OBAMA TEAM ANNOUNCES OUTDOORS INITIATIVE, MONUMENTS?

Public Land News bulletin – March 30, 2010

Arizona Mining Association

     The Obama administration announced Friday afternoon (March 26) the first step in its plans for an America’s Great Outdoors initiative – a White House conference on April 16.
      Instead of immediately laying out a set of concrete proposals the
administration said it would first listen to interest groups and the American people. Said Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar, “The conference is a great chance to learn about these efforts, start a new dialogue about conservation in America, and find ways to further the work that is already going on in cities and towns, counties and states throughout the country.”
 
If and when the initiative is fleshed out, insiders believe it could include:
* the designation of a number of national monuments on BLM land,
* full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund,
* revitalization of the National Park System in time for its 100th Anniversary in 2016,
* an omnibus public lands and parks bill (as is in the works now in Congress), or
* all of the above.
 
     The source of the billions of dollars to accomplish such ambitious goals will be most controversial and has not been identified publicly. However, Salazar has said in a dozen Congressional hearings that he has his eye on offshore oil and gas royalties. And, perhaps, on a sharp increase in onshore oil and gas royalties.
      The sister publication for Public Lands News, the newsletter Federal Parks & Recreation, reported March 15 the administration was closing in on an America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. At that time Interior Department officials said the administration intended to lay out the details in April. The Obama administration chose Friday afternoon – the burial ground for unpopular announcements – to reveal its plans for an America’s Great Outdoors initiative.
     Hosting the White House conference will be Salazar, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and the chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Nancy Sutley.
      Perhaps the administration wanted to downplay the announcement because of the furor caused by an internal Interior Department review of possible BLM monument designations. The monuments controversy was touched off February 18 by the release by House Republicans of an Interior Department document that suggested the administration was evaluating 14 BLM-managed areas as possible national monuments.
      Salazar immediately went to the Hill and promised to follow a public process before the White House designates more national monuments. But he also hinted to Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) at a March 9 Senate Appropriations Committee hearing that something was in the works. “There have been conversations, Mr. Tester, like the conversations I’ve had with you over the last year, and that is it has been 102 years since President (Theodore)Roosevelt called the leaders of the nation together to launch a conservation agenda,” said Salazar.
     One of Salazar’s toughest critics, Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah), said he is working on a major San Juan County lands/wilderness bill and hopes to see it enacted this year. “I anticipate by the end of this Congress Mr. Chairman we will have a San Juan land use bill ready to go and ready to be signed by the President in the same way the Washington County one was,” he said. His proposal could be a central plank in an America’s Great Outdoors initiative.
      The 14 possible monuments are located inArizona (1), California (4), Colorado (1), Montana (1), Nevada (1), New Mexico (2), Oregon (1), Utah (2) and Washington (1). The Interior document says 1,618,140 acres would be involved, including 397,210 acres of state and private land. Acquisition of the land would cost more than $2 billion.