Fed Employees Caught Bragging About Federal Land Grabs

Employee brags they "stole the money from Washington" to push World War II vets off land

YouTube clip in which government employee brags about stealing land.

Adan Salazar
Infowars.com

“We went out to the mine and the owners were two little guys that had been in the Second World War,” a California park service employee recalls at a retirement celebration for Mojave National Preserve Superintendent Mary Martin in 2005.

The employee brags about how the veterans’ mine was appraised by the federal government at $40 million, and acquired for a paltry $2.5 million.

“We did get it appraised and we did acquire it for $2.5 million which I stole the money from Washington to acquire it,” the employee in the video admits, adding that it’s sometimes hard to bamboozle property owners due to the agency’s reputation.

“’Lands’ isn’t always supported because we’re the ‘bad guys.’ We come in, and we take this land. And we always take it for less than it’s worth.”

Later during the celebration dinner, another park service employee reveals that the acquisition of more than a hundred thousand private acres in the Mojave National Preserve were procured under Martin’s leadership, who he labels the “acquisition queen.”

“Acres acquired under the acquisition queen’s regime, 111,550.54 acres,” an employee announces in an extended clip of the dinner.

The employee then shows two other numbers, 5.66 and 106,375.36, which correlate with the park where Martin would be relocating, the Lassen Volcanic National Park.

He indicates that the larger number is the acreage of Lassen National Park, while the smaller number is acreage privately owned.

“If you own those 5.66 acres, would you be sweating right now?” the man jests referring to Martin’s acquisition power.

The employees’ jaw-dropping admissions amid joyful applause, smiles and celebration over the confiscation of two World War II veterans’ and others’ private land goes to prove the federal government is not at all concerned with “land preservation” and focuses mainly on predatory land grabs.

Full length version of video.

Coburn attacks National Park Service for wasteful spending while parks themselves fall into disrepair

By Doug McKelway
FoxNews.com

Taxpayers shell out $52,000 a year to maintain the home of Black History Month founder Carter Woodson. Yet the tiny, dilapidated row house in northwest Washington D.C., with a "No Trespassing" sign and iron bars blocking the front door and windows hasn’t seen a visitor in the seven years since the National Park Service bought it for $2.1 million and designated it a National Historic Site.

Senator Tom Coburn, R-Okla.,points to the house as one tiny symbol in a sea of dysfunction in the National Park Service. The Service, with its comparatively small budget, is, he says, a microcosm for wasteful spending in the federal government.

A report released Tuesday by Coburn's office finds the National Park Service devotes huge portions of its budget to the purchase of more and more federal properties and land, even while the country’s most treasured national parks are falling into disrepair and neglect.

His report documents a federal agency that is top heavy with bureaucracy and management, but badly mangles its spending priorities.

"This is an agency that spends $650 million a year administering a $2.6 billion budget," says Coburn -- a ratio he calls, "outlandish."

His report cites dozens of cases of waste. The Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site in the San Francisco Bay area, for example, averages less than 10 visitors a day. "With nine employees, the National Park Service often has more staff working the grounds, than daily visitors," the report says.

Yet, Coburn doesn't blame the Park Service, which fought against the O'Neill home historical designation. He blames Congress. "There is no ribbon-cutting ceremony for taking out the trash, fixing a broken railing or filling a pothole," he says.

"Congress continues to add things – ‘parks’ - that aren't significant in terms of national interest in a declining budget. What we have is our most treasured resources, the big parks, with maintenance backlogs in excess of $2 billion."

The report catalogues a litany of unfilled potholes, crumbling stairs and deteriorating infrastructure in many of the nation’s most visited national parks. "Look at the Grand Canyon," says Coburn. "They're not even replacing water lines that are 50 years old. They can't even flush the toilets, because they're not doing the critical maintenance that's needed."

He adds, "If you continue to add federal land and federal parks, what you are going to do is make this problem worse."

His report also documents many other cases of frivolous spending: a Park Ranger sent to Italy to judge an Italian Film Festival; an antique car show in Michigan; a wine tasting train in Ohio. The Service spent $731,000 to find stains on St Louis's Gateway Arch - but none of that money actually went to clean the stains.

As Congress gets to work on a budget conference, Coburn’s report and 50 others his staff has compiled over the last nine years on government waste provide no shortage of ammunition for members intent on cutting spending.

"Look at federal government IT," Coburn says. "We spent $84 billion a year on it and $42 billion is wasted. Where’s the management for that?" he asks.

Landowner says desert tortoise, federal government left him bankrupt

A Washington County landowner and developer had a vision for a residential development and upscale golf course on the benches above St. George and Washington. He's now bankrupt — a destiny he said was chartered by the desert land tortoise. (Ravell Call, Deseret News)

By Amy Joi O'Donoghue
Deseret News

ST. GEORGE — James Doyle had a dream in 1980 to create a beautiful residential development and golf course on the picturesque benches overlooking St George and the community of Washington.

Then along came the desert tortoise and a federal listing of the animal under the Endangered Species Act.

It's been more than 30 years, countless negotiations, a few successful land trades — but Doyle was left bankrupt and an old man, his vision unrealized.

"His dreams have been pretty well doused by being in these tragic set of circumstances," said Doyle's attorney, Timothy Anderson. "He went from a competent real estate developer to a guy who is just barely getting by. It is a very sad thing to have watched."

Doyle has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of the Interior and Washington County, demanding compensation for financial and emotional losses brought on by a series of failed promises and bungled agreements by the government to adequately compensate him.

"Mr. Doyle anticipated that his land would get bought," Anderson said. "The Bureau of Land Management was tasked with facilitating these exchanges with the input and involvement of Washington County. But when you start dealing with the government, they say one thing and do another."

Back in 1980, Doyle began acquiring land to develop in Washington County, purchasing 2,440 acres and obtaining the leases and other rights to another 11,000 acres. By 1989, working with Washington County and St. George, he had obtained all the necessary permits, development plans, water rights and zoning changes for his development, according to the lawsuit.

"He was approaching shovel ready," Anderson said.

That same year, however, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the Mohave desert tortoise as endangered, adding it to the list of species meriting federal protection.

Anderson's suit asserts the designation brought development to a standstill in Washington County, with political leaders under mounting pressure to come up with a habitat conservation plan that would meet with federal approval.

Ultimately, by 1996, the county submitted plan in which Doyle agreed to place virtually all of his land inside a tortoise reserve on the condition he receive compensation at fair market value, either in cash or land exchanges.

Over the years, there were four land exchanges, but Doyle still owns property within the reserve for which he hasn't been compensated.

"He only has 248 acres, and still the government holds the key to his land," Anderson said. "The magic of how you are going to ultimately get paid is under the control of the federal government and or the county. And about all you can do is go to them with hat in hand."

Because Doyle and others who owned land inside what would become the desert tortoise conservation area agreed to give up their land in exchange for compensation, Anderson said the county was once again free to pursue development because it could prove the tortoise was being protected.

Doyle, in the meantime, has kept vainly hoping that the government will work out a just deal for him, or that federal legislation to help him will pass in Congress.

Anderson said the much-celebrated Washington County Lands Bill that ultimately passed in 2009 was supposed to help Doyle, but at the last minute he was left out of it entirely.

"It is a travesty," Anderson said. "As far as I know, this is not Russia or China, but for Mr. Doyle, it largely is."

The U.S. Department of the Interior does not comment on pending litigation, and efforts to reach Washington County were successful.

State Lauds Mitigation Deal For Ivanpah Solar Project

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (Photo: Craig Dietrich/Flickr/Creative Commons License)

by Chris Clarke
KCET Rewire

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has announced that the finishing touches have been crafted on a deal to preserve 7,000 acres of land in the Mojave Desert as mitigation for the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System near the Mojave National Preserve. But not everyone's happy with that.

The land, whose acquisition and management has cost Ivanpah's owners $11.4 million dollars, was purchased through the state's Advance Mitigation Land Acquisition Program (AMP), started in 2010 by the passage of Senate Bill 34. That program streamlined previous mitigation programs in which developers had to work on their own to acquire parcels of land for protection to "mitigate" the habitat destruction their projects entailed. Under the AMP, CDFW does the legwork of finding suitable mitigation land and developers need only write a check.

