WLP News No 22

8/7/2019 WLP News No 22

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Western LandsUpdate

Western Lands Project Seattle, Washington

Fall 2007 Research, Outreach, and Advocacy to Keep Public Lands Public

For years, you’ve been reading in this newsletterabout the myriad assaults on the physical real-ity and even the concept o public land. Quidpro quo “wilderness” legislation; congressionalschemes to privatize the public domain; presiden-

tial budgets that would sell o BLM and national orest lands; and a conservation movement increasingly ocused on preserving only the most iconic and sceniclands (wilderness and “special places”)all threatenthe larger landscape and the very ideal o public land.

Three years ago, we joined a small gathering o activists

that began developing a set o Principles around whicha new public lands movement might coalesce. Voicesfor Public Lands, currently consisting o 42 charter sig-natory groupsis an inormal coalition whose purposewill be to counter harmul policies and ill-conceivedproposals with a strong, clear, unied voice in deenseo public lands.

Below are the Preamble and the Principles for PublicLands. I you are aliated with or know o an organi-zation that might considering becoming part o Voicesor Public Lands, please see more detailed inormationat voicesorpubliclands.org and eel ree to contact us!You can see a document showing current signatoriesrom a link on our homepage at westernlands.org.

A principled stance on behal o public landsPreamble:A Declaration o Principles or Public LandsFederally-administered public lands are the birthright of all Americans. Public lands comprise one-third o the land base o the United States, encompassing cru-cial watersheds, sh and wildlie habitat, and undevel-oped open spaces oering inspiration and renewal tothe human spirit. The lie-sustaining and lie-enhanc-ing benets provided by public lands contribute to thewell-being o all Americans.

Public lands are a valued American tradition, heldin trust or the permanent good o the people. Eachnew generation inherits a responsibility to protect thepublic values and benets these lands hold and passthis legacy on or uture generations to experience andenjoy.

Our laws recognize the importance of preserving ourpublic land heritage. Yet even with protective laws inplace, these lands are under constant assault by thoseseeking to exploit them or private nancial gain,others who would barter them or political avor, and

yet others who are opposed to the very concept o public land. Too oten, deerence is given to select spe-cial interests to the detriment o broader public valuesand needs.

A disturbing trend is afoot to privatize our public lands

outright or, more insidiously, to commodiy and selltheir unique values and benets to a public increas-ingly viewed as customers rather than citizens. Thesetrends threaten the very ideas o public space, shared

8/7/2019 WLP News No 22


Please visit our

website, west-ernlands.org.While you’rethere, sign upor our e-news-letter. Wewon’t bombardyou!instead,you’ll receive

timely transmis-sions on issueswe all careabout.

values, democratic principles, and a publiccommonsas well as the integrity o theunctioning natural systems upon whichall lie depends. This drive to quantiy andmonetize all values in our society obscuresthe enduring, intrinsic value o our public

land.

Citizen advocacy is critical to preserving ourpublic land heritage. Public lands will only be protected through a unied and commit-ted public land movement. In that spirit we,the undersigned, present the ollowing prin-ciples or public lands:

Principles or Public Lands1. Our public lands are a public good that

must be protected in perpetuity or thebenet o each new generation.

2. Public lands must remain in public own-ership, overseen by the ederal govern-ment on behal o, and with the input o, all citizens.

3. Protecting public lands requires strongand enorceable laws. Eorts to circum-vent the protections in existing environ-mental laws must be resisted.

4. The public has a right to know how ourshared lands are being managed, and toparticipate in open, transparent plan-ning and decision-making.

5. Control o public lands must never beceded to local interests, advisory boards,panels, or groups, but should remainwith the ederal government and, by extension, the public at large.

6. Precedence shall be given to ecological

and other public purposes. The biologi-cal health o public lands, waters, andwildlie have intrinsic value and shouldbe given the highest priority in publicland management.

7. Public use shall take precedence overcommercial use. In situations whereaccess is restricted or allocated, theneeds o the sel-guided public shall takeprecedence over the wants o commer-cial service providers. The potential or

revenue generation or other commer-cial outputs must never unduly infu-ence management decisions.

8. Public lands are not a orm o currency to be bartered or political avors. They are not to be sold or revenue genera-tion or or administrative cost reductionProtecting one area must not be accom-plished by supporting degradation o another. In these regards, public landsare non-ungible.

9. Citizens and visitors alike should not be charged a ee merely or walking,riding or foating upon public landsand waters. Enterprises engaged incommerce should, at a minimum, berequired to pay ull cost recovery oranything they do upon, and pay airmarket value or anything they removerom, public lands and waters.

