Wildlands at Risk:
Threats

Healthy Forests Initiative: In the wake of the 2002 fire season, the Bush administration introduced the ill-named "Healthy Forests Initiative" which proposed increased logging across the landscape under the guise of "fuel reduction." Last fall, the administration, Congress and allies in the timber industry exploited the public fear of wildfires to pass the Healthy Forests Restoration Act.

This policy has also set the tone for forest management across the country, where logging – including the cutting of old growth and large, fire-resistant trees – now trumps recreation, clean water, restoration, and real community protection.

Undermining Wild Forest Protections: The Bush administration announced its changes to the landmark Roadless Area Conservation Rule which will exclude the Tongass and Chugach national forests in Alaska – a full 1/4 of the original rule’s acreage – and forces Governors to petition the Forest Service to not construct roads in or otherwise develop inventoried wild roadless forest areas.

The proposed rule replaces the landmark Roadless Rule, leaving all 58 million acres of inventoried roadless areas in the United States open to road building, logging, and resource development. Until a state governor petitions for protection, management of inventoried roadless areas would be based on the individual forest management plans, which often require no special protections.

Oil and Gas Leasing: Across the American landscape, the Bush administration is moving to dramatically increase oil and gas leasing on public lands. The administration has directed federal agencies to consider energy extraction as the highest priority use for public lands and is actively assisting industry to expand drilling in several key places. This extraction imperative threatens to scar wild landscapes, pollute streams and destroy important wildlife habitat for species such as the endangered grizzly bear.

Mountaintop Removal Mining: The Bush administration and friends in the coal industry support a form of strip mining known as "mountaintop removal mining." This practice blasts off the tops of mountains and pushes the so-called "mining waste" into the mountain valleys below, forever burying the headwaters of some of West Virginia's pristine mountain streams. Though the blasting and dumping known as "valley fill" occurs on private (coal company) land, the results extend far beyond its borders, destroying communities and the environment.

Wilderness Threats: The Bush administration entered into a settlement agreement with the State of Utah last year committing to never again allow the Bureau of Land Management to designate Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) on the public lands it manages. This agreement strips away special protections for millions of acres of pristine land across the west. This backroom deal not only stopped future designation of WSAs to protect areas that qualify as wilderness, it also revoked protections for those WSAs established after 1993.

RS2477 Loophole: The Bush administration reopened a loophole in an 1866 mining law known as RS (Revised Statute) 2477 that has state and local governments signaling their intention to file thousands of unsubstantiated claims for federal rights-of way. This long-outdated statute would allow special interests -- including the oil, gas and timber industries -- to bulldoze highways through our most precious Western parks and refuges, and threatens to have a lasting and devastating impact on America’s public lands.

National Monument Management: National Monuments provide sanctuary for wildlife, shelter for archaeological treasures and a haven of solitude and splendor for all Americans. But the Bush administration is pushing to maximize mining and drilling, allow unfettered access for road-building and ORV use, and ultimately extinguish any interim protection for millions of acres of Bureau of Land Management lands across the United States.