A press release on CDFW's website describes the land being preserved to mitigate Ivanpah, though with a significant error:

The lands are comprised of 163 separate parcels in the Chuckwalla Desert Wildlife Management Area (DWMA) in San Bernardino County, and the Fremont-Kramer DWMA and Superior-Cronese DWMA both in Riverside County.

The Chuckwalla DWMA is actually in Riverside County east of the Coachella Valley. The Fremont-Kramer and Superior-Cronise DWMAs are in San Bernardino County; the first is near Boron and the second north of Barstow along the southern edge of the Fort Irwin Army base.

Each individual parcel of the newly acquired lands will be managed either by the Transition Habitat Conservancy, based in Pinon Hills near Hesperia, or the Joshua Tree-based Mojave Desert Land Trust.

The Ivanpah project occupies about 3,500 acres of land, meaning that the ratio of mitigation land to developed land is about 2/1. Ivanpah is owned jointly by developer BrightSource Energy and investors NRG Energy and Google. "Working through the State's Advanced Mitigation Program has proven to be an effective alternative for satisfying the Ivanpah project's mitigation land requirements," said Marc Sydnor, BrightSource's director of environmental affairs, in the CDFW press release. "We've also been able to achieve a project goal of ensuring that the land purchased is used for the highest possible purpose -- to protect our state's natural legacy."

Other observers are less sanguine about the deal. Ileene Anderson, biologist and Public Lands Desert Director for the Center for Biological Diversity, lauded the land being preserved but told ReWire that better development strategy would avoid the need to replace the tortoise habitat at Ivanpah:

While these acquisitions are in important areas for desert tortoise conservation, future solar projects would be best developed on already disturbed lands and rooftops, so that desert tortoise habitat is not impacted and therefore there is no need for mitigation.

Meanwhile, blogger Shaun G. at Mojave Desert Blog, a long-term critic of utility-scale desert solar projects, was even more unsparing about the trade-offs:

[W]hat benefit did we achieve in Ivanpah? Approximately 392 megawatts of solar energy. Companies in the United States installed far more solar panels on already-disturbed lands and rooftops during the Ivanpah Solar project's construction period. And Germany added thousands of megawatts of mostly rooftop solar. All while we watched BrightSource destroy a true natural treasure in the Mojave.

National parks face severe funding crunch

By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post

Fredericksburg, Va. — Chatham Manor, the elegant 241-year-old Georgian house that served as a Union headquarters during the Civil War, remains a must-see stop on tours of Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. But the grounds are not as they once were. The gardens are overgrown, and the greenhouse has broken windows and rotting wood frames.

The park’s superintendent, Russell Smith, noted that the family that occupied the home in the 1920s “had nine or 10 gardeners. I have, like, half a gardener.”

After more than a decade of scrimping and deferring maintenance and construction projects — and absorbing a 6 percent budget cut in the past two years — the signs of strain are beginning to surface at national parks across the country. The 469-mile Blue Ridge Parkway, which curves along the spine of the easternmost range of the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia and North Carolina, has a $385 million backlog of projects, mainly in road maintenance, and has been unable to fill 75 vacant positions since 2003. For the past three years, New Mexico’s Bandelier National Monument has lacked the money to hire a specialist to protect its archaeological ruins and resources.

Jonathan B. Jarvis, the National Park Service director, said in an interview that his employees have been “entrepreneurial” in devising ways to cope with rising costs on a fixed budget.

“But we’re kind of running out of ideas at some point here,” Jarvis said. For years, the Park Service has supported day-to-day operations by taking money from its maintenance and land acquisition budget, he said. “The challenge is, we’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.”

Annual attendance at national parks has remained about the same, though visits through July this year total 201 million, up 1.5 percent from last year. Park managers say they are alarmed at the prospect of both next year’s budget and a possible 8 percent across-the-board cut if negotiators fail to reach a budget deal by January. The president’s fiscal 2013 budget proposal — which was largely adopted by the House Appropriations Committee — would cut 218 full-time jobs, or 763 seasonal employees.

Phil Francis, superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway, said he has lost a third of his permanent maintenance crew in the past 11 years. Staff members have gotten “a few visitor complaints” about conditions in the park, ranging from its restrooms to its overlooks.

“Of course we know these things,” he said. “It’s a challenge. We do the best we can and make sure the impacts are as minimal as possible.”

Thomas Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association, said policymakers face a critical decision as the park system approaches its 100th anniversary in 2016. A major influx of funds could mobilize public support for the system, he said. Without it, he said, conditions at the parks will continue deteriorating and visits could drop sharply.

“It’s clear that inadequate federal funding is the number one threat to the future of the national parks and the national park idea,” Kiernan said. “We’re at a crossroads of historic importance here.”

Of the 397 park units, 158 have “friends groups” that help raise private funds. The congressionally chartered National Park Foundation has raised up to $150 million annually for parks in concert with those organizations in recent years, and it hopes to help increase their number to 200 by 2016. But those efforts provide only a fraction of the system’s $2.6 billion annual budget.

There was a push at the end of the George W. Bush administration to ease the Park Service’s fiscal crunch and mobilize private support at the same time, which added more than $300 million to the service’s operations budget between 2007 and 2008. But that momentum stalled in the face of the recession.

National parks continue to enjoy significant bipartisan support, both from the presidential candidates and on Capitol Hill. Presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney has spoken during the campaign of how he “fell in love with the land in America” during family trips through national parks in a Rambler station wagon, and in a statement to The Washington Post, he described himself as “a passionate advocate of our national parks.”

Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), who co-chairs the bipartisan Congressional National Parks Caucus, said that he has lobbied the administration and his colleagues to restore park funding but that he’s “not optimistic” the current trajectory will reverse itself. “It’s just the blind zeal for cuts in the discretionary part of the budget, regardless of the consequences,” Kind said.

Since fixed costs represent such a high portion of park budgets — 92 percent for Fredericksburg and 88 percent for the Blue Ridge Parkway, for example — an 8 percent cut as part of sequestration could prompt closures in as many as 150 parks, according to estimates by the conservation association.

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), who chairs the House Natural Resources subcommittee on national parks, forests and public lands, said the Park Service should eliminate all new land acquisitions and reevaluate its mission. The administration’s fiscal 2013 budget includes $59 million for parkland acquisition.

“Why don’t we prioritize and realize the federal government cannot print money fast enough to do everything that needs to get done?” Bishop said.

In many ways, the parks’ predicament is the result of federal decisions over the past 11 years to shift money to the operations budget at the expense of everything else. In 2001, operations constituted 64 percent of total park appropriations; in the 2013 budget, they account for 87 percent. This has left the system with an $11.4 billion backlog.

“Congress has emphasized the operations budget because it’s what keeps the doors open,” said Denis Galvin, who served as the National Park Service’s deputy director from 1985 to 1989 and from 1996 to 2002.

In Fredericksburg, the fiscal constraints are obvious. Smith has a list of construction and maintenance projects he would like to complete that total more than $42 million, including removing trees that threaten the earthen fortifications troops built during the Civil War and the demolition of non-historic houses on the park’s battlefields.

Smith said this is “the worst” budget crisis he has experienced during his 40-year-long Park Service career. “We’ve pulled out all the stops, and there’s nowhere to go anymore.”

John and Diane Anderson, retirees from Long Island, Va., south of Lynchburg, listened attentively as ranger Becky Oakes spoke movingly of the slaughter during the 1862 Battle of Fredericksburg, in which seven waves of Union soldiers died in an unsuccessful attempt to pierce Confederate lines at the Sunken Road.

Reciting by heart the words of Union soldiers who tugged on the sleeves of their comrades headed into battle, Oakes said, “It’s no use, boys; we’ve tried that. Nothing can stand there; it’s only for the dead.”

Diane Anderson praised Oakes but said of Chatham Manor, “That really needs to be refurbished. . . . The garden’s overgrown and not kept up.”

Oakes, a history major at Gettysburg College who plans to pursue a career with the Park Service after she graduates next year, exemplifies the system’s budget woes. Although she was hired as a seasonal employee, budget constraints meant she had to work as an unpaid intern until Aug. 12, when money came through for a promotion.

