Western Lands
Update
Spring 2006 Research, Outreach, and Advocacy to Keep Public Lands Public
Western Lands Project
Seattle, Washington
Vol. 10, No. 1
Land grabs abound
L
ate last year, we reported that Rep. Richard is unlikely to pass in its present form.
Pombo (R-CA), chair of the House Resources
The Bureau of Land Management scheme is some-
Committee, put language in the congressional
what stealthier, in that it expands an already existing
budget that would have let mining companies
BLM land sale program created in 2000 through
buy up public land even where they held no
the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act. The
valid claims. The proposal would have put potentially
FLTFA was designed to create an incentive for BLM
millions of acres up for grabs; much of it would even-
managers to speed up the process of selling lands that
tually have been sold to developers.
had been identified for “disposal” by allowing the
The Pombo proposal was yanked from the budget offices to put 80 percent of the sale proceeds toward
after a huge public outcry—which, by the way, put new federal land acquisitions within their respective
the lie to any claim that Americans are too preoccu- states. The Bush amendment to FLTFA would expand
pied to care about public land. Members of Congress the program to cover newly-identified disposal lands,
crowded the microphones to express their distaste for and—here’s the part that really hurts—unceremo-
Pombo’s deal. niously dump proceeds of the sales into the Trea-
sury. Public lands would be made to pay, their value
Now, the Bush Administration has included in its own
thrown into the great maw of the deficit.
budget schemes to privatize both National Forest and
Bureau of Land Management land. Both plans would Fortunately, redirecting the money away from the
take money earned from the sale of public land and BLM destroys the agency’s incentive to sell the land.
direct it toward non-public-land-related programs. Staffers are scoffing at D.C. office requests for infor-
mation and lists of candidate parcels to be sold.
In mid-March, legislative language
was released for the National Lest we get complacent, however,
Forest Land Conveyance for Rural We don’t mind saying we told them so we who care about our forests
Communities Act. The plan is to Blaeloch worries that using [land sales] for and the public domain must
raise $800 million from the sale deficit trimming could become a dangerous keep in mind that every time one
of up to 300,000 acres of national incentive to sell off public holdings all over of these obnoxious, disrespect-
forest land over the next 5 years, the West. “Pretty soon they’ll just consider ful land disposal schemes is put
using it to fund rural schools and federal land disposal as the panacea for our forward, it makes just a little bit
other community services. The economic problems. You have vast areas of more of an inroad into the invio-
school fund was originally created open space that could conceivably be sold lability of our shared public land.
in 2000 to replace money that to pay off the national debt.” “That is non- The ideologues who want to blast,
had formerly come from timber sense,” [deputy Interior Secretary Rebecca ] scrape, and pave every inch of
receipts on national forests, but Watson said, dismissing such concerns as public land won’t give up easily,
money in the original act came the product of “over-fevered imaginations.” and neither should we. Cashing
from appropriated funds, not from “Winnings Hard to Split in Nevada Land out our land for war, tax cuts—
the sale of forestland. The public Sales,” Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart, and yes, even school kids—is just
detests the current proposal, and it Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2005. wrong.
Task Force pushing changes to National Environmental Policy Act
I
n late December 2005 the House neers from building a proper floodwall that
Resource Committee’s NEPA Task Force would have prevented the post-Katrina New
released its “Initial Findings and Draft Orleans flooding. While the Task Force did
Recommendations” for public comment. admit statistics show only 0.2 percent of
environmental impact statements result in
The Task Force, largely perceived to be a
Express your stalking horse for gutting the National Envi-
litigation, the general tone was that NEPA
displeasure provides a monkeywrench for environmen-
ronmental Policy Act, held a series of hear- talists seeking to obstruct economic prog-
over mass sales ings across the country last year to gather ress.
of BLM and public input on the benefits and impedi-
ments of NEPA. This cornerstone environ- Given the tone of the findings, it was all
national forest mental law requires analysis and disclosure too predictable that the recommendations
land…contact of the environmental consequences of fed- focus on abridging the process and provid-
eral projects, and perhaps most important, ing certainty for industry groups. Specific
your Senators recommendations include amending NEPA
facilitates public participation in decisions
and Reps. affecting the environment. The first hear- to:
www.tinyurl. ing in Spokane, at which Western Lands • narrowly define ‘major federal action’
testified, brought out more supporters than so that NEPA applies to fewer federal
com/b1lm detractors of the environmental law, sur- actions;
prising the Task Force. Later hearings, out-
www.house.gov side the final two in DC, were held in diffi- • create mandatory timelines for complet-
cult-to-reach locations and/or re-scheduled ing NEPA analysis;
at the last minute, raising suspicion that the • establish concrete criteria for preparing
Task Force was purposely making it difficult EISs versus shorter environmental assess-
for NEPA proponents to attend. ments;
The Task Force cherry-picked testimony • direct agencies to give greater weight to
from the hearings to support its findings. local interests; and
The findings suggest there is an ongoing
debate as to whether NEPA is substan- • constrict analysis of alternatives and
tive (requiring federal agencies to take or cumulative impacts.
forego action based on the results of analy- Aside from being a naked attempt to limit
sis) or procedural (requiring a standard public participation in the NEPA process,
process for analysis, but not directing a a fundamental problem with these recom-
particular action). While many wish NEPA mendations is the folly of creating strict
did have substantive authority, the U.S. definitions and criteria that could apply to
Supreme Court settled that debate more every possible future situation or action.
than a quarter century ago, determining it
is a procedural statute. That the Task Force The Task Force’s purpose was to provide
did not understand that indicated its igno- the House Resources Committee a ratio-
rance of the law. nale for revising NEPA. With the find-
ings and recommendations in hand, it is
The findings also cited claims made at the expected that Resources Committee chair
hearings that environmentalists bring case Richard Pombo will introduce a bill to
after case of groundless NEPA litigation revise NEPA sometime in the next year.
before the courts and that the threat of liti- We’ll keep you posted.
gation leads to unnecessary analysis, delays,
and uncertainty even where litigation may You can see the Task Force’s work at
not occur in the end. The findings even www.tinyurl.com/fussv.
gave credence to the fiction that a NEPA
lawsuit prevented the Army Corps of Engi-
Western Lands Update Spring 2006
Will you make a financial commitment to the Western Lands Project?
