AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CONSERVATION COMMUNITY
CALLING FOR A MORATORIUM ON
DAMAGING PUBLIC LAND & WILDERNESS LEGISLATION
September 12, 2006
The undersigned organizations call on the conservation community to support a moratorium on bills currently pending in Congress that combine wilderness designation with harmful land and water development provisions.
This extraordinary request stems from our alarm regarding several bills detrimental to public lands heading toward fast-track passage in the U.S. Congress. Some support these bills for their wilderness designations, but the bills are laden with environmentally damaging provisions and land privatization schemes that have dire implications for future public-land and wilderness protection.
In recent years, there has been a transformation in the approach both Congress and some wilderness advocates have taken to formulating and gaining support for wilderness legislation. The new approach carries severely adverse consequences for both public lands and wilderness, and we believe the trend must be stopped now.
We ask those organizations that have been supporting these bills to recognize the danger the bills pose to public lands and join with us in opposing their passage. We ask for a moratorium on all wilderness legislation that contains non-wilderness-related provisions and special exceptions for uses inside wilderness.
The price is too high
A far cry from simple wilderness protection, the new trend— often called “quid pro quo wilderness”— is to insert wilderness designation into large, complex land-use development bills, offsetting wilderness protection with harmful provisions such as:
- sell-offs, even outright giveaways, of public land to local interests and developers;
- free public rights-of-way for sprawling water pipelines;
- direct conveyances of federal land (and land-sale proceeds) to states and counties;
- the formation of select groups to exercise local control over public lands;
- sanctioning motor-vehicle use, stream-poisoning, military maneuvers, and other incompatible and inappropriate uses in wilderness.
These provisions continually lower the bar on what constitutes wilderness protection; legitimize the idea that it is acceptable to sell off or give away public land; entrench the concept of trading public land in one place for wilderness designation elsewhere; and undermine the larger struggle to protect all public land.
A multiple-bill train wreck
There are four bills pending in Congress that fit the quid pro quo mold, and which may end up combined for fast-track passage, with or without other wilderness bills:
- White Pine County Conservation, Recreation and Development Act of 2006, S. 3772
- Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act, HR 3603
- Washington County Growth and Conservation Act of 2006, S. 3636, HR 5769
- Owyhee Initiative Implementation Act of 2006, S. 3794
Just these four bills combined would sell off, trade, or give away more than 80,000 acres of public land; give away free public right-of-way for water pipelines and untold acres for other sprawl-enabling utility infrastructure; and release some 400,000 acres of Wilderness Study Areas.
Other bills include smaller (or no) trade-offs, but nevertheless create wilderness areas with special exceptions that allow inappropriate and damaging uses. One bill would codify an exchange of public National Forest land formulated by private parties to settle a private dispute.
Whether some or all, passed individually or together, and in whatever combination, these bills are dismantling public land protection and undermining the spirit and intent of the Wilderness Act.
When the people lead the leaders will follow
Since last fall, both the Bush Administration and the majority party in Congress have floated many proposals for large-scale privatization of public land, including schemes to sell 300,000 acres of “excess” land in our National Forests, auction off public land in the West, and sell National Parks. The public outcry has been swift and resounding— prompting even anti-federal-land ideologues in Congress to disavow the proposals.
The conservation and wilderness communities were united in opposing these privatization schemes. Yet quid pro quo bills are part of the same phenomenon and would accomplish the same result— divesting the public of public lands, treating them as an asset to be liquidated for the benefit of local and special interests.
It’s the worst possible time for fast-track wilderness
The current administration and Congress are promoting the most environmentally damaging policies the U.S. has seen in years. Public land liquidation and privatization are at the heart of their agenda.
When Congress re-convenes in September for a hasty wrap-up before the elections, there is a strong possibility that several individual privatization-development-wilderness bills could be thrown into one or more mammoth omnibus bills. Good bills may be thrown in with the bad to neutralize opposition and to try to belatedly burnish the green credentials of the party in power.
At the same time, there is a strong potential for change in the makeup of Congress— less than two months from now. This is not a mere naïve hope, but a possibility that is under very serious discussion.
The only prudent approach at this pivotal time is to abandon support for these severely compromised proposals. We must re-unify as a principled, public-interest movement, and fight for true wilderness and public land protection in the new year.
Rededicating ourselves to protecting public land
The ongoing and intensifying internal debate over quo pro quo wilderness is dividing what should be a unified movement to protect public lands and wilderness.
If we are to succeed in protecting public land we need to acknowledge the importance of the debate, make room for it, and work toward an agreement about principles and bottom lines. This discussion needs to happen sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, because any entrenchment of the quo pro quo trend simply narrows our options, we ask again for unified opposition to the passage of any more of these damaging wilderness bills this year, in this Congress, in this political environment.
