FEDERATION OF WESTERN OUTDOOR CLUBS

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OPPOSING PUTTING A CEILING ON POTENTIAL BLM WILDERNESS

The BLM Organic Act (FLPMA) directed the BLM to inventory its lands to determine which were suitable for designation by Congress as wilderness (sec. 603).

Acting under this authority, the agency in 1991 established 22.8 million acres as wilderness study areas (WSA), but it recommended designation for only 9.6 million acres. Conservationists felt that much more acreage was actually roadless and felt that much more should be designated as wilderness.

In Utah alone, conservationists felt that over 9 million acres should be designated, while the BLM, under the first Bush administration, recommended that only 1.9 million acres be designated. The state of Utah opposed designating even that much.

Now Interior Secretary Gail Norton has decided that the BLM will not designate any more Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) than the 22.8 million acres established in 1991. She essentially sees the process of inventorying roadless areas and setting up WSAs as finished. She views the 22.8 million inventory as the ceiling on what the Department may recommend for designation.

Conservationists argue that there are other authorities which the Secretary may use to recommend that wilderness be designated and to maintain the integrity of those areas.

Secretary Norton has also told the state of Utah that she will revoke the protection extended to an additional 2.6 million acres in Utah by the Clinton administration. This policy would preclude the possibility of interim protection for lands in other states, including three million acres in Oregon alone.

Suit has now been filed in federal court by groups, including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Wilderness Society, the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, the Arizona Wilderness Alliance, the Colorado Environmental Coalition, and Friends of Nevada Wilderness, to overturn Secretary Norton's policy and to reinstate interim-wilderness protection for the millions of acres of America's most undisturbed natural areas.

The Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs supports the litigation to contest the Secretary's ruling and deplores her actions. It believes that Congress never intended there to be any ceiling on how much wilderness can be designated on BLM lands. It believes that the department has authority to continue to recommend that additional areas be designated as wilderness, and it does not believe that WSAs can be disestablished by administrative action.


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