sacbee.com— Ah!!! the Bush administration is up to their old tricks, midnight deals and there goes our wilderness, enjoy it while you can.....
Dec 23, 2006View in Crawl 4
BLM reorganization plan sparks wilderness alarmDiverse group of activists, lawmakers worries Bureau of Land Management will have less control over 26 million acres, more than half of which are in California. BLM hasn't publicly detailed its intentions.By David Whitney - Bee Washington BureauLast Updated 12:21 am PST Saturday, December 23, 2006Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A3 The 60,000-acre King Range National Conservation Area north of Shelter Cove in Humboldt County is among the lands that might be impacted by a reorganization of the Bureau of Land Management. Critics suspect that the agency changes would result in less protection for conservation lands in the Western states. Sacramento Bee file, 2005/John Decker The Bureau of Land Management is considering a reorganization that environmentalists and a bipartisan group of House of Representatives members worry could dilute the agency's protection of millions of acres of conservation lands in the West.The BLM manages about 258 million acres, and among its traditional workload are mining, grazing and timber programs. But it also maintains about 26 million acres under its National Landscape Conservation System. Much of that is in wilderness or national monuments and conservation areas, with more than half the total acreage in California.The proposal would bring under the umbrella of the NLCS a variety of unrelated programs that, on paper, could make it seem as though substantially more money is being spent on conservation when on-the-ground spending is actually shrinking. "We don't want to see this reorganization that could lead to a holocaust through starvation of the NLCS," said Denise Ryan, a legislative representative for the National Wildlife Federation and member of the National Landscape Conservation System Coalition.Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill also are raising concerns about the reorganization, which critics charge was hatched in secret and has had no public airing.Last week, leaders of the National Landscape Conservation System Caucus delivered a letter to BLM Director Kathleen Clarke asking that the changes not be adopted until Congress has had a chance to review them."These national monuments, wilderness areas, scenic rivers and trails provide uniquely American experiences, valued by millions of our constituents," the letter states. It was signed by Reps. James Moran, D-Va.; Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs; Rick Renzi, R-Ariz.; and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz."It is critical that this reorganization include responsible oversight and budget commitments which allow these precious lands to grow and flourish," Bono says in a separate statement.The BLM hasn't publicly released details of its proposed reorganization. There's no mention of the proposed reshuffling on the agency's Web site.BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington said the agency has been reviewing for more than a year ways that it could be restructured to better serve the public. She said the recommendations were presented to employees Nov. 30.While many of the changes are bureaucratic, such as centralizing many of the BLM's operations in Denver, the proposed changes to the landscape conservation program are raising broader concerns about whether the division's core functions could be eroded.Boddington said the proposal is to move unrelated functions under the NLCS, including education programs and a dispute-resolution program. Others said that a BLM timber program that tries to find ways to save money by sharing facilities with the U.S. Forest Service also would be moved under the NLCS program."We believe that by this realignment of functions, we will be able to serve all of our public efficiently, including our NLCS stakeholders," Boddington said. "The functions will be complementary to the mission of the NLCS."But Ryan said little of the reorganization makes sense to her or her coalition."Why would you put alternative disputes resolution into the National Landscape Conservation System?" she asked. "Is the Bush administration putting these components of the BLM in the same boat so that they can sink it later? We have some concerns about what this means."Fueling some of the suspicions about the BLM reorganization is the Bush administration's plan to cut funding for the lands conservation program this year.The NLCS program is operating under a 2006 budget level of $42 million. The Bush administration had sought to slash that by $5 million in 2007. But Congress failed to approve a 2007 spending bill for the agency, and it continues to operate at the higher spending level for fiscal 2006.In its letter to Clarke, the House NLCS caucus asks that the agency do nothing more toward completing the reorganization until Congress is told, among other things, what the financial implications would be on the conservation lands."The system already operates with a bare-bones funding and numerous unfilled positions, with no capacity to sustain further cuts," the caucus leaders said.The proposed reorganization comes at a time when tens of thousands of acres of the conservation lands in California are in transition.The California lands include the 250,000-acre Carrizo Plain National Monument near the Central Coast, the 60,000-acre King Range National Conservation Area south of Eureka, and about 10 million acres of the huge California Desert Conservation Area.In the Carrizo Plain, the process of writing a management plan is about to resume after a tumultuous year following the suicide of its manager, who in a note blamed her death on a difficult relationship with her superiors. At the heart of the dispute was a difference of opinion over the future of cattle grazing in the national monument.About 173,000 acres of BLM lands were added to the conservation system this year when Congress enacted a North Coast wilderness bill.In testifying for that bill, BLM said the King Range additions would become the "crown jewel" of the agency's 7.4 million acres of wilderness holdings in the West.
