Liberty
Matters News Service
March 15, 2006
Wildlands Project Marches Through Canada
A large swath of British Columbia forest has been captured by environmentalists who have apparently won the decade long "War of the Woods." Using intimidation tactics, the Tides Foundation, working with The Nature Conservancy and the Wildlands Project, successfully forced the forest-products industry to abandon plans to log the 4.4 million acre stretch that will now be turned into a park twice the size of Yellowstone National Park. The area stretches along 250 miles of coastland and islands from Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border. The environmentalists plan to strictly control how the land can be used, if at all. Logging and all other economic activity will be allowed only if experts determine that the resource is sustainable. However, the groups do not plan to confine their control the new park's borders. "Acreage outside the coastal park will be managed by committees that will set limits on logging, mining and the commercial efforts of native groups that have claims to the land." The next goal is to expand the protected area to 21 million acres. Since Canada has reportedly embraced the Biodiversity Treaty, the new park may be the first of many such "compromises" with industry. The Wildlands Project has a stated goal of setting aside 50 percent of all landmasses for nature. Canada is well on its way with the U.S. not far behind.
B.C. Sets Aside Park Twice as Large as
Yellowstone
Interior Secretary Norton Quits
The nation's first female secretary of interior, Gale A. Norton, announced last week she will be retiring from the post at the end of the month. Environmentalists bitterly fought Norton's nomination to the post, labeling her "James Watts in a skirt." But, Mrs. Norton has not been the bug-a-boo the environmental community feared. Through her "4-Cs program, "Communication, Cooperation and Consultation, all in the service of Conservation," the department has spent at least $2.1 billion over the past five years to "conserve millions of acres of public and private lands." Under her guidance, "new conservation partnerships" were forged with some rather questionable entities, such as with the Center for Biological Diversity and the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project, to expedite protection of 29 species and critical habitat areas in August 2001. When the "rediscovery" of the long-lost Ivory-billed woodpecker was announced by the Nature Conservancy last year, Secretary Norton immediately promised $10 million to help restore the woodpecker's habitat. Preservation of our private lands has surged under Ms. Norton. Rumors who will replace Norton include Lynn Scarlett, the current Deputy Secretary at DOI to Governor and former U.S. Senator Dirk Kempthorne (R-ID) to former U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell from Colorado.
Interior Secretary Norton
Resigning
Land Trusts and Government First in Line
Department of Agriculture Under Secretary Mark Rey has announced that state and local governments, as well as, non-profit land trusts will have the right of first refusal when and if excess forest properties hit the auction block. Rey said the targeted properties considered the most valuable and the least controversial will be auctioned first. The sell-off will close as soon as the $800 million mark is reached. The plan has drawn fire from both sides of the political aisle, but Rey explained that no one had yet come forth with a better plan to fund the rural schools that used to depend in large part on money from timber sales. "[The] fact is we have been talking about this for a month now and this is the only proposal with funding to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools Act," Rey said. The areas to be sold are usually isolated parcels that are difficult and expensive to manage and are a drop in the bucket compared to the 193 million acres of government forests. Environmentalists have complained bitterly that those parcels are necessary for wildlife corridors and as possible wilderness areas. Rey said those concerns will be taken into consideration.
Governments, Nonprofits Will Have
First Right to Bid on Lands
Salmon Fishing Facing Curtailment
Federal fishery managers are considering a drastic curtailment to salmon fishing along 700 miles of the Pacific Coast due to projected low numbers of returning Klamath River Chinook salmon. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council last week proposed three options to protect the salmon, including a repeat of the 2005 restrictions that banned commercial fishing during parts of May and July and all of June. "The prospect of significant economic and social disruption along the coast is in front of us," said Jason Peltier, deputy assistant secretary of the U. S. Department of Interior. Mike McHenry, a salmon fisherman for 47 years, said the ban would cost him his entire livelihood for the year. "There's going to be no income from April all the way to September. The docks, the gear shops, the buyers, the bars, [w]e're all going to suffer over this," he said. McHenry said area fishermen fought the government over the same issue back in the late 1970s or early 1980s with a blockade under the Golden Gate Bridge. "We saw what was happening," McHenry said. "Once the government gets their foot in the door, it's not going to stop."