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Contact Jim: jdipeso@rep.org (253) 740-2066 / 2009 Archive / 2008 Archive / 2007 Archive / 2006 Archive / 2005 Archive
The Reddish Tinge on the Omnibus Lands Bill
January 27, 2009
The Omnibus Public Land Management Act, which passed the Senate earlier this month and awaits House action, is remarkable for the diversity and breadth of the lands and waters that it would protect.
Equally remarkable is the bipartisan complexion of the bill's support. Members of Congress backing the bill hail from red and blue states, giving a modern twist to the song lyric "purple mountains majesty" and draining off some of the partisan rancor that has afflicted the politics of land protection for too long.
It's heartening to see that Western Republicans, who often are the most skeptical of land conservation legislation, have taken the lead on crafting protection for forests, mountains, deserts, and rivers.
Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack, whose California district includes vast stretches of mountains and desert, has emerged as one of the foremost champions of public lands protection in the House Republican Caucus.
She has spearheaded efforts to give statutory permanence to the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS), which protects 26 million acres of wilderness areas, national monuments, and other treasures on Western acreage overseen by the Bureau of Land Management. NLCS permanence is included in the omnibus bill.
The legislation also includes Bono Mack's bill to designate 190,000 acres of wilderness areas in her district, including parts of Joshua Tree National Park.
Congressman Howard "Buck" McKeon, a rural conservative Republican, has worked closely with Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer, whose name is synonymous with urban liberal, to give wilderness protection to more than 450,000 acres of high desert and mountains, including the remote White Mountains in the eastern Sierra. The wilderness would protect bristlecone pine trees, which were ancient when Christ walked the earth.
In another ancient mountain range on the other side of the country, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito backed the proposal to add 37,000 acres of wilderness protection to West Virginia's incomparable Monongahela National Forest.
Senator Mike Crapo has presided over long and difficult negotiations with local interests to decide the future of southwest Idaho's largely unspoiled Owyhee Canyonlands. The years-long effort is about to bear fruit, with the omnibus bill's inclusion of 517,000 acres of Owyhee wilderness. The politics of wilderness are particularly difficult in Idaho. If and when the omnibus gets through the House and is signed into law, it would be the first new wilderness for Idaho in 29 years.
Republicans who left Congress this year either willingly or as a result of electoral defeat played a hand in other protections the omnibus bill would authorize. Former Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon was at the center of crafting the Lewis and Clark Mount Hood wilderness proposal, which would protect 128,000 acres on Oregon's signature mountain.
Retired Senator John Warner drove forward the 43,000-acre Virginia Ridge and Valley Wilderness proposal. Former Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado lent her endorsement to legislation designating 250,000 acres in Rocky Mountain National Park's backcountry as wilderness.
History shows that the most enduring, successful environmental legislation passes with strong bipartisan support. The Senate passed the omnibus bill with a thumping 73-21 majority. The House should seek to do likewise and make the omnibus bill a landmark in the history of conservation lawmaking.
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