can be done with an existing (Wilderness Study Area).”
The policy, according to the BLM, simply restores guidance to the agency for managing lands with wilderness characteristics as part of the agency's multiple-use mission.
Elected officials were discussing and listening to testimony regarding the December Secretarial Order 3310, which directs the Bureau of Land Management to recognize wilderness characteristics on BLM lands. The agency is legally required to maintain an inventory of public lands and their resources, including wilderness characteristics.
In 2003, a controversial, legal settlement between former Interior Secretary Gale Norton and then-Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt revoked the BLM's wilderness inventory handbook — an agreement environmentalists charged was a “backroom deal” and would prevent the creation of future Wilderness Study Areas.
Gelatt was in D.C. to advocate for America's Red Rock Wilderness Act on behalf of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. SUWA has worked for two decades to secure permanent protection of a vast area of red rock canyon country in southern Utah, a landscape that includes massive cliffs and domes, deep broad canyons, as well as narrow slot canyons.
It was that landscape that introduced Gelatt to what he calls the “real West” when, in 1981, the BLM's Moab office hired him to inventory lands containing wilderness qualities. His boss gave him use of a Jeep, maps and a camera and told him to “find the ends of the roads,” Gelatt said.
Gelatt was tasked with confirming the existence of roads and other impacts that would preclude Wilderness designation by Congress. He was helping the BLM fulfill its obligation under the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act, which required the agency to inventory lands to determine whether it contained wilderness characteristics.
Coincidentally, during Gelatt's trip to Washington, the House Committee on Natural Resources was holding hearings regarding Salazar's recent order directing the BLM to resume the inventory of lands with wilderness characteristics.
The BLM's multiple-use mission includes consideration of all of its public land's resources — including conventional and renewable energy development, grazing, mining, off-highway vehicle use, and hunting. That multiple-use mission also includes noting lands with wilderness qualities.
“Basically, what Salazar has done, is restore balance, and make lands with wilderness characteristics an equally important part of the BLM's multi-use mission,” BLM spokesperson Mel Lloyd said Thursday, from her Washington office.
Republican lawmakers complained bitterly during the hearings about a lack of public input before Salazar issued his directive, Gelatt said.
The Wild Lands policy, though, directs the BLM to work collaboratively with the public and local communities to determine how best to manage public lands. The BLM has issued fact sheets to clarify that, Lloyd said.
Both Salazar and BLM Director Robert Abbey were assailed during the hearings, with claims the Interior Department was overstepping Congressional authority, Gelatt said.
Republican House members kept misusing the words “Wilderness” and “Wild Lands,” Gelatt said.
Wilderness area can only be designated by Congress via the Wilderness Act of 1964. It's a permanent designation, and prohibits motorized vehicles.
Wild Lands recognition is not bound by the Wilderness Act, and “is distinctly different than Wilderness or a WSA (Wilderness Study Area),” Lloyd said. For example, Wild Lands status can be reversed and motorized vehicles use is allowed.
Both Salazar and Abbey tried repeatedly to clarify the Secretary's Wild Lands policy, Gelatt said.
“The Congressmen kept confusing the issues. They weren't listening — even when Abbey tried to explain it over and over,” Gelatt said.
The Free Press contacted Colorado Rep. Scott Tipton's office for his perspective.
“He's very much opposed to the secretary's (Wild Lands policy) because it circumvents the authority of Congress. Our big problem is it goes against the authority of Congress,” Tipton's press secretary Josh Green said.
Not so, say Gelatt and Lloyd.
“This does not circumvent, or go around Congress,” Lloyd said. “Only Congress can designate Wilderness or make a decision about what can be done with an existing (Wilderness Study Area).”
The policy, according to the BLM, simply restores guidance to the agency for managing lands with wilderness characteristics as part of the agency's multiple-use mission.