“It’s scary going in, knowing this is what you want to do, but anything can happen to the budget,” Oakes said. “And these are factors beyond your control.”

Commission will reduce fee used to protect habitats

Irony: Halt to Eagle Mountain impacted enviro plans to buy critical habitat



Coachella Valley Multiple Species
Habitat Conservation Plan area

Written by Keith Matheny
mydesert.com

Coachella Valley -- A developer fee that supports a valleywide species habitat protection plan will be reduced.

The Coachella Valley Conservation Commission, which consists of representatives from the nine valley cities, Riverside County and local water agencies, plans to reduce the mitigation fee supporting the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan.

The plan protects 240,000 acres of open space and 27 plant and animal species in and around the Coachella Valley, including the threatened desert tortoise, peninsular bighorn sheep and desert pupfish.

The planned fee reduction is $130 per acre for commercial or industrial development, to $5,600 from $5,730.

The fee will drop $30 per acre for developments of up to eight units in affected areas, to $1,254 from $1,284.

Tom Kirk, Coachella Valley Association of Governments executive director, said the fee reductions are prompted by a new “nexus study” required of governments to occasionally evaluate the appropriateness of fees charged for new development.

Declining property values due to the struggling economy did not have a large impact on the fee, Kirk said, because the properties often purchased for habitat protection are remote and less desirable for building, which tends to keep land values more flat.

The habitat protection program hit a potential snag in March, when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to take up a U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling overturning a land exchange that in effect halted the Eagle Mountain Landfill near Joshua Tree National Park.

The multiple species plan was counting on $250 million in long-term funding from the landfill, Kirk said, and developers potentially faced a huge fee increase without it.

But CVAG officials worked with federal and state agencies, environmentalists, and the local building industry, eventually striking a deal to continue with plans to buy critical habitat lands most susceptible to development over the next 20 to 30 years, but to shift lesser priority land purchases out up to 40 years, Kirk said.

“It drove down the fee a little bit, which was a heck of a lot better than raising it a whole lot,” he said.

Riverside County Planning Department Deputy Director Greg Neal said county supervisors are having staff return with an amended plan for a county board vote.

Other member governments will similarly have to amend their ordinances, he said.

Though the multi-species plan was adopted in 2007, to date it has raised only about $2 million in development impact fees — far below projections — due to the down economy, Kirk said.

“One of the many ironies of the plan is, when we have wildlife interests knocking at our door saying, ‘Why don't you acquire more land?' we need more development to do it,” he said.

The program has relied on about $5 million in federal grant funds and $13 million in CVAG transportation mitigation fees to pay for acquisitions, property management and biological monitoring, Kirk said.

“At CVAG, we look at it much like a developer does,” he said. “We'd rather pay a fee to help build interchanges on the I-10 than deal with the uncertainty and high cost of dealing with endangered species on a case-by-case basis.”

Feinstein to introduce legislation to establish 2 national monuments in Mojave Desert

The protected areas would encompass 1 million acres containing wildlife, extinct volcanoes, sand dunes and ancient petroglyphs. The senator says the bill could be enacted in late 2010.

By Louis Sahagun
Los Angeles Times


Reporting from Barstow - Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) says she plans to introduce legislation today to establish two national monuments on roughly 1 million acres of Mojave Desert outback that is home to bighorn sheep and desert tortoises, extinct volcanoes, sand dunes and ancient petroglyphs.

Its centerpiece, Mojave Trails National Monument, would prohibit development on 941,000 acres of federal land and former railroad company property along a 105-mile stretch of old Route 66, between Ludlow and Needles.

The smaller Sand to Snow National Monument, about 45 miles east of Riverside, would cover about 134,000 acres of federal land between Joshua Tree National Park and the San Bernardino National Forest in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Its diverse habitats range from desert scrub to yellow pine forests 9,000 feet above sea level.

The legislation, which had been delayed by efforts to resolve conflicts among environmentalists, off-roaders and renewable energy interests, would also designate 250,000 acres of public land near the Army's training center at Ft. Irwin as wilderness; add 41,000 acres to the southern boundary of Death Valley National Park and add 2,900 acres to northern portions of Joshua Tree National Park.

In addition, it would designate as permanent five existing off-highway vehicle areas in San Bernardino County covering 314,000 acres.

Feinstein, author of the 1994 California Desert Protection Act, vowed to make the legislation a priority. "In the best-case scenario, this legislation could be approved by late 2010," she said in an interview.

"This magnificent land and its lonely beauty are a significant part of our history, and we shouldn't give it up," Feinstein said, adding that private donors helped acquire the former railroad parcels "with the belief they would be protected from development. We have an obligation to keep them that way."

The railroad land was purchased between 1999 and 2003 with $45 million in private donations collected by the nonprofit Wildlands Conservancy and $18 million in federal funds, then donated to the Department of the Interior.

The Bureau of Land Management is reviewing 130 applications for solar and wind-energy development in the California desert, covering more than 1 million acres of public land.

At least 19 renewable-energy projects have been suggested within the boundaries of the proposed Mojave Trails monument, according to Feinstein, who has discussed her concerns with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.

Feinstein's legislation would assist companies with projects currently proposed inside monument boundaries in relocating to federal energy zones being developed elsewhere. It would also permit construction of transmission lines within existing utility rights of way to facilitate the transfer of renewable energy generated in the Southern California desert and adjacent states.

Some congressional Republicans accused Feinstein of engaging in a not-in-my-back-yard campaign when her plans for legislation restricting renewable energy projects in California deserts surfaced earlier this year.

The senator countered that she "strongly" supports such projects, but only if they are built on "suitable" lands.

In an effort to avoid conflicts, BrightSource Energy Inc. and Stirling Energy Systems recently scrapped plans to build massive solar and wind farms on a panoramic stretch of the proposed Mojave Trails monument known as Sleeping Beauty Valley.

"We had a project within what we understand to be the boundaries of the monument, but we recently decided to withdraw it," said Sean Gallagher, Stirling's vice president of marketing strategies and regulatory issues. "We're trying to be respectful of what Sen. Feinstein has been doing in that area of the desert."

Environmentalists, hunters and off-road vehicle enthusiasts expressed support for Feinstein's legislation.

Elden Hughes, an honorary vice president of the Sierra Club, described it as "good news -- and darned important because it means this land would never be built on or fenced off."

James Conkle, founder of the Route 66 Alliance, which seeks to protect the historic route linking Chicago with Southern California, said the bill would "open up the desert to more travelers, sparking interest in fascinating, out-of-the-way places like Ludlow, Amboy and Essex."

Megan Grossglass, spokeswoman for the Off-Road Business Assn., was more cautious in her appraisal. Her group "has not had a chance to fully analyze the bill," she said, "so we cannot give it our endorsement, but we are supportive of the balanced approach it seems to take."

Mojave Trail, a four-hour drive from Los Angeles, includes such environmentally sensitive areas as Afton Canyon, a four-mile ribbon of green wetlands wedged between weathered rock walls, and Amboy Crater, a dormant volcano.

Then there is Sleeping Beauty Valley, a 150-square-mile expanse roughly 60 miles east of Barstow. It contains bighorn sheep, a newly discovered species of lupine that features showy purple blossoms in the spring, and unusually dark lizards that appear to have genetically adapted to the volcanic terrain.

During a tour of the area Sunday, David Myers, executive director of the Wildlands Conservancy, scrambled up a rocky hill at the base of a row of snaggletoothed mountains freckled with clumps of brittlebush.

"Heroic country, isn't it?" he said. "Just a few months ago, there were plans to cover this entire landscape with solar and wind farms. Instead, with this legislation, we are striking a balance with the insatiable demands of population growth."

Conservation Commission to buy Big Morongo parcel

Erica Felci
The Desert Sun



Big Morongo Canyon Preserve (BLM)


Coachella Valley officials are spending $3.9 million to acquire 638 acres in Big Morongo Canyon, the largest land purchase since the desert multi-species protection act went into effect last fall.

The Coachella Valley Conservation Commission last week approved buying the habitat lands. Officials say they saved $1.1 million.

The deal should be finalized in August.

