WildernessProtection - New Mexico Wilderness Alliance

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Wilderness:A Bi-partisan Affairby Stephen CapraWilderness has alwaysbeen a bi-partisan politicalissue. In New Mexico,much of the wilderness we enjoytoday is the result of the dedicationof wilderness activists and effortsby Senators Clinton Andersonand Pete Domenici. However, thespirit that came from the passageof the 1964 Wilderness Act seemsat times to have faded completelyfrom sight as we prepare to celebratethe 40th anniversary of theAct that to date has protected some105 million acres of land acrossAmerica.With the signing of the WildernessAct, some 9.1 million acres of landbecame wilderness with the strokeof President Johnson’s pen, includingthe nation’s first wilderness-theGila. Johnson would add another800,000 acres of wilderness duringhis tenure, including the first billto move through congress, the145,118 acre San Rafael Wildernessnear Santa Barbara, California.The Nixon Administration wouldfollow and while the total acreageof designated wilderness wasnot as dramatic-1.6 million acrestherewere tremendous effortsmade to process hundreds of recommendationsof lands for wildernessdesignation. Locally, Wildernessbills included the Salt CreekWilderness near Roswell, whichwas established in 1970. It wasalso during the Nixon years thatthen Interior Secretary, Rogers C. B.Morton, worked through the complexAlaska Native Claims SettlementAct. The resolution of whichlaid the groundwork for the historicAlaska Lands Act of 1981. Many ofthe lands identified in the Nixonyears became some of the core wildernessareas in the Carter Bill.Following Nixon’s resignation,Gerald Ford took over the Presidencyfor three years. During thistime 3.1 million acres of wildernesswere designated, including30,287 acres of riverside forestin the Bosque del Apache and23,267 acres of desert canyonsand cliffs in Bandelier NationalMonument. The key to these successesremained strong bi-partisansupport. But it was Jimmy Carterwho would set the standard forwilderness preservation. Duringhis Presidency, Carter focused onAlaska and pushed for passage ofthe Alaska Lands Act. When Congresswas stalling and filibustering,Carter and Interior Secretary, CecilAndrus, created a 100 million acrenational monument of Alaska landsin 1978. This changed the politicaldynamics and Congress movedon legislation. In 1979 the Housepassed a strong bill only to havethe Senate committee approve amuch weaker bill. With the electionof Ronald Reagan, conservationistswere forced to accept the weakerbill, but it still was historic in size.On December 2, 1980 the AlaskaNational Interest Lands ConservationAct was signed into law by theoutgoing President Carter. In all, 55million acres of wilderness wereadded to the system, doubling itssize in a day.During the Reagan Presidency,the whole issue of the environmentbecame more of a political footballwith the elevation of people likeJim Watt to positions of real power.While the majority of Americansonce held strong support for conservationmeasures, public opinionbecame more divided as specialinterests pushed an agenda thatwas hard on the land, but sweet forinvestors. This was also the timewhen conservative talk radio beganto hit the airwaves. In those timeslisteners were few, so controversialsubjects were needed to livenup the conversation. The environmentbecame an easy target. Buteven as trouble was brewing, PresidentReagan signed into law thecreation of some 10.6 million acresof wilderness nationally, includingin New Mexico the creationof the Bisti-De-Na-Zin, West Malpaisand Cebolla wilderness areas.While Reagan may have foughtmany environmental policies, hewas, with a few exceptions, willingto protect land on a truly nationalscale.The first Bush Presidency wouldfollow Reagan’s. While Georgesenior would promote drilling inthe Arctic National Wildlife Refuge,he would also go on to protectover 4 million acres of wildernessacross the nation, including 90,000acres in the Ruby Mountains ofNevada, 25,370 acres at PointReyes National Seashore in Californiaand 40,000 acres of desert andarid forest at Wabayuma Peak inArizona, to name a few.In the first years of the ClintonAdministration, wilderness billsmoved forward, including the creationof the California Desert Pro-Page 10 Summer 2004
