By Joel Webster
If a misleading statement is repeated often enough, some people will
begin to believe it. That appears to be the strategy of those working to
overturn the Bureau of Land Management “wild lands” policy that was
introduced in December by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Beyond the misleading rhetoric are some hard facts: The BLM wild lands
policy assures that the agency will follow federal law. It requires
public involvement while creating opportunities to conserve prime fish
and wildlife habitat. It offers a common-sense resolution to the
uncertainties currently surrounding management of valuable public lands.
The policy’s future remains uncertain, however. Hunters and anglers
need support from western U.S. senators and representatives to uphold
and defend this important conservation tool.
In 1976, Congress passed a law called the Federal Lands Policy
Management Act that requires the BLM to keep an updated inventory of
lands; develop, maintain and revise land-use plans; and periodically
recommend to the president areas deserving of wilderness conservation.
In response, the BLM issued national direction for local field offices
to ensure their compliance with the law. That guidance stood until 2003,
when the DOI established a questionable agreement with the state of
Utah, effectively eliminating clear national guidance for the
responsible management of wild public lands.
The result was an erratic approach to undeveloped BLM lands management.
The recent wild lands policy should provide consistency to the analysis
and consideration of these BLM lands as required by law.
Specifically, the policy directs the BLM to solicit public input and
consider values of existing wild public lands during local planning
efforts. Lands determined worthy of conservation measures will be
designated “wild lands,” and the agency will actively work to uphold
their primitive character.
First and foremost, the policy brings BLM land management back into
compliance with federal law. Yet it also is supported by sportsmen
across the country because of the benefits it offers core fish and
wildlife habitat – places that allow us to stalk big bucks and bulls,
land wild trout and experience the outdoors in a wild and unsullied
state.
Decades of scientific studies show that certain public lands, such as
undeveloped BLM lands, provide large blocks of undisturbed habitat where
big-game animals like mule deer, elk and bighorn sheep can flourish.
These lands also offer intact watersheds where wild trout and salmon –
dependent on clean water, stable streamflows and consistent lake levels –
can thrive. Conservation of these lands and waters generally results in
increased hunting and fishing opportunity and higher-quality outdoor
experiences.
Opponents to the wild lands policy want the public to believe that this
order will result in a D.C.-driven land grab. In reality, the policy
provides hunters and anglers opportunities to keep prime big-game
habitat and trout waters the way they have been for generations.
Notably, it creates an enormous opportunity for average sportsmen to
participate in a transparent and open land-use planning process that
will help conserve valuable fish and wildlife habitat and
equal-opportunity hunting and angling activities on our public lands.
Unfortunately, the House of Representatives passed a budget bill that
would prohibit the BLM from carrying out this important policy. If this
language is included in the final budget, it not only would prohibit the
BLM from following FLPMA; it also would prevent the agency from
analyzing and conserving some of the finest backcountry fish and
wildlife habitat in the nation.
Sportsmen need western decision makers to keep the wild lands funding
prohibition out of the final budget bill. Strong leadership on this
issue is the right course of action in returning much-needed consistency
to management of our public lands. It also will help guarantee the
future of our backcountry public-lands hunting and fishing traditions –
an outdoors legacy that defines the American identity.
This post originally appeared at NewWest.net. Joel Webster is a born and raised Western sportsman and is director
of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s Center for Western
Lands. He writes from Missoula, Montana. This column also appeared in
the Denver Post.
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