The property, along the north part of Indian Drive, is a significant parcel as it was part of the now-defunct Palmwood project. The golf resort was once envisioned as an economic boost to Desert Hot Springs, and was a key reason the city initially opted out of the Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan.

This land is part of a “significant wildlife corridor,” said Katie Barrows, environmental resources director for the Coachella Valley Association of Governments.

“Acquisition of the Palmwood parcel will be a significant step to ensuring conservation of this rich natural area and access to trails for generations to come,” Rancho Mirage Councilman Richard Kite, chairman of the conservation commission, said in a statement.

The 75-year, $2.2 billion multi-species act — designed to preserve land and habitat for 27 of the desert's endangered and protected species — went into effect in October. Since then, the conservation commission has acquired about 227 acres of habitat land.

During the 12 years it took valley and county officials to develop the plan, about 60,000 acres were acquired.

Barrows said there was interest in acquiring additional land in the area around Palmwood.

Desert Hot Springs City Council in November rescinded its earlier approval of the Palmwood development and decertified the project's Environmental Impact Report.

City officials in recent months have been working on Desert Hot Springs becoming a full member of the valleywide conservation effort.

In what is a first step to that inclusion, the city has been working with various agencies regarding conservation in the 4,000 acres they are looking to annex near Interstate 10.

About 1,900 acres make up land eyed for habitat.

Officials continue to study what is needed to amend the original plan to let the city join. That amendment would have to be approved by every jurisdiction that's already in the plan.

“By next summer, our hope would be that Desert Hot Springs can adopt the multi-species plan” and its related regulations and fees, City Manager Rick Daniels said.

Feinstein seeks to block solar power from desert land

By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press







The Mother Road National Monument designed by the Wilderness Conservancy on behalf of Senator Dianne Feinstein will; 1) fill in the blanks missed by the California Desert Protection Act of 1994, 2) block development of renewable energy sources in the East Mojave Desert, 3) force the Marine Corps to expand the base at Twentynine Palms to the west, and 4) thereby eliminate off-road recreation and residents from Johnson Valley.


WASHINGTON (AP) — California's Mojave Desert may seem ideally suited for solar energy production, but concern over what several proposed projects might do to the aesthetics of the region and its tortoise population is setting up a potential clash between conservationists and companies seeking to develop renewable energy.

Nineteen companies have submitted applications to build solar or wind facilities on a parcel of 500,000 desert acres, but Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Friday such development would violate the spirit of what conservationists had intended when they donated much of the land to the public.

Feinstein said Friday she intends to push legislation that would turn the land into a national monument, which would allow for existing uses to continue while preventing future development.

The Wildlands Conservancy orchestrated the government's purchase of the land between 1999-2004. It negotiated a discount sale from the real estate arm of the former Santa Fe and Southern Pacific Railroad and then contributed $40 million to help pay for the purchase. David Myers, the conservancy's executive director, said the solar projects would do great harm to the region's desert tortoise population.

"It would destroy the entire Mojave Desert ecosystem," said David Myers, executive director of The Wildlands Conservancy.

Feinstein said the lands in question were donated or purchased with the intent that they would be protected forever. But the Bureau of Land Management considers the land now open to all types of development, except mining. That policy led the state to consider large swaths of the land for future renewable energy production.

"This is unacceptable," Feinstein said in a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. "I urge you to direct the BLM to suspend any further consideration of leases to develop former railroad lands for renewable energy or for any other purpose."

"If we cannot put solar power plants in the Mojave desert, I don't know where the hell we can put it..." - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

In a speech last year, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger complained about environmental concerns slowing down the approval of solar plants in California.

"If we cannot put solar power plants in the Mojave desert, I don't know where the hell we can put it," Schwarzenegger said at Yale University.

But Karen Douglas, chairman of the California Energy Commission, said Feinstein's proposal could be a "win-win" for energy and conservation. The governor's office said Douglas was speaking on the administration's behalf.

"The opportunity we see in the Feinstein bill is to jump-start our own efforts to find the best sites for development and to come up with a broader conservation plan that mitigates the impact of the development," Douglas said.

Douglas said that if the national monument lines were drawn without consideration of renewable energy then a conflict was likely, but it's early enough in the planning process that she's confident the state will be able to get more solar and wind projects up and running without hurting the environment.

"We think we can do both," Douglas said. "We think this is an opportunity to accelerate both."

Greg Miller of the Bureau of Land Management said there are 14 solar energy and five wind energy projects that have submitted applications seeking to develop on what's referred to as the former Catellus lands. None of the projects are close to being approved, he said.

The land lies in the southeast corner of California, between the existing Mojave National Preserve on the north and Joshua Tree National Park on the south.

"They all have to go through a rigorous environmental analysis now," Miller said. "It will be at best close to two years out before we get some of these grants approved."

Feinstein's spokesman, Gil Duran, said the senator looks forward to working with the governor and the Interior Department on the issue.

"There's plenty of room in America's deserts for the bold expansion of renewable energy projects," Duran said.

A win for wilderness

EDITORIAL

The Senate has passed a public lands bill that will benefit California, among other states. Although the legislation contains a few troublesome projects, it deserves House passage too.

Opinion
Los Angeles Times

An omnibus public lands bill that would, among other things, designate more than 700,000 acres of California land as wilderness has finally received approval from the Senate and will now go to the House for a vote. Though it contains a few questionable proposals, the legislation would protect badly needed wildlife habitat and recreational space, and the House should pass it.

The bill, S. 22, a holdover from last year, consists of about 160 separate proposals and would grant the highest level of federal protection to more than 2 million acres across nine states from California to West Virginia. Among the California land designated as wilderness would be about 190,000 acres in Riverside County, about 450,000 acres in the Eastern Sierra and the San Gabriel Mountains, and about 90,000 acres in Sequoia-Kings Canyon national parks. The overall packagecarries a $4-billion price tag over five years.

Perhaps the most important bonus for California, though, is $88 million for the long-overdue revival of the 330-mile-long San Joaquin River, after decades of being drained to supply Central Valley farms. The legislation would restore water flows next year below Friant Dam -- located on the uppermost part of the river, northeast of Fresno -- and attempt to restore salmon runs to their historic levels by 2014.

For all its good intentions, the bill funds or allows a few troublesome projects, most notably a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska for use by residents of a nearby village in case of medical emergencies, even though the government has already bought them a $9-million hovercraft for that purpose. But a revised version of the bill at least grants the Interior secretary the authority to veto the road's construction. Then there's the downright silly allocation of $3.5 million to celebrate the 450th birthday of St. Augustine, Fla., in 2015. St. Augustine is ancient by U.S. standards, the oldest European-established city in the nation, but the expenditure for a minor anniversary of a town of 12,000 is excessive by any measure.

Despite such concerns, on balance the bill is heavy on benefit and light on waste. Wilderness areas enjoy a higher level of protection than any other public lands, shielding them from drilling, logging and residential development. Rather than piling on more pork, or even killing it outright, the House should swiftly approve the bill.

Mojave land trust achieves acquisition milestone

Joshua Tree charity donates 10,000th acre to Park Service

Hi-Desert Star

JOSHUA TREE — The Mojave Desert Land Trust, a Joshua Tree public charity, announced the acquisition of its 10,000th acre of land to be donated to the National Park Service this week.

The land trust has given land to Joshua Tree National Park, the Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley National Park through 183 transactions at a cost of $5 million dollars.

Mindy Kaufman, the land trust’s president, said she was extremely proud of the achievement: “We are only 3 years old as a land trust and these acquisitions speak to the grit and determination of the board, our funders, small staff, great volunteers and the community in its desire to preserve land in the Mojave Desert.”

Founded in 2005, the Mojave Desert Land Trust uses a fund in the Preserving Wild California Program to acquire privately held parcels inside the boundaries of desert national parks.

Most national parks contain private lands that are holdovers from the homesteading, ranching and mining days.

The Mojave Land Trust believes these lands can become the staging grounds for incompatible development, such as commercial real estate or homes, putting wildlife, natural and cultural treasures and the experiences of park visitors at risk.

According to the land trust, the National Park Service lists 1.8 million acres of private land it hopes will be acquired and donated to the government at an estimated price tag of $1.9 billion.