tection Act which protected some3.6 million acres of wilderness insouthern California. But the NewtGingritch Revolution of 1994,resulting in Republican control ofthe House of Representatives, puta serious chill on the protectionof our public lands. In fact, duringthe following two years of the105th Congress not a single acreof wilderness was created. It wasduring this time that the oil andgas, mining and power companiesmore openly set up shop in WashingtonD.C.By the 106th Congress wildernesswas once again a bi-partisanaffair and the result was thepassage of several important billsincluding: the Dugger Mountainsin Alabama; the Black Rock Desertin Nevada at 757,000 acres; andthe Steens Mountains in easternOregon, which included 100,000acres of cow-free protection. The“cow-free” distinction is signifi cantin that The Wilderness Act authorizesgrazing in most wildernessareas.But it was in the fi nal few yearsof the Clinton Administration thatin addition to the 9.5 million acresof wilderness he had already protected,the President did an extraordinarything. Through his use of theAntiquities Act, he would go on toprotect lands as National Monuments.It began with the controversialGrand Staircase-EscalanteNational Monument in Utah, whichat 1,870,800 acres was larger thanany National Park in the state.Before his term ended, PresidentClinton would protect close to 5million acres in 15 new NationalMonuments, including the spectacularKasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks areahere in New Mexico.Since coming into Offi ce, GeorgeW. Bush has shown little of the bipartisanspirit we have come toknow with wilderness. Substantialresistance to wilderness legislationcomes from the chairman of theHouse Natural Resources Committee,Richard Pombo (R CA). Pombohas historically held close to a zerovoting record when it comes to theenvironment (League of ConservationVoters). But its Pombo’s brazenanti-wilderness stance that perhapshelps to explain the relativelow amount of wilderness createdthus far in the Bush Administration,about 500,000 acres total. InMay, Pombo sent a letter to fellowmembers of the House explaininghis new rules for considerationof areas for wilderness. His criteria,fi lled with dogma designed toexpedite the declassifi cation of WildernessStudy Areas, seemed primarilydesigned to halt new wildernesslegislation. Though not legallybinding, as head of the Committee,his personal agenda carries tremendousweight in blocking legislationfrom reaching the fl oor for avote.While all of that may sounddepressing, there is plenty of goodnews to be found in what manyperceive as atough workingenvironment.Currentlyseveralbills are pendingthat couldadd up to onemillion acresof wildernessto the WildernessPreservationSystemin the comingmonths.These includeour ownOjito WildernessBill thatwould protectapproximately11,000 acresof badlands,mesas, andpetroglyphs, just northwest of Albuquerque.This bill has the bi-partisansupport of Senators Domeniciand Bingaman, and CongressmanUdall and Congresswoman Wilson.In the end, that bi-partisan supportshould be the key, once again, toits passage.The other positive news is thatnever before has the conservationcommunity been as largeand strong! Although recent dropsin funding have had an impact,twenty years ago we were a quarterof the size we are today. Fromoffi ces in Washington, D.C. to fi eldoffi ces in Las Cruces we are farbetter prepared to fi ght bad billsand promote good wilderness legislation.Training, the internet andlarger memberships help us getthe facts to broader audiences thanever before. This has been crucialin holding off invasive oil and gasdevelopment and other destructiveactivities in wild places like NewMexico’s Otero Mesa and acrossthe West.It’s interesting to go back andsee the numbers and better understandhow wilderness has beenaddressed by successive Administrations.It has not been a one-partysuccess story. More times than not,the representatives supporting a billone day could be on the oppositeside of the aisle for other social orspending issues. But often enoughthey have come together to give usto date the 105 million acres thatare the special lands we call wilderness.May we have many, manymillions more.Have youregisteredto vote yet?New Mexico WILD!Page 11
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WildernessProtection - New Mexico Wilderness Alliance

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