Summit County Citizens Voice

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar highlights BLM lands suitable for wilderness designation based on local support

Several BLM tracts in Colorado are identified as ripe for bipartisan action on wilderness based on local input and support for such designations.

The McKenna Peak wilderness study area in the San Juans. PHOTO COURTESY BLM.

By Bob Berwyn

SUMMIT COUNTY — Wilderness legislation has been tied up Washington’s political gridlock the past year, especially with conservative House Republicans pursuing an anti-public lands agenda. But in a report issued this week, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called for action on 18 BLM parcels under consideration for wilderness or national conservation status.

Four tracts in Colorado are identified in the new report, including the Bull Gulch and Castle Peak wilderness study areas, both part of the Eagle and Summit County Wilderness Preservation Act (H.R.1701) proposed by Rep. Jared Polis. The other Colorado parcels are the Browns Canyon wilderness study area on the Arkansas River and the McKenna Peak wilderness study area in the San Juans.

Salazar urged bipartisan support for wilderness designations, saying that federal land managers need to balance resource extraction with preservation.

“From President Theodore Roosevelt’s bold steps to establish national parks, wildlife refuges and forests to President Obama signing the 2009 Public Lands bill into law in his first days in office, America has a proud bipartisan tradition of protecting the backcountry that matters most to hunters, fishermen, and our families,” Salazar said. “We have heard from local communities, elected officials, and others that Montana’s Sleeping Giant, Nevada’s Pine Forest Range, and New Mexico’s Rio Grande del Norte are among the many places that deserve protection by Congress for future generations. Building on the President’s America’s Great Outdoors initiative, I am hopeful that these areas can help form a strong foundation for a bipartisan conservation agenda for this Congress.”

The report issued by Secretary Salazar includes a preliminary list of areas managed primarily by Interior’s Bureau of Land Management where there is significant local support for protection.

“The backcountry areas we identify in this report are by no means the only public lands that may deserve protection by Congress, but this preliminary list of possibilities shows that there is a compelling case for bipartisan legislative action to conserve lands for recreation, protection, and enjoyment,” said Deputy Secretary David J. Hayes. “From Devil’s Staircase in Oregon to Beauty Mountain in Southern California, local communities and elected officials from both sides of the aisle have developed conservation proposals that deserve serious consideration and action by Congress.”

BLM Director Bob Abbey said the BLM wants to balance energy development with protecting areas for their biological and recreational values. The agency manages more than 245 million acres of land nationwide, primarily in 12 western states. Since the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964, Congress has designated approximately 8,700,000 acres of BLM land as wilderness – equating to about 3.5 percent of the land that the BLM manages.

“As we continue our push to responsibly expand oil, gas, coal, solar, wind, geothermal, and other resource development on public land, we also have a responsibility to expand the backcountry recreational and outdoor opportunities that generate billions of dollars in revenue for local economies across the West,” Abbey said. “Resource development and resource protection go hand in hand and, in fact, are part of a proud bipartisan tradition on which I hope Congress will build.”

Public lands managed by the Department of the Interior draw more than 400 million visits a year. According to some recent non-governmental estimates, outdoor recreation supports as many as 6.5 million jobs and provides as much as $1 trillion in annual economic benefits. Congressional designations, such as national conservation areas and wilderness areas, attract additional visitation, tourism, and visitor spending in local communities.

Filed under: BLM, Colorado, Environment, public lands, Summit County news Tagged: | BLM, Congress, Environment, Ken Salazar, public lands, Summit County News, wilderness