Inholdings that require restoration from dumping, illegal roads or other uses are restored by the Mojave Desert Land Trust before they are donated to the National Park Service.

To date, using professional contractors and the volunteer time of trained land stewards, over 70 acres have been restored — recycling more than 15 tons of debris, 36 vehicles and four travel trailers.

This year, Nolina Peak, which the land trust acquired in 2007, was incorporated into Joshua Tree National Park.

The 640-acre Nolina Peak parcel protects the Quail Mountain watershed originating in Joshua Tree National Park.

“In only three years, the MDLT has acquired over 3,500 acres in Joshua Tree, a rate of acquisition that far exceeds what the park was able to accomplish,” said Curt Sauer, superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park.

“While these lands are all critical to the management of resources within the park, the acquisition of Nolina Peak is a giant step forward in our ability to preserve the northwest end of Quail Mountain, with its resident populations of bighorn sheep, bobcat, mountain lion and desert tortoise.”

Sauer said he considers the land trust an important partner for conservation in the Mojave Desert.

Another recent acquisition of 320 acres is located in the Mojave National Preserve. A wildlife corridor, this land links the pinyon juniper highlands of the New York Mountains with the Watson Wash drainage.

The site also includes habitat for plants and animals and is the location of a historic homestead.

Preserve superintendent Dennis Schramm said the land trust’s help has been especially critical in the past several years, when federal money to buy land was mostly unavailable.

“Wilderness, desert tortoise critical habitat, springs and other biologically diverse properties are now permanently protected due to the efforts of MDLT,” said Schramm.

U.S. Senate poised to shut Off-Highway Vehicles out of more than 1 million acres of public land

FEATURED ALERT
American Motorcyclist Association

The U.S. Senate is poised to act as early as Sunday [01/11/2009] on a massive package of public lands bills that would shut motorcyclists out of more than 1 million acres without adequate public comment, the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) reports.

The last-minute move just as the newly elected Congress takes over has raised the ire of the AMA and at least one congressman, who believe the proposal and process deserve more public participation.

"Those who say things get better with time obviously never encountered the public lands omnibus bill," said U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah). "This bill was a bad idea last Congress and it's only gotten worse over the past month."

Ed Moreland, AMA vice president for government relations, agreed.

"It makes little sense to lump together more than 160 very important public lands bills into once package and expect the public to digest it all, and to rush a vote through the Senate on a weekend." Moreland said.

More than 160 public lands bills have been grouped together by Senate majority leader Harry Reid. The package would create more than 1 million acres of designated Wilderness land, which would shut out all motorized vehicles.

The last-minute congressional maneuver would also make the National Landscape Conservation System permanent. This system creates an additional level of bureaucracy for the National System of Public Lands and would remove much of the authority of the existing agency in managing those lands.

"Congress should put together a new package and pass it through committee rather than debate legislation carried over from the previous Congress," Rep. Bishop said. "Poor process produces poor product, and this is an example of congressional process at its worst. Parts of this bill are good, and parts are very bad. Each part deserves to be discussed and voted on its own merits."

"Continued responsible access to public lands is a vitally important right for current and future generations," added Moreland. "This measure deserves to be fully analyzed and thoughtfully debated in the 111th Congress prior to a final vote."

All AMA members and anyone else who enjoys outdoor recreation is urged to contact their U.S. Senators and ask them to oppose the omnibus public lands bill.

TAKE ACTION

‘I’m Shocked, Shocked To Discover Land Use Going On Here’

by Vin Suprynowicz
Las Vegas Review-Journal

Once you’ve passed through the entrance gate to one of America’s magnificent national parks or monuments, what do you see?

Nothin’.

In most cases, mile upon mile of nothin’.

The sweeping grandeur of the Grand Canyon is not visible from any common entrance point to the national park of that name. Expect to drive several miles before you see the first signs directing you to various hotels and overlooks. (Entering from the north, LOTS of miles.)

Florida’s Everglades area the same way. Yes, the historic wetlands have been shrunken by unwise water projects further north, but many a child has gazed out upon the sweep of mostly dry grasslands after passing the “now entering” sign, asking, “Where’s the swamp? Where’s the gators?”

The traveler does not come upon these scenic wonders immediately, because those who planned these vast impoundments understood the concept of a “buffer zone.” With few exceptions, the scenic vistas are surrounded by five to 10 miles – or more – of empty space. This was done so that those enjoying the scenery would not have to gaze upon carnivals and trailer parks and used car graveyards teetering at the edge of Bryce Canyon or Yosemite Falls.

Outside the parks and monuments, the federal government may control even vaster acreage. But those lands are turned over to the U.S. Bureau of land Management, which has a different mission, seeing that those less sensitive lands are used in ways that benefit the nation.

Yet listen now to the green extremists, complaining that mining or tree-cutting or grazing is “allowed, only one valley away” or “once ridge line away” from a national park or monument.

On Nov. 4, the BLM announced that on Dec. 19 they will auction off the rights to drill for oil or gas on more than 50,000 acres of BLM land close to or adjoining three national parks in Utah: Arches, Dinosaur, and Canyonlands.

“This is a fire sale,” shrills Stephen Bloch, staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, “the Bush administration’s last great gift to the oil and gas industry.”

“We find it shocking and disturbing,” says Cordell Troy, chief National Park Service administrator in Utah. “That’s 40 tracts within four miles of these parks.”

Read it again. Four miles outside the parks’ existing buffer zones.

Franklin Seal, spokesman for the environmental group Wildland CPR, contends “If you’re standing at Delicate Arch, like thousands of people do every year, and you’re looking through the arch, you could see drill pads on the hillside behind it. That’s how ridiculous this proposed lease sale is.”

See people earning an honest wage, working to heat our homes and fill our gas tanks … by using binoculars, perhaps?

In an era when economically struggling Americans actually celebrate when gasoline prices fall below three dollars a gallon – when this nation needs to develop all its domestic resources to reduce its dependence on foreign oil – there’s nothing “silly” about creating wealth and real jobs by allowing entrepreneurs to risk their own capital developing our own resources.

If the borders of the Arches National Park were not properly drawn to create an adequate buffer, it’s odd no one noticed this before. In such specific cases, the BLM might certainly compromise on a parcel or two.

But these protests are like complaining someone “almost broke” the 65 mph speed limit by driving 63 mph, or that they “almost violated” the drinking age by serving beer to a 23-year-old.

“I’m puzzled the park Service has been as upset as they are,” Selma Sierra, BLM director for the state of Utah, tells The Associated Press. “There are already many parcels leased around the parks.”

Details, details. What does that matter, when there’s serious posturing to be done?

Soon we’ll be hearing about unsightly land uses “within a hundred miles of a national park!” Since many national parks sit in closer proximity to each other than that, here in the West, such an “exclusionary zone” would bar millions of acres of deserts scrub from any productive use.

Which, one begins to suspect, is precisely what the green extreme has in mind.

Vin Suprynowicz is assistant editorial page editor of the daily Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2008

Senator Reid calls peers into lame duck session to debate controversial bill

Environmental Analysis

Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT)

One would think with all the talk of bailouts and a faltering economy, the subject of preserving "wilderness" areas would not be high on the Congressional agenda. But alas, it appears this is not the case as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently announced he is calling back his peers in a lame duck session to try and pass the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2008.

This initiative is being decried by property rights advocates as a massive land grab by Uncle Sam, and rightly so. The over 1,000 page bill not only contains some $4 billion in pork barrel spending, but also creates a number of new (and unnecessary) "conservation" programs which will put bureaucrats in charge of millions of new acres of our nation's lands. The Act is certain to gum up the works of those individuals trying to make use of their property with a new layer of red tape, and most tragically, it may ultimately force the American taxpayer to fund the buyout of new tracts that are currently owned by private individuals. This, at a time when the Federal government already owns an astonishing 650 million acres and self-admittedly claims it is struggling with maintenance issues.

Not surprisingly, many Americans in rural areas oppose the creation of new National Heritage Areas. But perhaps a bit more odd to many, it appears even constituencies who voted for Barak Obama in large numbers are also showing their distaste for this bill.