Wilderness Watch
Missoula, MT
George Nickas
Western Lands Project
Seattle, WA
Janine Blaeloch
Western Watersheds Project
Hailey, ID
Jon Marvel
Friends of the Clearwater
Moscow, ID
Gary Macfarlane
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
Olympia, WA
Sue Gunn
Great Old Broads for Wilderness
Durango, CO
Veronica Egan
NREPA Network
Hailey, ID
Kaz Thea
Alliance for the Wild Rockies
Missoula, MT
Michael Garrity
Public Lands Foundation
Arlington, VA
George Lea
Idaho Sporting Congress
Boise, ID
Ron Mitchell
Animas Riverkeepers
Durango, CO
Dave Wegner
Assoc. of Veterinarians for Animal Rights
Davis, CA
Teri Barnato
Brister for Congress Campaign
Salt Lake City, UT
Bob Brister
California Oak Foundation
Oakland, CA
Janet Santos Cobb
Center for Environmental Equity
Portland, OR
Larry Tuttle
Center for Sustainable Living
Bloomington, IN
Lucille Bertuccio
Citizens Against Recreation Privatization
Southlake, TX
Greg Billingsly
Citizens Committee to Save Our Canyons
Salt Lake City, UT
Gale Dick
Citizens for Public Resources
Moscow, ID
Tom Giesen
Citizens for the Chuckwalla Valley
Desert Center, CA
Donna Charpied
Citizens Progressive Alliance
Littleton, CO
Phil Doe
Coalition of Retired Sawtooth NRA Managers
Hailey, ID
Scotty Phillips
Cold Mountain, Cold Rivers
Missoula, MT
Lance Olsen
Colorado RiverKeeper
Moab, UT
John Weisheit
Committee for Idaho’s High Desert
Boise, ID
Steve Jakubowics
Conservation Congress
Lewistown, MT
Denise Boggs
Deerlodge Forest Defense Fund
Boulder, MT
Paul Richards
Desert Survivors
Oakland, CA
Steve Tabor
Dona Ana Quality of Life
Las Cruces, NM
Stephen Fischmann
Fire Island Wilderness Committee
Brookhaven, NY
Joe Zysman
Forests Forever
San Francisco, CA
Paul Hughes
Friends of Bell Smith Springs
Stonefort, IL
Sam Stearns
Friends of the Agua Fria River Basin
Mayer, AZ
Peggy Titus
Friends of the Breitenbush Cascades
Salem, OR
Michael Donnelly
Friends of the West
Clayton, ID
Dave Richmond
Friends of the Wild Swan
Swan Lake, MT
Arlene Montgomery
Glen Canyon Institute
Salt Lake City, UT
Rich Ingebretsen
Heartwood
Brookport, Illinois
Ernie Reed
Hells Canyon Preservation Council
LaGrande, OR
Larry McLaud
High Sierra Hikers Association
South Lake Tahoe, CA
Peter Browning
Idaho Birdhunters
Boise, ID
Russell Heughins
Idaho Wildlife Federation
Boise, ID
Kent Marlor
Indiana Forest Alliance
Bloomington, IN
Drew Laird
Indian Nations Audubon Society
Wagoner, OK
David Dyer
Key Deer Protection Alliance
Big Pine Key, FL
Mick Putney
Kootenai Environmental Alliance
Coeur d’Alene, ID
Barry Rosenberg
Lake Superior Greens
Superior, WI
Jan Conley
Living Rivers
Moab, UT
Owen Lammers
Masilla Valley Audubon Society
Las Cruces, NM
Robert Tafanelli
MidFORC
Seattle, WA
Mark Boyar
Missouri Forest Alliance
St. Louis, MO
Jim Scheff
Montgomery County Env. Health Division
Troy, NC
John Vinroot
Native Forest Council
Eugene, OR
Tim Hermach
Nevada Environmental Coalition
Las Vegas, NV
Robert Hall
North Cascades Conservation Council
Seattle, WA
Marc Bardsley
Northwoods Wilderness Recovery
Marquette, MI
Doug Cornett
Olympic Forest Coalition
Olympia, WA
Bonnie Phillips
Olympic Park Associates
Sequim, WA
Donna Osseward
Ozark Society Buffalo River Chapter
Gilbert, AR
Laura Timby
Pack Rat Outdoor Center
Fayetteville, AR
Carolyn Crook
Public Lands Without Livestock
Binghamton, NY
Mike Hudak
Red Rock Forests
Moab, UT
Terry Shepherd
Regional Assoc. of Concerned Environmentalists
Brookport, IL
Craig Rhodes
Retailers of the Outdoor Industry
Asheville, NC
David E. Matz
River Runners for Wilderness
Moab, UT
Tom Martin
Save America’s Forests
Washington, D.C.
Carl Ross
Save Lake Atoka
Wagoner, OK
David Dyer
Selkirk Conservation Alliance
Priest River, ID
Mark Sprengel
Shagbark
Paoli, IN
Andy Mahler
Society for Animal Protective Legislation
Washington, D.C.
D.J. Schubert
Southwest Environmental Center
Las Cruces, NM
Kevin Bixby
Speak Up for Wildlife Foundation
Calgary, Alberta
Brian Horejsi
Sperling Foundation
Tualatin, OR
Tom Pringle
Swan View Coalition
Kallispell, MT
Keith Hammer
Tongass Conservation Society
Ketchikan, AK
Gregory Vickrey
United Mountain Defense
Knoxville, TN
Chris Irwin
Utah Environmental Congress
Salt Lake City, UT
Kevin Mueller
Valley Watch
Evansville,IN
John Blair
Virginians for Wilderness
Staunton, VA
R.F. Mueller
Wasatch Mountain Club
Salt Lake City, UT
Will McCarvill
Western Wildlife Conservancy
Salt Lake City, UT
Kirk Robinson
Wild South
Moulton, AL
Janice Barrett
Wild Watershed
Santa Fe, NM
Sam Hitt
WildWest Institute
Missoula, MT
Matthew Koehler
Wild Wilderness
Bend, OR
Scott Silver
Wilderness Guides Council
Santa Rosa, CA
Kathy Scout Tomyris
Wildlands CPR
Missoula, MT
Bethanie Walder
Zoar Valley Nature Society
Gowanda, NY
Julie Broyles
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