xpzqDec 23, 2006Submitter
BLM reorganization plan sparks wilderness alarmDiverse group of activists, lawmakers worries Bureau of Land Management will have less control over 26 million acres, more than half of which are in California. BLM hasn't publicly detailed its intentions.By David Whitney - Bee Washington BureauLast Updated 12:21 am PST Saturday, December 23, 2006Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A3 The 60,000-acre King Range National Conservation Area north of Shelter Cove in Humboldt County is among the lands that might be impacted by a reorganization of the Bureau of Land Management. Critics suspect that the agency changes would result in less protection for conservation lands in the Western states. Sacramento Bee file, 2005/John Decker The Bureau of Land Management is considering a reorganization that environmentalists and a bipartisan group of House of Representatives members worry could dilute the agency's protection of millions of acres of conservation lands in the West.The BLM manages about 258 million acres, and among its traditional workload are mining, grazing and timber programs. But it also maintains about 26 million acres under its National Landscape Conservation System. Much of that is in wilderness or national monuments and conservation areas, with more than half the total acreage in California.The proposal would bring under the umbrella of the NLCS a variety of unrelated programs that, on paper, could make it seem as though substantially more money is being spent on conservation when on-the-ground spending is actually shrinking. "We don't want to see this reorganization that could lead to a holocaust through starvation of the NLCS," said Denise Ryan, a legislative representative for the National Wildlife Federation and member of the National Landscape Conservation System Coalition.Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill also are raising concerns about the reorganization, which critics charge was hatched in secret and has had no public airing.Last week, leaders of the National Landscape Conservation System Caucus delivered a letter to BLM Director Kathleen Clarke asking that the changes not be adopted until Congress has had a chance to review them."These national monuments, wilderness areas, scenic rivers and trails provide uniquely American experiences, valued by millions of our constituents," the letter states. It was signed by Reps. James Moran, D-Va.; Mary Bono, R-Palm Springs; Rick Renzi, R-Ariz.; and Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz."It is critical that this reorganization include responsible oversight and budget commitments which allow these precious lands to grow and flourish," Bono says in a separate statement.The BLM hasn't publicly released details of its proposed reorganization. There's no mention of the proposed reshuffling on the agency's Web site.BLM spokeswoman Celia Boddington said the agency has been reviewing for more than a year ways that it could be restructured to better serve the public. She said the recommendations were presented to employees Nov. 30.While many of the changes are bureaucratic, such as centralizing many of the BLM's operations in Denver, the proposed changes to the landscape conservation program are raising broader concerns about whether the division's core functions could be eroded.Boddington said the proposal is to move unrelated functions under the NLCS, including education programs and a dispute-resolution program. Others said that a BLM timber program that tries to find ways to save money by sharing facilities with the U.S. Forest Service also would be moved under the NLCS program."We believe that by this realignment of functions, we will be able to serve all of our public efficiently, including our NLCS stakeholders," Boddington said. "The functions will be complementary to the mission of the NLCS."But Ryan said little of the reorganization makes sense to her or her coalition."Why would you put alternative disputes resolution into the National Landscape Conservation System?" she asked. "Is the Bush administration putting these components of the BLM in the same boat so that they can sink it later? We have some concerns about what this means."Fueling some of the suspicions about the BLM reorganization is the Bush administration's plan to cut funding for the lands conservation program this year.The NLCS program is operating under a 2006 budget level of $42 million. The Bush administration had sought to slash that by $5 million in 2007. But Congress failed to approve a 2007 spending bill for the agency, and it continues to operate at the higher spending level for fiscal 2006.In its letter to Clarke, the House NLCS caucus asks that the agency do nothing more toward completing the reorganization until Congress is told, among other things, what the financial implications would be on the conservation lands."The system already operates with a bare-bones funding and numerous unfilled positions, with no capacity to sustain further cuts," the caucus leaders said.The proposed reorganization comes at a time when tens of thousands of acres of the conservation lands in California are in transition.The California lands include the 250,000-acre Carrizo Plain National Monument near the Central Coast, the 60,000-acre King Range National Conservation Area south of Eureka, and about 10 million acres of the huge California Desert Conservation Area.In the Carrizo Plain, the process of writing a management plan is about to resume after a tumultuous year following the suicide of its manager, who in a note blamed her death on a difficult relationship with her superiors. At the heart of the dispute was a difference of opinion over the future of cattle grazing in the national monument.About 173,000 acres of BLM lands were added to the conservation system this year when Congress enacted a North Coast wilderness bill.In testifying for that bill, BLM said the King Range additions would become the "crown jewel" of the agency's 7.4 million acres of wilderness holdings in the West.