According to a recent poll by the National Center for Public Policy Research, 52 percent of African-Americans oppose legislation to create new National Heritage Areas while only 37 percent support it. This opposition probably reflects the fact that many minorities are particularly vulnerable to home price increases, and prices would likely rise following National Heritage Area designation. It will be interesting to see if findings like this give pause to the legislation's supporters.

Boulder's infamous 'land-grab' case settled

Kirlins say they will only have to cede 12 percent of south Boulder lot



By Heath Urie
Daily Camera

Two Boulder neighbors have settled a land dispute that made national headlines and prompted state legislators to change the law that allowed it to happen.

Don and Susie Kirlin, who originally lost 34 percent of one of their two vacant lots to neighbors Richard McLean and Edith Stevens, agreed to cede about 12 percent of the million-dollar property instead, the couples announced Tuesday.

“This settlement allows the parties to put this long-standing and difficult dispute behind them,” they wrote in a 48-word joint statement.

Under the terms of the agreement, which still must be sent from the Colorado Court of Appeals to Boulder District Court Judge James C. Klein for final approval, McLean and Stevens will own a five-foot strip of the Kirlins’ next-door lot, widening to nine feet at the north end of the property.

The total transaction equals 540 square feet of the 4,659-square-foot lot.

The settlement ends a high-profile case that divided the south Boulder neighborhood after Klein’s October 2007 decision to award the land to McLean, a former judge and Boulder mayor, and Stevens, an attorney. The couple sued for the Hardscrabble Drive property under the centuries-old law of adverse possession, which allows trespassers who openly use land for 18 years to claim it as their own.

The case, which the Kirlins had appealed, prompted public protests; death threats against McLean and Stevens; and an unsuccessful effort to fight Klein’s reinstatement in this month’s election. It spurred changes to Colorado’s adverse possession law, and spawned a new law prohibiting judges from hearing cases involving current or former judges from the same district.

Both couples called the settlement agreement a win-win situation: the Kirlins will be able to sell the property with enough land left to allow a house to be constructed on it, while McLean and Stevens will retain access to a path around the side of their house.

“I would have never done something like this to my neighbor, however I am happy that it’s finally over,” Don Kirlin said.

Stevens said the settlement ends a tense chapter in the neighborhood’s history.

“I think that the community will be relieved to see that the case is settled,” she said.

‘A fully buildable lot’

Although they’re still disappointed the lawsuit ever happened, the Kirlins said that having at least some of the valuable land back is satisfying.

“It’s cost me over $400,000” to fight the lawsuit, Don Kirlin said, “and after spending it, I only get to lose 12 percent of my property that I already owned.”

He said the property, with its expansive view of the Flatirons, is now for sale — listed at $925,000. A house with a footprint as large as 1,540 square feet could be built on it, he said.

“The end result is, and the most important part to me, is that it allows a fully buildable lot,” Don Kirlin said.

The investment, he said, was always meant to finance the couple’s “dream home,” which they still intend to build on their adjacent lot.

The terms of the settlement include provisions that allow construction crews to use the piece of the lot owned by McLean and Stevens for access to the site, but whoever buys the property must agree to restore the McLean-Stevens land to its original state after construction.

Don Kirlin said his neighbors approached him with the offer to settle the longtime dispute.

“I think their gut feeling was, and their legal counsel advised them, that there was a good chance they would lose in the court of appeals,” he said.

Kirlin said his neighbors stand to gain more from the deal than just land.

“Their friends abandoned them,” Don Kirlin said. “They want to try and attempt to regain some of their stature in the community.”

‘I don’t know why it took them so long’

McLean and Stevens said they had always hoped to settle the case, which was prompted by construction of a fence that cut off a path they had used unquestioned for 26 years.

They have said on several occasions that they tried to resolve the dispute without resorting to a lawsuit.

“You always are trying to settle the case without raising the level of antagonism, without incurring a lot of attorney’s fees, and we had hoped from the very start, before we filed the lawsuit, that we would be able to settle the case,” Stevens said.

The couple has long said their lawsuit was about preserving their right to use the land to access their own backyard, based on their two decades’ of previous use.

“I think from the very start, our goal was to retain access to the back of our property and to protect the trees and shrubs that we planted there,” Stevens said.

McLean echoed his wife, saying he wished the resolution could have come sooner.

“I’m quite satisfied with it, because we made the offer nearly a year ago,” he said. “I don’t know why it took them so long.”

Negotiations have been ongoing for more than a year, and the Kirlins said previous terms weren’t acceptable them.

‘Nobody had to lose this case’

In the year since the Boulder case gained national attention, Colorado lawmakers decided to revamp the law of adverse possession. As of July 1, the law gives judges the power to force adverse possessors to pay for the land they win, and to compensate the original owner for back property taxes and interest.

The case was unique for the way it affected the public, said Andy Low, attorney for the Kirlins.

“Out here in the West, people feel very strongly about property rights,” Low said. “It touched on a lot of people’s concerns about their own property.”

He said both couples were eventually able to rise above the “bitterness” that comes with lawsuits like this one, and reach a compromise.

“Ultimately, I think the headline for me is the case has a happy ending,” Low said. “Nobody had to lose this case, which is very unusual.”

Kimberly Hult, attorney for McLean and Stevens, agreed.

“This settlement should resolve the dispute in its entirety, including the appeal,” she said.

Cattlemen Ask Senate To Oppose Omnibus Public Land Management Act Of 2008

News Release
R-CALF

Washington, D.C. – R-CALF USA – on the recommendation of its Private Property Rights Committee – sent a formal letter to members of the U.S. Senate to encourage them to oppose the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2008.

“This is a massive land grab bill that could further restrict private property rights of cattle farmers and ranchers – people who care deeply for, and manage, our nation’s natural resources – and we strongly urge the Senate to oppose this piece of legislation,” said R-CALF USA Private Property Rights Committee Co-Chair Ray Cunio. “The federal government already owns more than 650 million acres, much of which is inadequately maintained and poorly managed. Unfortunately, some in Congress seem intent on placing even more land under federal control.”

R-CALF USA believes this particular legislation would subject millions of acres of land to government control and regulation and could prevent U.S. citizens from exercising their right of property ownership and wise multiple use of federal lands. The bill grabs so-called “wilderness areas,” “heritage areas,” and “scenic rivers,” and extends damaging centralized command and control of these lands.

“Specifically, this legislation could infringe on U.S. cattle farmers’ and ranchers’ vested and/or riparian water rights and restrict their constitutional right to keep and own property and make decisions concerning its use,” explained R-CALF USA Private Property Rights Committee Co-Chair Harlan Hentges. “This bill also creates new ‘conservation’ programs that would effectively encumber property rights, and millions of additional acres of land will be controlled by a vast and unaccountable bureaucracy. Ultimately, this bill forces American taxpayers to pay for an unnecessary restriction on the beneficial use of these valuable resources.

“Simply put, this legislation is blatantly contrary to our national principles, needlessly restricts property rights and unnecessarily restricts individual liberty,” he emphasized. “We urge all Senators to protect the citizens of the United States – taxpayers – and vote against the Omnibus Land Management Act of 2008.”

R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund, United Stockgrowers of America) is a national, non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. R-CALF USA represents thousands of U.S. cattle producers on trade and marketing issues. Members are located across 47 states and are primarily cow/calf operators, cattle backgrounders, and/or feedlot owners.

Public lands bill looks dead for year

Staff and wire reports
Casper Star-Tribune

CHEYENNE -- A massive lands bill with protections for the Wyoming Range and parts of the Snake River in Wyoming is likely dead for the year.

Supporters said Friday that the bipartisan Omnibus Public Land Management Act apparently fell victim to a filibuster threat by a Republican senator.

The bill would have prohibited any new oil and gas leasing, mining patents or geothermal leasing in a 100-mile-long stretch of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming. It would also protect 387 miles of rivers and streams in the Snake River drainage under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Nevada Democrat strongly supports the lands package, but his first priorities in a lame-duck session next week are a planned rescue for the auto industry and extension of unemployment insurance benefits.

Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn had threatened to filibuster the bill over what he calls its excessive spending.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said Friday evening that he intends to fight for the public lands package when the Senate reconvenes in a lame-duck session on Monday.

