A Bad Deal for America’s Wild Lands: Regulation Change and Environmental Rollbacks in the Bush Administration’s Waning Days

November 26, 2008

Our public lands represent a heritage that belongs to all Americans, one that is critical to safeguarding clean water and air and reducing carbon emissions. The Bush administration has treated these lands as if they belong to industry. And they’re not done yet.

With almost three months left in office, the administration will be pushing hard to accomplish as much of its agenda as possible. Political appointees are likely to be finalizing land management plans, regulations, and policy changes that could severely damage our nation’s public lands for decades to come. Yet few Americans are aware of these threats. On some of these issues there may still be time to hold off the irreparable harm if citizens learn about them and take action.

1. Administration Rolling Back Protections for Pristine Roadless Lands
   The Bush administration has circumvented the Roadless Area Conservation Rule by adopting an Idaho-specific version that opens up millions of acres of roadless national forest land to more road building and logging than was possible under the earlier rule. Idaho has more roadless national forest lands than any other state in the lower 48 and, thanks to the Bush administration, Idaho now has weaker protection for its roadless lands than any other state. Of immediate concern is the Smoky Canyon Phosphate Mine near Yellowstone National Park, which is already a designated Superfund clean-up site due to selenium pollution that threatens streams and Yellowstone cutthroat trout populations. The mine expansion would entail road construction within the pristine Sage Creek and Meade Peak roadless areas. In rushing to complete this project, the Bush administration is also pressuring agency officials to convert biological assessments from “likely to adversely affect” certain animals to an opinion that the mine expansion is “not likely to adversely affect” listed species.
   [Craig Gehrke, 208-343-8153]
   [Thanksgiving weekend: 208-867-9970]
    
2. Commercial Oil Shale Leasing Plans Finalized Without Opportunity for Protest, Appeals
   We expect the Bush administration to finalize commercial oil shale leasing and development regulations while also amending 12 Bureau of Land Management (BLM) resource management plans. They will become final over objections from the Environmental Protection Agency, governors and local elected officials, who are concerned about inadequate environmental analysis. BLM seems deaf to admissions from the oil shale industry that a safe and efficient technology for squeezing oil from shale won’t exist for years or even decades. Without knowing which oil shale technologies will prove viable and what the associated costs and impacts will be, it is impossible to develop regulations that contain appropriate protections for the environment, appropriate royalty rates to ensure a fair return to taxpayers, and a financial safety net for affected communities. In coming weeks, the record of decision on the plans will be signed by Assistant Secretary Stephen Allred, a highly unusual act that effectively cuts off opportunity for the public to file formal appeals with the Interior Board of Land Appeals.
   [Chase Huntley, 202-429-7431]
   [Thanksgiving weekend: 202-725-7305]
    
3. Unilateral Proposal Strips Congressional Committees of Power to Protect Lands
   Neither Congress nor future secretaries of the interior would be able to protect public lands from mineral activities in cases of emergency, if Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne succeeds in unilaterally repealing a federal statute enacted under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act. Responding to the threat that thousands of uranium mining claims pose to Grand Canyon National Park, the House Natural Resources Committee passed a resolution last summer asking Kempthorne to exclude areas of public land surrounding the park from mining. Instead, the administration unilaterally issued a proposal to withdraw such power from the House Natural Resources Committee, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and future interior secretaries. The proposal provided only a 15-day public comment period (which closed on October 27), and it is expected to be finalized before the Bush administration leaves office.
   [Dave Alberswerth, 202-429-2695]
    
