Bob Devine is the author of "Bush Versus the Environment" (Anchor Books, 2004).
Los Angeles Times
September 3, 2004
The Wilderness Act was signed into law 40 years ago because Americans feared
that what remained of our wild places would be paved over or plowed under if we
didn't protect it. People worried that they'd no longer have wilderness in
which to fish, camp, hike, canoe, hunt and savor the beauty of the great
outdoors. Our species lived in the wild for eons, and even modern humans
instinctively feel a profound bond with untamed landscapes.
The Bush
administration, however, seems to have overcome this instinct, motivated by a
desire to open public lands to logging, mining and, especially, oil and gas
development. It has systematically worked to undermine the protection of wild
places — the intent behind the Wilderness Act.
The president and
his appointees — many of whom have ties to these extractive industries
— have used many stratagems to prevent additional federal lands from being
protected. Consider their sustained assault on the Roadless Area Conservation
Rule, created under P resident Clinton to restrict development on 58.5 million
acres of unspoiled lands in our national forests. First, the Bush
administration briefly suspended the rule. It subsequently became tied up in
legal challenges and still has not been implemented.
Most recently, the
Bush administration proposed a regulation that essentially would supersede the
roadless rule, allowing development unless a state governor intervened to stop
it. Many of these roadless areas lie in Western states whose governors favor
short-term economic gain for a few favored industries over sustainable
development and environmental protection. Even if a governor objected to
development, the proposal would allow the administration to override the
request. In another attack on wilderness preservation, the administration
reached all the way back to an obscure 1866 law. Intended to allow road
construction across federal lands to connect towns, this obsolete law was
repealed in 1976 — except for one provision covering already estab lished
roads. In 2003, the administration announced new policies that widened that
narrow exception into a gaping loophole. These policies permit attempts by
states and counties to construe old wagon roads, foot paths, horse trails and
even tracks created by illegal off-road vehicle traffic as "constructed
highways" under the 1866 statute.
In California, for instance, San
Bernardino County is trying to claim hundreds of miles of dubious routes in the
Mojave National Preserve as established highways under this loophole. Once
granted the right of way, states and counties can bulldoze those imaginary roads
into true roads, even if they cross pristine lands. That would preclude
wilderness designation on those lands and allow development.
Perhaps the
biggest blow to wilderness preservation occurred in 2003 in a sweetheart
settlement between the administration and the government of Utah. The deal in
essence directs the Bureau of Land Management to stop looking for potential new
wilderness areas to preserve and opens previously protected BLM lands to
development. The settlement affects all 262 million acres managed by the BLM
throughout the country, which puts millions of acres of wild lands on the
auction block. Already, the oil-and-gas exploration rigs are rolling into
former wild lands.
Fortunately, it's not too late to curb the Bush
assault on our wilderness. A number of pending legal challenges should help.
So should the surge of bipartisan citizen protest, notably the dismay expressed
by Republican hunters and anglers. They believe in the old slogan "Conservation
is conservative." Let's hope a passion for conserving wild places prevails
among conservatives and liberals alike, as it has in the past. Otherwise the
Wilderness Act's 40th-anniversary celebration may turn out to be a wake.