"There are bills very important to Wyoming in this," he said in a phone interview.

He mentioned the Wyoming Range Legacy Act and the Snake Headwaters Legacy Act, which is under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. In addition, the package contains compensation for ranchers for damages done by wolves to their livestock.

"This is 150 bills that are packaged together for a single vote. And it sounds from that report that one senator is holding up the entire package because of certain bills but not all the bills, but everything is being held up," Barrasso said.

In the Wyoming Legislature the package would require 150 separate votes, he noted.

When the lame-duck session was called, Reid said the senate would be back to work on the public lands bill.

"I'm prepared to do that," Barrasso said.

The Wyoming Range Legacy Act, which, in addition to prohibiting new mineral leasing in part of the Bridger-Teton National Forest, would allow conservation groups to buy and retire existing energy leases.

The bill is sponsored by Barrasso, based on legislation that the late Sen. Craig Thomas was working on at the time of his death.

The Craig Thomas Snake Headwaters Legacy Act would protect 387 miles of rivers and streams in the Snake River drainage.

Supporters of the legislation had urged Congress to act during the lame-duck session, because some authors of the legislation either retired or weren't re-elected, and their replacements won't be as familiar with the omnibus bill.

The Wyoming measures have the support of conservation organizations, sporting groups, and union and trade organizations, as well as Gov. Dave Freudenthal.

Outside Wyoming, legislation would expand wilderness along Oregon's Mount Hood and create a vast new wilderness in Idaho's Owyhee canyons. The bill also would have created wilderness areas in California, Colorado and New Mexico.

Sen. Mike Enzi was with family in Wyoming on Friday evening and could not be reached for comment, according to spokeswoman Elly Pickett.

Stop New Federal Land Grab

Britt Weygandt
News Blaze

Congressional leaders say they will ram through an omnibus public lands package in a "lame duck" session of Congress coming up during the week of November 17th. The Roundtable is rallying Westerners to oppose this huge federal land grab.

Take action here right now: http://www.westernroundtable.com/oppose+federal+land+grab.aspx

This 1,000-page package includes more than 150 bills that would:

-- create more than a million acres of wilderness;
-- restrict the development of energy resources on various federal lands;
-- place hundreds of thousands of acres under new or enhanced federal control; and
-- further restrict many forms of use and access to public lands.

Not only that, but this bill would lock in, by statute, the Clinton Administration-inspired "National Landscape Conservation System" (NLCS) within the BLM. The bill would give federal land managers the ability to alter the long-standing multiple use management philosophy of the BLM by elevating the purposes to "conserve, protect, restore" above other purposes for NLCS units.

This could mean agriculture, energy exploration and production and other economic uses could become imperiled on huge swathes of Western public lands. To see the acreages impacted by NLCS in the West, go here: http://docs.westernroundtable.com/public_lands/BKGR_OmnibusLands_REVISED_10-08.pdf.

Please take 60 seconds and send a pre-drafted communication to your elected official here: http://www.westernroundtable.com/oppose+federal+land+grab.aspx

Thank you for helping to stop this very bad legislation.

Britt Weygandt
Western Business Roundtable
bweygandt@westernroundtable.com
www.westernroundtable.com

The Roundtable is a non-profit, 501(c)(6) organization that unites a wide variety of business and industry leaders to work on a bipartisan basis for public policies that promote a common sense balance between economic growth and environmental conservation.

Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2008

by CEI Staff
Competitive Enterprise Institute

To: All members, U.S. Senate

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid recently announced his plans to call back the Senate for a lame duck session to pass a massive land grab bill that will restrict property rights and hamstring energy exploration in the United States. On behalf of the undersigned organizations representing hundreds of thousands of taxpayers, small businesses, shareholders, consumers, and senior citizens, we strongly urge you to oppose the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2008.

This legislation contains over 1,000 pages and is comprised of more than 100 different land grab bills. From wilderness areas to heritage areas to wild and scenic rivers, this omnibus bill advances a centralized command-and-control vision of American lands. The federal government already owns over 650 million acres of land, much of which is experiencing severe maintenance backlogs or has already gone into disarray. We are concerned the omnibus bill would lock millions of additional acres of land into government regulation, preventing American citizens from exercising their right of property ownership.

By restricting access to land for energy exploration, this legislation is limiting the potential of the economy and directly interfering with America’s entrepreneurial drive. Through the creation of unnecessary new “conservation” programs, millions of additional acres of land will be managed by a vast government bureaucracy and its additional levels of “red tape.” This bill would ultimately force the American taxpayer to fund the purchase of land that could have otherwise been utilized in the private sector.

Furthermore, this $4 billion omnibus package contains a multitude of pork-barrel spending projects. At a time when taxpayers around the country are struggling to make ends meet, asking them to shoulder an even higher spending burden is unacceptable. Birthday celebrations for cities, tropical botanical gardens, and a study determining whether Alexander Hamilton’s boyhood estate is suitable to become a new National Park unit clearly are not national priorities, and treating them as such is an affront to your constituents.

As a matter of principle, property rights should be protected by recognizing the right of citizens to utilize and prosper from the land in this country. Legislation should never arbitrarily attempt to seize land from the public and restrict its use, as the omnibus package would. We urge you to stand up and reject Senator Reid’s effort to force this larded-up land grab down taxpayers’ throats.