10. Nearly 20 percent o public lands arecongressionally designated as Wilder-

ness. The wilderness character o all des-ignated Wilderness should be preservedand not diminished in any way.

11. Legislation to designate new wildernessshould ully refect and uphold the spiritand intent o the 1964 Wilderness Act,and contain no special exceptions that would lessen the protective provisions othe Wilderness Act.

12. Congress must appropriate adequateunding to the ederal land manage-

ment agencies, both to ensure that the agencies are able to carry out theirobligations and to orestall any real orperceived need or private unding o public land management.

Western Lands Update 2

8/7/2019 WLP News No 22


The Coyote Springs sitagainst the backdrop othe Mormon MountainPlans for the development include 150,000 homes and perhaps ten

golf courses.Photo: Western Lands

O

n September 25 the U.S. District Court in Nevada denied motions to dismissthe lawsuit we led over the Coyote

Springs land exchange between BLMand developer Harvey Whittemore’s CoyoteSprings Investments (CSI). Western Landsand Nevada Outdoor Recreation Associa-tion (NORA) brought the suit against BLMand CSI ater they exchanged land in themiddle o the Coyote Springs Valley without analyzing environmental impacts or deter-mining whether the trade yielded equalvalue. The land in question is located about 70 miles north o Las Vegas. Pardee Homeso Nevada was also named as a deendant

because it had purchased a portion o theland that CSI acquired in the exchange. (A detailed article on the case appeared in ourFall 2006 newsletter, which you can see at www.westernlands.org/assets/NewsNo20.pd).

The BLM limited its motion to challengingstanding, while the two developers sought dismissal on a number o ronts. The devel-opers argued that the court lacked jurisdic-tion to hear the case because 1) WLP and

NORA did not challenge the exchange at the administrative level beore going tocourt; 2) a 1988 Act o Congress involvingthe same lands precluded judicial review o the exchange; 3) the exchange was merely

a minor boundary adjustment that didnot require compliance with NEPA andFLPMA; 4) Plaintis had not satised the

six-year statute o limitations; and 5) thedevelopers were not proper deendants tothe suit because only ederal agencies canbe sued under NEPA.

The court dismissed each o these chal-lenges in denying the deendants’ motions,holding that both NORA and WesternLands had shown procedural injury tomembers’ interests; a challenge o theexchange at the administrative level wouldhave been utile and was thereore not necessary; the exchange was outside thepurview o the 1988 Act; the exchange wasmore than a minor boundary adjustment;the challenged action had clearly takenplace in 2005 and the statute o limitationshad been satised; and, nally, the develop-ers were proper parties in this particularNEPA case because they had a property interest directly at stake in the suit.

The court order is a signicant, but pre-liminary, threshold. The deendants haveled answers in the case and the BLM is

expected to soon le the administrativerecord o its decision to proceed with theCoyote Springs exchange. We’ll keep youinormed o progress in the case.

Western Lands clears frst hurdle in Coyote Springs lawsuit Public Land

Statistics , apublicationput out annually by the BLM,coverseverythingrom theLouisiana

Purchase andhomesteadacts to last year’s landtrades.

www.tinyurl.com/2u792n

Western Lands Update 3 Fall

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Quickies

B

ritish- and Australian-owned Resolution Copper is trying to get a land exchangethrough Congress that would give the

company about 3,000 acres o nationalorest in an area called Oak Flat near Supe-rior, Arizona. Resolution believes a hugeore body lies below the site, which hasbeen protected or more than 50 years by an Executive Order signed by President Eisenhower. In exchange, the public wouldreceive about 5,000 acres in ve Arizonacounties. The legislation, HR 3301, wouldalso eect the sale o almost 500 acres o national orest land to the town o Supe-rior. Resolution could rake in $100 billion

in prot rom the mine, which it expects tooperate or 40 years. The land Resolutionwould receive also includes an area calledApache Leap, a line o clis rom which,as legend has it, a band o natives leapt toescape rom the U.S. Army. The San CarlosApache tribe strongly opposes the trade, asdo Western Lands and many environmentalorganizations.

I

n mid-October, the Northern Rockies Eco- system Protection Act , HR 1975, received

its rst hearing in the U.S. House since1994. Wilderness is not “our issue,” but webelieve NREPA is a visionary and critically important bill. NREPA will protect as wil-derness nearly 7 million acres o wildernessin Montana, 9.5 million acres o wildernessin Idaho, 5 million acres o wilderness inWyoming, 750,000 acres in eastern Oregon,and 500,000 acres in eastern Washington.No ederal land will be put up or sale orgiven away; no water pipelines acilitated;no transmission corridors created in wil-

derness. There is no quid pro quo. It’s realwilderness. We encourage you to contact your Representative, voicing support orprotection o your public land in the north-

ern Rockies. Find more inormation at wil-drockiesalliance.org.

