Congress told the Bureau of Land Management to remove a small, but fish-damaging, dam on the Donner und Blitzen Wild and Scenic River and the Steens Mountain Wilderness. The BLM may finally get around to it.
Read MoreIt’s About Dam Time
Deserts
Malheur County Federal Land Legislation Take 4, Part 1: The Good, the Whatever, and the Bad
With a few critical tweaks, Senator Wyden’s legislation could be a net gain for the conservation of nature for the benefit of this and future generations. Without those tweaks, the bill as drafted is an existential threat to the conservation of federal public lands and should not be enacted into law.
Read MoreBook Review: Our Common Ground: A History of America’s Public Lands
in Book Reviews, Bureau of Land Management, Congress, Counties & Federal Lands, Courts, Department of Agriculture, Department of Interior, Deserts, Ecological Reserves, Ecosystems, Elections, Endangered Species, Energy, Federal Lands, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, Forests, Grasslands, Legislation, LItigation, Livestock Grazing, Mining, Nat'l Conservation Lands, National Forest System, National Monuments, National Monuments Act, National Park Service, National Park System, National Parks, National Recreation Area, National Scenic Area, National Trails System, National Wildlife Refuges, Presidents, Public Land Law, Recreation, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Wilderness, Wildlife
Understanding the history of public lands is useful if one is to be the best advocate for the conservation of public lands.
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Figure 1. Some red cliffs in the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area. Source: Bureau of Land Management.
Roading the Red Cliffs: Unnecessary, and Illegal to Boot
As the Trump administration was slithering out the door in mid-January, it issued decisions that would put a new 4.5-mile-long four-lane divided highway through both the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area and a particular stronghold for the imperiled Mojave desert tortoise.
Read More“Friends at home! I charge you to spare, preserve and cherish some portion of your primitive forests; for when these are cut away I apprehend they will not be easily replaced.”
Wilderness: Expanding Concept, Shrinking Supply
Compared to its four adjacent neighbors, Oregon has the smallest percentage of its lands designated as units of the National Wilderness Preservation System. While the average of the areas of the five states protected as wilderness is more than 9 percent, in Oregon less than 4 percent of the land is so protected. Oregon has 47 wilderness areas totaling 2,457,473 acres. Additional potential wilderness areas (a.k.a. roadless areas) in Oregon total more than 12 million acres, with approximately 61 percent of that area being generally tree-free (in the Oregon High Desert and other desert areas considered part of the sagebrush steppe, aka Sagebrush Sea) and the remainder generally forested. Congress should expeditiously expand the National Wilderness System in Oregon.
Read MoreA National Desert and Grassland System
It’s time for the BLM to have its own comprehensive land conservation system: a National Desert and Grassland System. Congress should place appropriate BLM lands into a system of national deserts and national grasslands similar to the National Forest System.
Read MoreAbolish the BLM and Replace It with a U.S. Desert and Grassland Service
Born in 1946 out of a merger between the federal General Land Office (est. 1812) and the U.S. Grazing Service (est. 1934), the present-day Bureau of Land Management (BLM) reflects its parentage by continuing to serve as partner or handmaiden to exploiter interests. For most of its history the BLM has been a mere custodian of the federal public lands left over from the great historic giveaways to homesteaders, railroads, loggers, ranchers, and miners, and after the creation of the national forests, wildlife refuges, parks, and military reservations. However, these remaining public lands are valuable for wildlife habitat, watershed protection, carbon sequestration, and recreation and should no longer be left in the domain of the extractive industries.
Read MoreThe Bipolar State of Utah and National Monument Designation
Most change comes through funerals. As the rabid opponents of national monuments shuffle off their mortal coils, the next generation will come to see the benefits of national parks. The history of public lands conservation in Utah is still being made.
Read MoreNo Room for Energy Production on Public Lands
If elected president, Hillary Clinton would “expand renewable energy on public lands.” With all due respect Madam President, whoa!
While producing energy on public lands reduces our addiction to foreign oil—and if renewable energy, reduce the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions—energy exploitation also ruins the values for which most Americans hold public lands dear.
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