4. Concealed Weapons to Be Allowed in Our National Parks and Wildlife Refuges
   A new rule, to be finalized by the end of the year despite immense opposition, would dramatically change the character of our national parks and national wildlife refuges by overturning a long-standing, functional firearm policy. Recognizing that parks and refuges represent unique American landscapes, conserve critical habitat for wildlife, and welcome millions of visitors each year, the Department of the Interior prohibited loaded, assembled firearms on these public lands in the 1980s in order to prevent wildlife poaching and protect cultural resources and visitors. The recent proposal to allow loaded, concealed weapons would not only be contrary to established rules, but would change the culture of our national icons. A survey of present and retired park and refuge personnel indicates that over 75 percent believe that the proposed rule would reduce the agencies’ ability to accomplish their conservation missions.
   [Kristen Brengel, 202-429-2694]
   [Thanksgiving weekend: 202-320-2913]
    
5. Major Fishery of Bristol Bay, Alaska Threatened by Oil and Gas Drilling
   Bristol Bay has the world’s largest wild run of sockeye salmon, provides 40 percent of the U.S. fish catch, and generates nearly $500 million in yearly fishing revenue. Yet the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service included this area in its proposed 2007-2012 plan for Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas drilling without properly examining the environmental impacts of such activity. President Bush set the stage for drilling in Bristol Bay in 2007 when he lifted an executive withdrawal put in place by his father to protect this significant resource. The draft plan calls for two lease sales in the North Aleutian Basin, which includes the federal offshore waters of Bristol Bay and the eastern Bering Sea, in 2010 and 2012. Because of the potential for catastrophic damage, the government should conduct extensive scientific studies to fully understand the ecosystem and anticipate the potential consequences of development. Oil and gas development in a region already compromised by climate change would jeopardize habitat vital to wild salmon, polar bears, walrus, and other wildlife.
   [Eleanor Huffines, 907-272-9453 x 103]
   [Thanksgiving weekend: 907-232-0020]
    
6. New Forest Service Directive Allows Timber Harvesting on Potential Wilderness
   The Forest Service has proposed changes to its directive guiding vegetation management in forest plans. As a result, there could be much more timber harvesting than has been permitted under existing plans, particularly on lands once deemed unsuitable for timber harvest. Under the Bush administration, the Forest Service has attempted to make these rules changes for several years — with a federal court throwing them out in 2007 after a lawsuit. The interim directive (ID_1909.12-2008-1 in the Forest Service Handbook) could affect citizen-proposed wilderness and roadless areas, depending on the outcome of legal challenges. It also allows forest managers to allow logging without any intent to reforest the land, jeopardizing these forest ecosystems. In an attempt to push its goals, the administration has broken larger proposals like this into smaller pieces in an attempt to escape notice in the final days of the administration.
   [Mary Krueger, 978-342-2159]
    
7. Reagan-Era Rule Protecting Streams From Coal Mine Waste to be Rescinded
   We expect the Bush administration to rescind a 1983 regulation adopted during the Reagan administration that protects streams from the dumping of wastes from coal strip mining. The current Office of Surface Mining rule prohibits wastes from coal mines from being deposited in streams. The Bush administration proposal would rescind this protection for streams, allowing for the further expansion of a coal mining technique known as “mountain-top removal,” where mining companies literally blow up the tops of mountains to reach coal seams and dispose of the waste rock in stream valleys.
   [Dave Alberswerth, 202-429-2695]
    
8. Finalized Transmission Corridor Plans Lock in Dirty Fuel Future
   Corridors designated for power lines and separate avenues for oil, gas and hydrogen pipelines prioritize dirty fuel sources such as coal at the expense of renewable energies. They also threaten places such as Arches National Park in Utah and the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge on the Arizona/California border. The Department of Energy wants to finalize parts of the corridors designation under sections 368 and 1221 of Energy Policy Act of 2005 despite agencies’ inability to coordinate transmission and pipeline corridor designations. Corridor designations should be limited to reasonable sizes, and should balance protection of wildlands and ecological values with the need for additional energy transmission capacity. Most also need to be revisited to ensure that they include renewable sources of energy. The rush to judgment will preclude adequate consideration of these issues.
   [Nada Culver, 303-650-5818 x 117]
    