Sincerely,

60 Plus Association, Jim Martin, President
Alaska Land Rights Coalition, Paula Easley, President and Ray Kreig, Vice Chairman
Albemarle Country Republican Committee, Christian J. Schoenewald, Chairman
Alliance for Worker Freedom, Brian Johnson, Executive Director
American Civil Rights Union, Susan A. Carleson, Chairman/CEO
American Conservative Union, David Keane, President
American Energy Alliance, Thomas Pyle, President
American Family Business Institute, Dick Patten, President
American Land Rights Association, Chuck Cushman, Executive Director
American Legislative Exchange Council, Alan B. Smith, Executive Director
American Policy Center, Tom Deweese, President
American Property Coalition, Linda Runbeck, President
American Shareholders Association, Ryan Ellis, Executive Director
Americans for American Energy
Americans for Forest Access, Inc., Eddie Philips, Sr., Chairman
Americans for Limited Government, William Wilson, President
Americans for Prosperity, Tim Phillips, President
Americans for Tax Reform, Grover G. Norquist, President
Americans for the Preservation of Liberty, Mark Chmura, Executive Director
Backcountry Horsemen of California, Redshank Riders Unit, Peter Spencer, Public Lands Liaison/State Director
Black Hills Regional Multiple Use Coalition, Tom Troxel, Executive Secretary
Buncombe County GOP Action Club, Kathleen R. Lack, President
California Land Institute, Sharon Bolton, President
Campaign for Liberty, David Wahlstedt, Congressional District 5 Coordinator
Center for Fiscal Accountability, Sandra Fabry, Executive Director
Center for Individual Freedom, Jeffrey Mazzella, President
Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, Ron Arnold, Executive Vice President
Citizen Outreach, Chuck Muth, President
Citizens Against Recreational Eviction-USA, Candace Oathout, Chair
Citizens for Property Rights, Jack Shockey, President
Citizens for Property Rights, Loudon County, VA, Phil Sandoe
Citizens for Limited Taxation, Barbara Anderson, President
Citizens for Responsible Zoning and Landowner Rights, Inc., Marilyn F. Hayman, Chairman
Citizens United, David N. Bossie, President
Coalition for a Conservative Majority, Ken Blackwell, Chairman
Coalition of Concerned Citizens, Meade, KS, Ellen Verell, Chairman
Competitive Enterprise Institute, Myron Ebell, Director, Energy and Global Warming Policy
Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, Tom Schatz, President
Deschutes County Farm Bureau, Deschutes County, OR, Matt Cyrus, President
Empower Texans, Michael Quinn Sullivan, President
Environmental Community Outreach Services, Eureka, NV and Juno, AK, Liz Arnold
Environmental Perspectives, Inc., Michael S. Coffman, Ph.D., President
Ethan Allen Institute, John McClaughry, President
Fish & Wildlife Conservation Council, Leonard C. Harwood, Chairman
Formation Capital Corporation, US, “The Idaho Cobalt Project,” Jerry S. Hamilton, Environmental Coordinator
Freedomworks, Swain County Chapter, Bryson City, NC, William T. Dills
Free Enterprise Action Fund, Tom Borelli, Managing Partner
Frontiers of Freedom, George Landrith, President
Government Pirates: The Assault On Private Property Rights – And How We Can Fight It, Don Corace, Author
Gun Owners of America, Larry Pratt, Executive Director
Hocking Valley Motorcycle Club, Reynoldsburg, OH, James E. Kenny, Vice President
Idaho Valley Farm Bureau, Jeanne Amzen, Women’s County Chairperson
Illinois Policy Institute, Greg Blankinship, President & Founder
Institute for Liberty, Andrew M. Langer, President
International Liquid Terminals Association, R. Peter Weaver, Director of Regulatory Compliance and Safety
Iowa Wednesday Meeting Group, Dr. Don Racheter, Founder and Moderator
JB’S Construction, James Gallaway, President
League of Private Property Voters, Chuck Cushman
Let Freedom Ring, Colin Hanna, President
Liberty Coalition of Free Citizens, Dan Goulet, Chairman
Maryland Center-Right Coalition, Richard Falknor, Chairman
Merced Dirt Riders, Inc., Turlock, CA, Michael Damaso
Montana Association of State Grazing Districts
Montana Multiple Use Association, Tim Ravndal, Board of Directors
Montana Public Lands Council
National Center for Public Policy Research, Amy Ridenour, President
National Tax Limitation Committee, Lew Uhler, President
National Taxpayers Union, Duane Parde, President
NC OHV Association, Nancy Minard, President
New Jersey Off Highway Vehicle Association, James Parrinello, Vice President
New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, Alisa Ogden, President
New Mexico Federal Lands Council, Mike Casabonne, President
New Mexico Wool Growers, Inc., Joan Kincaid, President
North Dakota Farm Bureau, Brian Kramer, Public Policy Director
North Shore Road Association, Linda G. Hogue, Chairman
Northwest Mining Association, Laura Skaer, Executive Director
Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, Kay Teisl, Executive Director
Oregon Hunters Association, Fred Craig, President
Oregonians In Action, Bill Moshofsky, Vice President
People for the West – Tuscon, Inc., Jonathan DuHamel, President
People for Wyoming, Dorothy Bartholomew, President
Project 21 Advisory Council, Mychal Massie, Chairman and Deneen Borelli, Fellow
Property Rights Alliance, Kelsey Zahourek, Executive Director
Property Rights Foundation of America, Inc., Carol W. La Grasse, President
Providence City, Utah, Randy Simmons, Mayor
Public Lands for the People, Inc., Gerald Hobbs, President
Pulp and Paperworkers’ Resource Council, James Randy Bowen, Southern Pine Region Director
Rhode Island Wise Use, Brian Bishop
RI Farm Bureau, Al Bettencourt, Executive Director
RightMarch.com, Dr. William Greene, President
Ruffed Grouse Lodge, John D. Reardon
Rule of Law Committee, William H. Shaker, Volunteer President
Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, Karen Kerrigan, President & CEO
South Dakota Stockgrowers Association, Margaret Nachtigall, Executive Director
Southern Appalachian Multiple-Use, Steve Henson, Executive Director
Stewards of the Sequoia, Chris Horgan, Executive Director
Take Back Pennsylvania, Fred V. Grau, Jr., Executive Director
Taxpayers for Accountable Government, Jim Vogt, President
Tennessee Tax Revolt, Ben Cunningham
Tradition, Family, Property, Inc., C. Preston Noel, III, President
Turn Bull Lumber Company, Doug Clark
U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation, Dane vonBreichenruchardt, President
Virginians for Property Rights, Patricia Bradburn, President
West 65, Inc., Carla Harper
Western Business Roundtable, Darrell Henry, Director of Federal Government Affairs
Washington Farm Bureau
Water for Life, Inc., Bill Wilber, President
Wisconsin ATV Association, Inc., Randy Harden, President and Rob McConnell, Vice President

Individuals:

Alice Jean Avery, Lava Hot Springs, ID
James & Joyce Bant, Hazelhurst, WI
Judy Boyle, Representative-Elect, Idaho Legislature
Robert E. & Carol L. Brown, Vancouver, WA
Shannon Chastain, AERC Member, AHA Member, MOTDRA Member
Odell Christman, Soda Springs, ID
Connie Cyrus
Genda Frei, Farm Bureau Member, Grangerville, ID
Kim Frei, Playwright, Grangerville, ID
Ronald Frei, Farm and Ranch Owner, Grangerville, ID
Diana Furchtgott-Roth
Ted Graham, NC Registered Forester
Boyd & Shirley Hardy, Farmers
Craig A Harber, Professor, Extension Wildlife Specialist, Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries, University of Tennessee
Paul & Kathleen Hayden, Baker, NV
Sierra Dawn Stoneberg Hold, Ph.D.
John Hutchings, Las Vegas, NV
David B. Isner, North Carolina Registered Forester
Donald B. Jeakins, Mining Industry (Retired), Fallon, NV
Mary Ann Jeakins, Banking Industry (Retired), Fallon, NV
Maxine Korman, Korman Ranch, Hinsdale, MT
Dennis LaBare, Upper Tract, WV
Tim LaFarge, Ph.D., Forest Geneticist (Retired)
Nancy Landt, Santa, ID
Terry McKinney, American Motorcyclist Association Member, Blue Ridge Coalition Member, Tobaccoville, NC
Milari Madison, Property Owner, Waterford, PA
Ed Martin, St. Louis, MO
Carl Meyers
Vernon L. & Susan K. Moore, Phillips, WI
Mrs. Alexandra H. Mulkern, Mechanicsville, MD
Stephen L. Ralston, Columbia, PA
Floyd Rathbun, Fallon, NV
Tim Ravndal, Townsend, MT
Cliff Rexrode
Gary E. Sattler, Freelance Writer, AOL Network
R.J. Smith, Environmental Consultant, WDC
Rachel Thomas, Property Rights Leader, Huachuca City, AZ
Teresa & John Whitmore

Reid's Deadly Land Grab

Opinion
Washington DC Examiner

One reason Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is talking about calling the Senate back to the nation’s capital after the election is to seek passage of his Omnibus Land Management Act of 2008. Enactment of this 1,000+ page monstrosity of a bill will be disastrous for American energy independence, as well as for hundreds of millions of poor people living on the edge of starvation around the globe. If that connection seems strained, consider the following:

Reid’s bill is actually a combination of more than 100 separate bills, each of which adds to the lands owned by the federal government in the American West. It’s not enough that the federal government already controls more than 650 million acres of Western land. Reid and company want to put millions more acres under the dead hand of the federal bureaucracy, and thereby prevent development of rich new energy resources that could help free America from dependence upon foreign oil. Experts agree there are billions of barrels of recoverable oil in oil shale areas of these lands, as well as massive stores of natural gas and coal. As Americans for Tax Reform notes in a recent letter to the Senate, “by restricting access to land for energy exploration, this legislation is limiting the potential of the economy and directly interfering with America’s entrepreneurial drive. By creating unnecessary new ‘conservation’ programs, million of additional acres of land will be managed by a vast government bureaucracy.”

By locking up these lands from energy exploration and development, Reid’s bill would inevitably result in gas again costing $4 per gallon and even more. Food prices will resume their upward climb, along with the costs of everything else that requires energy to be produced and marketed. Such cost spirals won’t be limited to America because OPEC’s monopoly would be strengthened globally, meaning upward pressure on prices everywhere. As disturbing as that prospect is for Americans, the effects of Reid’s bill will be catastrophic for millions of poor people in the Third World. Dr. Calvin Meisner reminds us elsewhere on these pages that when energy prices rise, so does the cost of food and that means death for the most economically vulnerable people in Africa and Asia. Historian Paul Johnson estimates that tens of millions of poor people in those regions died following OPEC’s 1973 oil price shock. Their deaths resulted from malnutrition, disease and related afflictions when their subsistence incomes were forced even lower by OPEC greed. Millions more will be similarly doomed today by the hunger holocaust that will surely follow if Reid’s bill becomes law.