Pristine areas of the West are again preserved (LA Times)

[pinto]

Pristine areas of the West are again preserved

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar reinstates a policy that was ditched during the Bush administration, but the new classification does not protect the lands permanently.

By Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times
December 24, 2010

Restoring a policy abandoned by the George W. Bush administration, the top Interior official on Thursday gave the agency that manages 245 million acres of public land the authority to temporarily protect pristine areas of the West.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who issued the order, called it "a new chapter in terms of how we take care of our Bureau of Land Management lands."

Salazar's directive casts aside a Bush policy that was adopted after an out-of-court settlement between then-Interior Secretary Gale Norton and the state of Utah. Under that agreement, the bureau lost its ability to manage pristine areas in order to preserve their wilderness qualities, pending congressional action. The move potentially opened the lands to energy development and mining.

The bureau will now compile an inventory of "wild lands" and, as part of its public planning process, has the authority to keep them off-limits to development. But the classification can be modified, meaning the lands will not have the same permanent protection as congressionally designated wilderness areas.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-na-wilderness-20101224,0,5161252.story

[tabatha]

1. Can Obama declare them permanent?

As Bush did for some marine areas?

[pinto]

2. Not sure. The way I read it, sounds like Congress has to mandate that.

:shrug:

[tabatha]

3. Yes, for wilderness areas.

But looks like Bush did his by executive order or proclamation.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=139