9. Yellowstone National Park’s Winter Plan Falls Short, Endangers Park Resources
   The number of snowmobiles allowed into Yellowstone National Park under a new proposal by the Bush administration continues to ignore the Park Service’s scientific findings. The Bush administration this week put forward a new temporary plan to guide winter access, following a court decision that its 2007 authorization of continued snowmobile use failed to protect Yellowstone’s air quality, quiet, and wildlife. The new plan ensures that Yellowstone’s winter season will begin on time and points the park in a better direction than the administration’s previous plan. These are encouraging developments — for the short-term. For the long-term, however, the daily ceiling of 318 snowmobiles still exceeds the daily average of the past five winters and will lead to damage of Yellowstone’s resources. Every scientific study has demonstrated that the Park Service can do a better job protecting Yellowstone by increasing public use of snowcoaches. Such an approach has been recommended by every Park Service director who has served over the past 44 years.
   [Kristen Brengel, 202-429-2694]
   [Thanksgiving weekend: 202-320-2913]
    
10. Wilderness-quality Eastern Forests to be Leased to Oil and Gas Companies
    Even though oil and gas companies already hold undeveloped leases on millions of acres, the Bush administration has continued to sell hundreds of thousands of acres of leases on sensitive Western lands that are inappropriate for development. (For example, on December 19, the Utah office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will sell leases ringing Arches and Canyonlands National Parks while we expect similar leasing in Colorado.) A new twist, however, is the expanded leasing of eastern lands including those proposed for wilderness designation. The BLM recently attempted to lease a tract of land in West Virginia that is included in the Wild Monongahela Act (now part of the omnibus lands bill pending in Congress), and The Wilderness Society anticipates an increasing number of similar lease sales in the near future.
    [Mary Krueger, 978-342-2159 and Suzanne Jones, 303-650-5818 x 102]
     
11. Endangered Species Act to Ignore Possible Extinctions Caused by Global Warming
    The Bush administration proposed new rules that would undermine the Endangered Species Act by changing it to ensure that the potential effects of global warming will rarely, if ever, be considered. These rule changes also would allow federal agencies to make land management decisions or take other actions without consulting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service about the impacts their actions might have on a particular species. These changes have been proposed despite findings by the International Panel on Climate Change that 30 percent of species alive today could become extinct if global warming continues unabated.
    [David Moulton, 202-429-2681]
    [Thanksgiving weekend: 301-913-9535 or 202-264-0190]
     
12. “Threatened” Polar Bears Endangered by Accelerated Offshore Arctic Leasing
    America’s polar bear, listed just this year as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act, faces further endangerment from already completed oil and gas lease sales in its primary hunting habitats of the frozen Chukchi and Beaufort Seas of Alaska. Major oil companies have begun seismic testing on lands they purchased last February when the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) held the first of several planned lease sales on nearly 30 million acres of the Chukchi — an area the size of Pennsylvania. The administration’s five-year plan proposes moving forward aggressively on further leasing in the Chukchi and Beaufort, while a new expedited nationwide offshore leasing and drilling plan could mean the opening of more areas in these seas as well as in Bristol Bay. These Arctic waters are also rich in marine life such as whales, seals and walrus, and are important for indigenous peoples, who hunt seals and bowhead whales. Impacts from seismic testing, marine traffic, and pollution threaten to irreparably harm these areas, which are already vulnerable and changing due to global warming. MMS documents insufficiently presented the cumulative impacts of oil leasing, exploration, and development, and the effects of climate change on wildlife and other values because most were based on outdated research for a region that isn’t well understood.
    [Eleanor Huffines, 907-272-9453 x 103]
    [Thanksgiving weekend: 907-232-0020]
     
13. Utah’s Canyon Country Sacrificed in Favor of One Last Gift for Oil and Gas
    After dismissing or resolving 87 protests in less than a month, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will implement five of six resource management plans that would manage more than 10.5 million acres of Utah’s public lands in the Moab, Price, Vernal, Richfield, Monticello, and Kanab areas. The Monticello plan will be released pending approval by state officials. The BLM prioritized energy development and off-road vehicle access on nearly 5 million of these acres that hold wilderness characteristics, making these plans the ribbon that decorates the massive gift package that the Bush administration has already delivered to the oil and gas industry over the last eight years.
    [Nada Culver, 303-650-5818 x 117]
     
