landusepbb
10-22-2003, 01:13 PM
http://www.daily-times.com/artman/publish/printer_4047.shtml
BLM seeking wilderness after decade of study
Oct 15, 2003, 10:00 pm
SANTA FE (AP) — The head of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says she will push for a proposed BLM wilderness in Sandoval County that is part of a list pending before Congress for a decade.
“We’re just waiting,” said Kathleen Clarke, who was chosen by President Bush in 2001 to head the federal agency.
The 11,000-acre Ojito Wilderness would be the first new one in New Mexico since 1996, the BLM said Tuesday. Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation introduced legislation last month to designate the area near San Ysidro as wilderness.
Clarke, who came to the capital city Tuesday to speak to an oil and gas producers meeting, said afterward the BLM is managing the land as wilderness pending congressional action. That means no oil and gas drilling or mining can take place on it, and motorized vehicles are banned.
The BLM in the 1970s and 1980s identified nearly 23 million acres across the West as possible wilderness, and later recommended nearly 10 million acres for the designation.
In 1993, then-President Clinton presented a report to Congress on all 23 million acres. Tracts have been removed since, but the entire list has not been addressed, Clarke said.
She said she did not want to comment on what areas should be named wilderness, but noted that next year marks the 40th anniversary of the federal Wilderness Act.
A congressional decision, she said, “would be a nice gift to the nation.”
The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance on Tuesday criticized the Bush administration, saying that with few exceptions it has done nothing to protect public land. Alliance associate director Stephen Capra said he would rather the wilderness decision be made by a post-Bush Congress.
]And, he said, by focusing on possible wilderness, “we ignore the millions of acres across the Rocky Mountain West the administration is opening to development.”
BLM seeking wilderness after decade of study
Oct 15, 2003, 10:00 pm
SANTA FE (AP) — The head of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management says she will push for a proposed BLM wilderness in Sandoval County that is part of a list pending before Congress for a decade.
“We’re just waiting,” said Kathleen Clarke, who was chosen by President Bush in 2001 to head the federal agency.
The 11,000-acre Ojito Wilderness would be the first new one in New Mexico since 1996, the BLM said Tuesday. Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation introduced legislation last month to designate the area near San Ysidro as wilderness.
Clarke, who came to the capital city Tuesday to speak to an oil and gas producers meeting, said afterward the BLM is managing the land as wilderness pending congressional action. That means no oil and gas drilling or mining can take place on it, and motorized vehicles are banned.
The BLM in the 1970s and 1980s identified nearly 23 million acres across the West as possible wilderness, and later recommended nearly 10 million acres for the designation.
In 1993, then-President Clinton presented a report to Congress on all 23 million acres. Tracts have been removed since, but the entire list has not been addressed, Clarke said.
She said she did not want to comment on what areas should be named wilderness, but noted that next year marks the 40th anniversary of the federal Wilderness Act.
A congressional decision, she said, “would be a nice gift to the nation.”
The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance on Tuesday criticized the Bush administration, saying that with few exceptions it has done nothing to protect public land. Alliance associate director Stephen Capra said he would rather the wilderness decision be made by a post-Bush Congress.
]And, he said, by focusing on possible wilderness, “we ignore the millions of acres across the Rocky Mountain West the administration is opening to development.”