Janine was invited to be a panelist at the

annual meeting o the Public Lands Foun- dation, a 20-year-old, non-prot organiza-

tion representing retired and active Bureauo Land Management and Interior employ-ees promoting the values o BLM lands (all260+ million acres). This year’s theme wasa amiliar one to us: Keeping Public Landsin Public Hands. Check out their website tosee some o the position papers the grouphas put together, www.publicland.org.

Welcome NewSta Hi! I’m SharonAngle, the newDevelopment Man-ager at WesternLands Project. Imoved to the West in 1996 rom Saint Louis, Missouri, my

hometown. Ater teaching business at thecollege level or over 16 years, I was ready or a new challenge! I ound that challengein development work, and went on rommy rst undraising job at the Seattle Operato acquiring a Certicate in FundraisingManagement at the University o Washing-ton this past May. While still a music lover, Iam more passionate about the unique andcompelling mission at WLP, and am thrilledto be part o the small sta here. My long-

term goal is to broaden and diversiy West-ern Lands’ unding so that the important work o protecting our public land can con-tinue as long as needed.

Now I see the secret of the making of the best persons.

It is to grow

in the open air and to eat and sleep with the earth.

Walt Whitman,

Song o the Open

Road (1856)

Western Lands Update 4

8/7/2019 WLP News No 22


Molly Attell, Janine Blaeloch, Denise

Boggs, Alexandra and Christopher

Booth, Susan and Joseph Bower,Barton Brown, M.D., Shari Bryan,

Brett Buyan, Kate Campbell, Linda

T. Campbell, Gae Caneld, Charles

M. Couper, April Crowe, B.J. Park

and D.W. Wiegand, Shirley Dahlner,

Craig and Lynn Dible, Linda Drisk-

ill, Sheila Dugan, George Early, Paul

and Gladys Rae Eaton, Josiah “Jim”

Erickson, Jr., Garth Ferber, DonaldL. Ferry, Deborah Fillipelli, Peter

Goldman, Yadviga Halsey, Charles

Hancock, Rebecca Haseleu, Duke

and Sarah Hayduk, Joanne Hedou,

John P. Higgins, William B. Hull,

Nathaniel Jackson, Dave and Corey

Thanks to the oundationssupporting our work!The Good Works Institute

Ben & Jerry’s Foundation

Shared Earth Foundation

Maki Foundation

Cinnabar Foundation

Furthur Foundation

Deer Creek Foundation

Weeden Foundation

Western Lands Project P.O. Box 95545Seattle, WA 98145-2545phone 206.325.3503ax 206.325.3515www.westernlands.org

Board o DirectorsRebecca Rundquist, President,Portland, MEMarianne Dugan, Eugene, OR Sandy Lonsdale, Moab, UTErica Rosenberg, Phoenix, AZ

Sta Janine Blaeloch, [email protected]

Christopher KruppSta Attorney [email protected]

Sharon AngleDevelopment [email protected]

Jacobs, Steve Kelly, Fayette Krause,

Chris Krupp, Lisa Leerts, Conway

Leovy, John S. Livermore, DavidLudlow, Mike Maloney, Betty Man-

ning, Joan and Clyde McClelland,

C. McCormick, Dorothy J. Musil,

Honoria Niehaus, Lyle Oberg, Amy

Mergen and Paul Waitrovich, Debo-

rah Paulson, Sandra Perkins, Katey

Pierini, Timothy J. Pilling, Myra

Bergman Ramos, Pro. William Rod-

gers, Paul Rogland, Beth Rosenberg,Melinda Salomon, Richard Spudich,

Paul Swetik, Jeanne Y. Turgeon,

Wolter and JP Van Doorninck, Lewis

Vavra, Steven Wolper, Raymond

Ziarno

Many thanks to our wonderul members & supporters!

Gratitude &best wishes…to JoanneHedou, whoserved as

Western LandProgramCoordinatoror more thanthree years.Joanne let thProject in Junto pursue herown writing

projects, andhas also beenworking with21 Acres, acommunity agricultural anenvironmentalearningcenter in the

SammamishValley.

Western Lands Update 5 Fall

8/7/2019 WLP News No 22


Please help support our work or public lands by completing this ormand returning it with your tax-deductible membership/donation to the

Western Lands Project PO Box 95545

Seattle, WA 98145-2545Phone 206.325-3503 Fax 206.325-3515

www.westernlands.org

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Western Lands Project PO Box 95545Seattle, WA 98145-2545

11/07

Keepingpublic lands

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WLP News No 22

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