S
ince 1997, when the Western Land activism. Please consider increasing your con-
Exchange Project was founded to monitor tributions, or becoming a long-term donor to
federal land exchanges, we have worked to the Western Lands Project.
protect citizens’ interests in and ownership
We understand that this request is one of
of public land. Our work has expanded over
many competing for your attention, but we
time to include any action that proposes to
need you as one of our mainstay support-
give away, sell, or trade the public domain. In
ers. With your steady financial support, we
2005 we changed our name to the Western
can continue our work keeping public lands in
Lands Project to reflect our broader scope.
public hands.
Our primary goal is to keep public lands
public. To achieve this, we assist citizens in
reviewing and responding to public land Thanks to the foundations supporting our work!
deals; demand disclosure and transparency;
Fund for Wild Nature
and work to ensure that the public interest is
protected. Strong Foundation for
During our nine years of work, we have sig- Environmental Values
nificantly raised awareness of corruption in Temper of the Times Foundation
public/private land trades, sales, and dispos-
als. But the techniques used to execute these Tides Foundation
trades have become more devious over time,
and under the Bush administration and the And thanks, as always, to our kind donors
entrenched Republican Congress, privatiza- Anonymous, Victor Anderson, Tom & Jackie Andrewjeski, Marlin
tion of public land has burgeoned. For us, Ard, Suzanne Artemieff, Jack Bailey, Vernon Bates, Jeanne
what began as a focus on monitoring and Batson-Buell, Harold Bernhardt, Janine Blaeloch, Stephan Block,
improving land trades has become a response Meg Campbell, Kate Campbell, Linda T. Campbell, Robert
on political and legal fronts to a large-scale Campbell, Gae Canfield, Robert Castleberry, John and Susan
push for privatization. We have developed Caywood, Charles M. Couper, John and Margaret Craighead,
expertise in the myriad attempts to seize B.J. Park & D.W. Wiegand, Betsy & John Darrah, Craig & Lynn
public lands, and we share that expertise with Dible, Marianne Dugan, George Early, Paul Eaton, William R
anyone who contacts us. Friese Jr & Staci Mayer, M Woodwell, Doug Kilgore & Ellie Belew,
Despite our expanded mission, we have Josiah “Jim” Erickson, Jr., Deborah Filipelli,Thelma Gilmur,Tony
remained a small organization with a small Gioia, David and Melinda Gladstone, Nunzie Gould, Robert W
budget, and at times our reserves have gotten & E.G. Green, Charles Hancock, William Hartman, Ann Harvey,
thin. We need you to help us develop a more Rebecca Haseleu, RJ & Annie Haskins,Joanne Hedou, Randall
sustainable base of support. Holmberg, John Horning, William B. Hull, Thomas Rhodes
Hundley,Michael Frome & June Eastvold, Steve Kelly, Fayette
Our funding is maintained primarily through
Krause, Joseph Krupp,Jerome & Vicki Krupp, Chris Krupp, Rus-
foundation grants. Like our individual sup-
sell V. Lee, Timothy Leveen, Stuart Lewin, Sandy Lonsdale,Victor
porters, the foundations that support us
Magistrale, Mike Maloney, Louise Mariana, Marion Marsh, Joan
clearly understand the significance of what
& Clyde McClelland, Rick McGuire, Laurene McLane, Matthew
we do. But our dependence on foundations
McQueen, Janice Naragon, George Nickas, Corina Norrbom
has often put us in a precarious financial
MD, Dr. John & Rachael Paschal Osborn, Colleen O’Sullivan,
position. Since we are the only group solely
Ann Owchar, Giancarlo Panagia, Sandra Perkins, George &
focused on the perils of privatization, this
Leanna Peterson, Mark Peterson, Timothy J. Pilling, Jock Prib-
puts our mission at risk.
now, Hank Rate, Marian Robertson, Beth Rogers, Erica Rosen-
We have tried to keep a light hand in solicit- berg and Daniel Sarewitz, Lin Rowland, Maureen Ruggiero,
ing our members for support, but we are now Gordon Schochet, Felicia Schwindt, Michael W. Shurgot, Robert
undertaking a major effort to stabilize our Stivers, Richard Strickland, Andrew Nelson & Teresa Ward, Tom
funding base. You wouldn’t be on our mailing & Elke Trilling, Stephen Trimble, Lewis Vavra, Dale & Christine
list if you didn’t care about public lands, and Volz, Chris Vondrasek, Gwen and James Warren, William H.
we know you understand the value of citizen Weber, Steven Wolper, Winnie Wong, and Raymond Ziarno.
Western Lands Update Spring 2006
Western Lands Project
PO Box 95545
Seattle, WA 98145-2545
Keeping
public lands
in public
hands
…
westernlands.org
Western Lands Project We’re scrappy...and we get the job done!
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fax 206.325.3515 Western Lands Project
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Rebecca Rundquist, President, www.westernlands.org
Chatham, NJ
Marianne Dugan, Eugene, OR Name: ______________________________________________________________________
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Staff Attorney
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3/06
