Pew: Wilderness release act would ‘open area size of Wyoming to industrial activity’

The Pew Environment Group today came out in opposition to a bill introduced last spring by House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., that would open up a “Wyoming-sized” chunk of national forest and Bureau of Land Management land to resource extraction, road building and motorized vehicle traffic.

“This legislation would undo decades of public land protections by opening up an area the size of Wyoming to new industrial activity,” Pew Environment Group Deputy Director Tom Wathen said in a prepared statement. “It would allow some of the country’s most pristine and spectacular landscapes to be exploited, including the vast majority of undisturbed national forests.”

Technically, McCarthy’s H.R.1581, the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act, would “release wilderness study areas administered by the BLM that are not suitable for wilderness designation from continued management as defacto wilderness areas,” according to the bill’s summary.

Read the full article here: http://coloradoindependent.com/95024/pew-wilderness-release-act-would-open-area-size-of-wyoming-to-industrial-activity

Hear McCarthy's testimony:

National Park Service Director Takes Chair Of North American Wilderness Committee

National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis has taken over as chair of the North American Wilderness Committee, an international organization focused on boosting wilderness conservation.

The committee is a coalition of seven U.S., Canadian, and Mexican federal land management agencies. It was established to "foster collaboration to ensure conservation, management and recovery of North American wilderness and other protected land- and seascapes; contribute to conserving the ecosystem integrity of wilderness in North America; help stakeholders achieve effective, efficient, and mutually beneficial wilderness conservation in North America; and foster communication regarding the management, conservation, and sustainable use of wilderness," a Park Service release said.

“This is an opportunity for the National Park Service to continue its leadership role in worldwide conservation and preservation,” Director Jarvis said. “National parks were America’s best idea, and that idea is one of our finest exports. We share habitats and species with our neighbors in Canada and Mexico and we face common challenges. This North American Wilderness Committee will help us face those challenges together.”

The committee came to being in late 2009. During its first 18 months of its work focused on transboundary cooperation, training, networking, ecosystem services, marine wilderness and monitoring. In the year ahead, agency staff plans to "cooperate and collaborate around issues of climate change, connectivity and monitoring, and the values of protected areas," the release said.

The other American committee members are Bob Abbey, director of the Bureau of Land Management; Greg Siekaniec, assistant director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and; Joel Holtrop, deputy chief of the U.S. Forest Service.

The Mexican and Canadian committee members are Mariana Bellot Rojas, director general, Comision Nacional de Areas Naturales Protegidas, Mexico; and Alan Latourelle, chief executive officer, Parks Canada Agency.

Proposed legislation threatens wilderness - Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act

Published on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 12:08 AM PDT

Christopher Lancette
From the Kern Valley Sun

The Wilderness Society recently condemned the introduction of a bill by Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) that would roll back existing protections and place at risk tens of millions more acres of wilderness-quality but unprotected National Forest and BLM public lands.

“This is the biggest attack on wilderness we have seen in the history of The Wilderness Society,” Wilderness Society policy analyst Paul Spitler said of the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act.


“This proposal flies in the face of values Americans hold dear with respect to stewardship of our public lands. It also flies in the face of nearly 50 years of legislation designating new wilderness areas. Your favorite places where you love to hunt, fish or hike? Gone. Protection for our drinking water and habitat for wildlife? Gone.”

If passed, this legislation would open wilderness-caliber lands to destructive threats, including oil and gas development, uncontrolled off-road vehicle use and other unchecked development. It would essentially prohibit the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management from managing pristine lands to protect their wilderness values.

“I want to stress that there has never been enough funding for the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to to hire adequate personnel to monitor and provide adequate on-site surveillance of our wilderness area and our precious resources,” added Kernville resident Robin Little.

“The Congressman (McCarthy) should talk to Forest Service and BLM people who do their best to keep an eye on these folks and see first hand the unbelieveable damage they do when they blaze their own trails throughout the forests,” she said. “Talk about cost? Again, unbelieveable. Rebuilding these damaged areas is not good use of our taxes. We would appreciate hearing what the estimated cost of opening up Wilderness areas for multiple use purposes would be,” Little said.

“That this proposal comes from the Republican leadership in Congress makes it more alarming,” Spitler said. “An attack of this magnitude does not represent the vision of Theodore Roosevelt or all the other great Republican leaders who love our public lands.”

In an April 18 op-ed piece, the Bakersfield Californian attacked the proposal writing, “Perhaps most alarming, the bill essentially declares, ‘OK, that's enough wilderness.’ By prohibiting future administrations from protecting wilderness-caliber lands with special designations, the bill essentially closes the door on any further land-use changes relative to wilderness protection – except to move them out of protected status.”

Background on the Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act

Rep. McCarthy’s bill would:

1. Remove existing legislative protections from millions of acres of Bureau of Land Management “Wilderness Study Areas.”

2. Remove existing protections on tens of millions of acres of unroaded national forest wild lands by terminating a decade-old policy that protected those places.

3. Repeal recent BLM policy that assures the agency will identify and protect lands harboring wilderness values when it prepares its land use plans.

4. Prohibit future administrations from ever protecting the wilderness characteristics on tens of millions of acres of wilderness-caliber lands.

NLCS "Ask The Experts" Episode 1: Wilderness