Believe it or Not

When I was a kid, our Sunday comics always had a Ripley's Believe or Not cartoon that would depict some extraordinary thing or happening that, to the common reader (like me), was hard to fathom. I recently testified at a hearing before the House Natural Resources Committee's Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands and the circumstance for the hearing definitely deserved the "Believe it or Not" designation, though I'm pretty sure it can't be depicted in a cartoon.

Please use your imagination and try to picture this situation. Imagine a Member of Congress from a Congressional district encompassing Manhattan - no, I don't mean Manhattan, Kansas, I mean Manhattan like in the Big Apple, Times Square, Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, Central Park and all of that. This Representative from Manhattan introduced legislation that would take 23 million acres of public lands and designate them as wilderness areas, making them off-limits to any motorized or mechanized recreation of any kind. Of course, none of this land was in her Congressional district, but rather in five western states of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

In keeping with the theme of knowing what's best for the rest of the country, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced H.R. 1975, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act. The legislation would not only seek to expand wilderness areas by 23 million acres, but also would designate some 2,000 miles of river as wild and scenic rivers as well as another 3 million acres as biological connecting corridors. Rep. Maloney is not alone in her enthusiasm for this sweeping legislation because 116 of her colleagues in the House have co-sponsored the legislation. It just so happens that most of those co-sponsors also represent districts east of the Mississippi.

If you would like to read what I said in my testimony opposing H.R. 1975, please click here. One encouraging note is the fact that despite the Subcommittee hearing on the legislation, I don't see the Congress passing this measure this year or next. But the cry for more wilderness areas will continue and I suspect that Rep. Maloney will re-introduce her sweeping legislation when the 111th Congress takes office in January, 2009. And depending upon the makeup of that Congress, her legislation might stand a better chance of passage. In the meantime, we will remain skeptical about the scope and vigilant in hopes of preventing passage of such a draconian measure.

Laverty is Confirmed!

In our August newsletter, we reported on the plight of Lyle Laverty having his nomination as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks held up because Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) had concerns over the Bush Administration's stance towards certain designations under the Endangered Species Act. Senator Wyden decided to hold hostage the Laverty nomination until the Administration changed its policy. But fortunately for Mr. Laverty, Senator Wyden's wife gave birth to twins last week and while the Senator was away in Oregon welcoming these new additions to his family, the Senate swiftly confirmed Mr. Laverty. Senator Wyden's absence from Senate Chamber meant that he wasn't personally able to object to the Senate proceeding to the Laverty nomination.

Miracles do happen both in terms of the birth of twins and in the confirmation of an Assistant Secretary. No word yet on whether Senator and Mrs. Wyden are naming one of the twins Lyle. Since Secretary Laverty will oversee the operation of the National Park Service, I am sure he will be more than happy to welcome Senator Wyden's expanded family whenever they wish to visit any of our National Parks.

Travel Management Rule

The U.S. Forest Service Travel Management Rule states that when the route designation process is completed, each national forest will publish a map showing which trails have been designated for motorized recreation. Once the maps are published and released to the general public, the designation becomes official.

We are beginning to hear rumblings that maps for some national forests are of rather poor quality and therefore difficult for users to identify which routes have been designated for motorized recreation. This seems to defeat the purpose of the maps in the first place and could only add to confusion and possibly conflict among recreational enthusiasts. We have no doubt that the Forest Service is sincere about making the Travel Management Rule work, but distributing maps that fail to clearly identify designated routes is not an encouraging sign. If you know of a situation where the maps are falling short in terms of educating the public on which trails are so designated, please let us know. This is something the Washington headquarters of the Forest Service needs to know about and we would be more than happy to bring this to their attention.

Also, if you are experiencing difficulties with the overall designation process, we would like to know that as well. To be frank about it, we know some national forests have taken seriously their responsibility to seek public input as a key element in developing a route system whereas other forests have been less than enthusiastic in welcoming public comments. Where the implementation process is less inclusive of the recreating public, we would like to know where this is happening. ARRA members can play an important role in providing us with this information.

California Fires

We note with sadness the loss of lives, the loss of hundreds of homes, and the destruction of thousands and thousands of acres of forest by the wild fires in Southern California. The homes can be rebuilt and the forests reseeded, but the lives are lost forever. Such devastation is the result of failed policies on a number of fronts including the building of developments too close to national forests, the construction of buildings too susceptible to fire, and policies over the past 20-30 years that have made the Forest Service more of a fire fighting force rather than an agency that actively manages our forests for timber resources. We hope that in time we will learn from these mistakes in the management of our public lands, but in the short term we are not very optimistic. Old habits are hard to change.

Sincerely,