The Big O backs off Wilderness designation

[djui5]

http://www.sfexaminer.com/politics/2...ilderness-plan

Under pressure from Congress, the Obama administration is backing away from a plan to make millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West eligible for federal wilderness protection.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a memo Wednesday that his agency will not designate any of those public lands as "wild lands." Instead Salazar said officials will work with members of Congress to develop recommendations for managing millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West.

"The protection of America's wilderness for hunting, fishing and backcountry recreation should be a unifying issue that mobilizes us to a common purpose," Salazar said. "We will focus our effort on building consensus around locally supported initiatives."

Salazar's decision reverses an order issued in December to restore eligibility for wilderness protection to millions of acres of public lands. That policy overturned a Bush-era approach that opened some Western lands to commercial development.

A budget deal approved by Congress prevented the Interior Department from spending money to implement the wilderness policy. GOP lawmakers complained that the plan would circumvent Congress' authority and could be used to declare a vast swath of public land off-limits to oil-and-gas drilling.

Republican governors in Utah, Alaska and Wyoming, filed suit to block the plan, saying it would hurt their state's economies by making federal lands unavailable for mineral production and other uses.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, hailed Salazar's reversal of what he called a "misguided" policy that would have harmed Utah's economy.

"Arbitrarily restricting citizens' use of our public lands and obstructing the development of domestic energy on those lands is the wrong thing to do, especially during an economic recession and without any input from Congress or local officials," Hatch said.

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/politics/2...#ixzz1OANEsWbL

[sahara mist]

I got the E-Mail from the AMA site. And sent a Thank You to Mr. Salazar

[OlneyJeeps]

What is happening with the reversal of the Wilderness act (heard that was going to re-open many areas)?

[sahara mist]

This is what I recieved from the AMA
AMA
to:
Dale
06/02/2011 09:33 AM
Please respond to "AMA"
Show Details




The AMA reports U.S. Interior Dept reverses Wild Lands policy Take Action!

Contact Secretary Salazar to thank him today!

On June 1, the U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued a memorandum directing the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Robert Abbey to not designate any lands as "Wild Lands." This memorandum reverses Secretarial Order 3310.

The Order, issued December 22, 2010, by Salazar, would have created a new land-use designation that essentially would have allowed BLM to manage public land as if it had received a "Wilderness" land-use designation from Congress, but without requiring congressional approval. This new policy, if remained in place, would have restricted responsible off-highway vehicle (OHV) riding in the affected areas.

Instead, Salazar said the BLM will work in collaboration with members of Congress to identify public land that may be appropriate candidates for congressional protection under the Wilderness Act.

Salazar cited the passage of the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, which includes a provision (Section 1769) that prohibits the use of appropriated funds to implement, administer, or enforce Secretarial Order 3310 in Fiscal Year 2011 as his reason to reverse this policy.

A Wilderness designation is one of the strictest forms of public land management. Once Congress designates an area as Wilderness, nearly all forms of non-pedestrian recreation are illegal. The American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) supports appropriate Wilderness designations that meet the criteria established by Congress in 1964, but anti-access advocates have been abusing the legislative process to ban responsible OHV recreation on public land.

Federal lawmakers called the "Wild Lands" policy a "land grab" and a blatant attempt to usurp congressional authority. The AMA sent a letter, dated January11, 2011, to Salazar asking him to explain whether the new "Wild Lands" land-use designation will block traditional routes of travel for off-highway riding. To view the letter, click here. To view the BLMs response, click here.

This is a major victory for responsible OHV riders and others concerned about appropriate access to public land. Anti-access groups will continue to push for legislation to inappropriately close off millions of acres of public land to OHVs. Not only are BLM lands under attack by these groups, but U.S. Forest Service land as well. Therefore, the riding community must remain vigilante.

The AMA thanks its members and others who took action on this issue. The Association would like all its members and OHV enthusiasts to thank Salazar for reversing Secretarial Order 3310 today. You can follow the "Take Action" option to send a pre-written e-mail directly to thank him for not designating any lands as "Wild Lands."


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[djui5]

What is happening with the reversal of the Wilderness act (heard that was going to re-open many areas)?

They aren't going to re-open anything that I know of, I don't believe they have closed anything recently by designating it a "wilderness". Obama WAS going to close a large part of undeveloped lands in the West by designating them wildernesses even though they didn't qualify for the designation, this is his realization that it's a really bad idea.

I could be wrong though, I haven't been following this super closely.