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***MEDIA
ADVISORY***
2/22/11 Natural
Resources Committee, Doc Hastings, Chairman
Committee to Hold Oversight Hearing on
Interior Department’s
“Wild Lands” Policy
WASHINGTON, D.C. –
On Tuesday, March 1st the House
Natural Resources Committee will hold a Full
Committee oversight hearing on “The
Impact of the Administration’s Wild Lands
Order on Jobs and Economic Growth.”
The Wild Lands policy, established by
Secretarial Order, is an attempt by the
Interior Department to establish de facto
Wilderness areas without Congressional
approval.
“This is a prime example of why Congress
must exercise vigorous oversight of the
Obama Administration,”
said Natural Resources Committee Chairman
Doc Hastings.
“The Wild Lands policy expressly circumvents
Congress’ statutory authority to establish
Wilderness areas. Under this policy, the
public’s access to public lands can be
limited or halted entirely – impacting our
economy, jobs, recreation opportunities and
American energy production. Millions of
acres of multi-use land in the West are at
risk of being locked-up if the
Administration carries out this policy.”
“There
are so many unanswered questions surrounding
the creation of the new Wild Lands
designation and this Administration’s plans
to redo many of the recently completed
inventories of public lands,” said
National Parks, Forests and Public Lands
Subcommittee Chairman Rob Bishop. “In
Utah, for example, the BLM just completed an
open, seven-year, twenty million dollar
process to create resource management
plans. Now, this Administration is saying
they want to start over. There are
thousands of Americans, especially out West,
who question the wisdom of such an action
and who will be affected by this unilateral
secretarial order. We believe this new
policy raises a number of troubling
questions and that this hearing will be
instrumental in bringing greater clarity to
the situation.”
WHAT:
Full Committee Hearing on “The Impact of
the Administration’s Wild Lands Order on
Jobs and Economic Growth”
Witnesses:
The Honorable Butch Otter, Governor of Idaho
The Honorable Gary Herbert, Governor of Utah
Additional witnesses to be announced
WHEN:
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
2:00 PM
WHERE:
1324 Hearing Room in the Longworth House
Office Building
Background:
·
Two days before Christmas last year,
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued
Secretarial Order No. 3310 asserting that
the Bureau of Land Management has the
authority to “designate appropriate areas
with wilderness characteristics under its
jurisdiction as ‘Wild Lands’ and to manage
them to protect their wilderness value.”
·
The Wilderness Act of 1964 gives only
Congress the authority to designate
public lands as Wilderness areas. The
Administration does not have the legal
authority to impose policies to create de
facto Wilderness.
·
Designating an area as Wilderness imposes
the most restrictive land use policies that
can be taken. It places severe limitations
on public access, prohibits many popular
forms of recreation and severely restricts
job-creating, and energy-producing
activities.
Visit the
Committee Hearings webpage for testimony
and additional information, once it is made
available. The hearing is open to the
public and a live stream will be broadcast
at
http://naturalresources.house.gov/live.
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http://naturalresources.house.gov/
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