Obama repeals Bush-era curbs on wilderness protection

[nmbluesky]

"I am proud to sign a secretarial order that restores protections for the wild lands that the Bureau of Land Management oversees on behalf of the American people," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in Denver, where he announced the shift.
The 2003 policy reflected an out-of-court deal struck between Norton and then-Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt to remove protections for some 2.6 million acres of federal land in Utah.

The policy allowed oil and gas drilling, mining and other commercial uses on land under consideration as wilderness areas.
The new policy creates a management category called "Wild Lands".
The Interior Department said that "'Wild Lands,' which will be designated through a public process, will be managed to protect wilderness characteristics unless or until such time as a new public planning process modifies the designation.
"Because the 'Wild Lands' designation can be made and later modified through a public administrative process, it differs from 'Wilderness Areas,' which are designated by Congress and cannot be modified except by legislation, and 'Wilderness Study Areas,' which BLM typically must manage to protect wilderness characteristics until Congress determines whether to permanently protect them as Wilderness Areas or modify their management."
Bush-era wilderness curbs are repealed

The Obama administration on Thursday undid a Bush-era policy that curbed wilderness protections within the 245 million acres managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management.

Ranchers, oil men and others have been suspicious of federal plans to lock up land in the West, worrying that taking the BLM land out of production would kill rural economies that rely on ranchers and the eastern Montana oil and gas business.

Their suspicions have been heightened since memos leaked in February revealed the Obama administration was considering 14 sites in nine states for possible presidential monument declarations.
That included 2.5 million acres of northeastern Montana prairie land proposed as a possible bison range, along with sites in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and Washington.

Environmental groups praised the reversal, though there has been grumbling that it took the Obama administration nearly two years to overturn the Bush-era policy.
"Washington D.C. always takes longer than you want, but we're glad we've gotten here," said Suzanne Jones, regional director for The Wilderness Society.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40796163/ns/us_news-environment/

[Ilsa]

1. Elections have consequences. It makes a difference. nt

[Bobbieo]

2. Thw Wilderness policy is not going far enough or fast enough to really protect

many animal species.

[vaberella]

6. But it's going to do something.

Nothing ever goes far enough. But there are things changing for the better and not the worst. Imagine what would have happened if this didn't pass. Having wide sweeping change is halted, but we are getting change and I think that deserves to be recognized.

[mkultra]

8. this policy goes far enough and fast enough to really protect

many animal spaces

[jenmito]

3. K&R.

[rpannier]

4. Read the article earlier. I agree with Suzanne Jones

Thanks for posting

[impik]

10. Oh yea, they didn't have anything else to do, and it still took them two years!! That sell-out Obama

[rpannier]

12. Oh please. Spare the drama

The Administration has a Secretary of the Interior to guide this process along.
The banks, the auto industry, etc is not the responsibility of the Dept of the Interior. This however is the responsibility of the Interior Dept.
Drop the martyr complex

[vaberella]

5. Dudes need to calm themselves. Obama can't change everything overnight.

Good Lord. Anyway this is good news. Not much love given, but great news. When Obama is getting bashed you see tons of replies. When it's good news not you find about 4.

[mtnsnake]

7. Yup, & Obama actually did reverse 4 other terrible Bush environmental policies in his first 100 days

I posted about one of those, the one concerning the Endangered Species Act, a few days ago. That one and the other of Bush's policies that Obama reversed in his first few months in office can be seen here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Obama100days/story?id=7042171&page=3

[impik]

11. This looks like the new memo: Okay, he's doing a lot, but it takes him too long!!!

[namahage]

9. K&R

[Honeycombe8]

13. Yay!!!! I am SO pleased that Obama cares about this issue! K&R

I am guessing it's because Obama was born in a beautiful, natural state whose main resource is its natural beauty (trees, water, air, flowers, plants, fruits), that this issue seems to matter to him more than to some other prior Democratic Presidents.

He doesn't get enough credit for these things. I'm guessing it's because most of the media live in large cities (where nature isn't close at hand). He's done several things like this. Kudos to President Obama for this.