14. Forest Service Land Managers Prevented From Making Air Quality Comments
    In order to stymie recognition of air quality problems by Forest Service land managers, the administration issued a directive that decisions finding adverse air quality impacts must be reviewed the chief of the Forest Service and then be passed on to the deputy undersecretary for forests for a final decision. Among other problems, this process ensures that air quality determinations will be made by Washington political appointees rather than Forest Service land managers actually working in the field. Specifically, the directive outlines an additional 30 days for this political level of decision-making. This drawn-out timeline can effectively derail meaningful comment by the agency, due to failure to meet National Environmental Policy Act (and other process) comment deadlines.
    [Stephanie Kessler, 307-332-3462]
    [Thanksgiving weekend: 307-438-0187]
     
15. Fish and Wildlife Service to Issue National Wildlife Refuge Wilderness Policy Without Public Review
    Sound wilderness management practices not only protect the resource, but also ensure that visitors to National Wildlife Refuge System wilderness areas see the landscape and wildlife in a natural condition. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last offered a draft wilderness stewardship policy for public comment under the Clinton administration in 2001. That draft, which contained important protections for wilderness, was never finalized. We expect that the Bush administration will release guidelines on wilderness management without time for public review. Given that wildlife refuges have faced a number of challenges, such as global warming, in the seven years that have elapsed since the last version of the draft was released in 2001, the need for public review of and comment on the policy is critical.
    [Maribeth Oakes, 202-429-2674]

Other Rollbacks:

• The Bush administration wants to open thousands of acres of Colorado’s currently protected forest to road building, mining and oil and gas development. The state is close to approving new and weaker protections for national roadless forests in Colorado. [Steve Smith, 303-650-5818 x 106]
• The administration has consistently failed to provide protest periods before issuing records of decisions on programmatic environmental impact statements on oil shale, geothermal development, the West-wide Energy Corridors process and revisions to the Western Oregon Plan. The administration has also worked to change the protest and appeal rules for oil and gas development in order to limit opportunities for the public to comment. [Nada Culver, 303-650-5818]
• The Bureau of Land Management is pushing a permit for drilling on spectacular lands in Otero Mesa in New Mexico. [Michelle Otero, 505-917-0483] [Thanksgiving weekend: 505-554-9701]
• The Bureau of Land Management continues to push for finalization of West Tavaputs EIS for full-field oil and gas development in and around the archeologically significant Nine Mile Canyon of Utah. [Suzanne Jones, 303-650-5818 x 102]
• The administration wants to issue a revised regulation that would exclude the public from a process to designate new mountain biking trails inside national parks. [Kristen Brengel, 202-429-2694] [Thanksgiving weekend: 202-320-2913]
• The administration is pushing to issue a record of decision on Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument of Montana that would allow for several backcountry air strips, increased off-road travel, and irresponsible oil and gas drilling. [Nada Culver, 303-650-5818]
• In Montana, the Bush administration secretly negotiated with Plum Creek Timber to rewrite road access agreements on thousands of miles of old logging roads to allow for residential development, paving the way for extensive development of Montana’s backcountry. Despite the objection of five western Montana counties (many of them conservative and rural), Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark Rey has not backed down from his promises to the sign the agreement before President Bush leaves office. An initial Government Accountability Office report indicates the negotiations could have national implications. [Jeff Fox, 406-599-2916 x 101] [Thanksgiving weekend: 406-599-2916]

Thanksgiving Weekend Communications Contacts

Kathy Westra: 301-754-0711 or 202-258-6661
Dave Slater: 202-412-7535
Chris Lancette: 202-731-9447
Ben Beach: 301-951-9643