Millions
Of Acres Of Wildlands Are The Legacy Of Every USA, But The Bush Administration
Is Putting Them At Risk.
By
John G. Mitchell
Our great national wildlands, shows on this map, are in
danger, along with other land needs for wildlife and water. Already, the Bush
administration has removed protections from 234 million acres-a third of our
public lands, or one-tenth of the landmass of the United States.
Fire
Sale
The Bush
administration is using fire
as an excuse for logging, both before and after the fact. Oregon's Siskiyou
National Forest, scene of the 2002 Biscuit fire, is now offering the largest
timber sale in U.S. history as a so-called salvage cut. The proposed volume is
20 times as much as the normal annual output of the Siskiyou and the nearby
Rogue River National Forest combined.
The Chainsaw Solution
In the name of fire prevention and
forest-community protection nationwide, Bush opened 131.4 million acres to
cutting without environmental review. Creating a safe half-mile buffer around
forest communities would require thinning on only 10 million acres.
Yellow-air National Park
In the 1990s, snowmobiles gave
Yellowstone's West Entrance the worst air quality in the country. A ban on
snowmobiles was to have taken effect in 2003, but Bush tired to open 184 miles
of road to increased numbers of the whining, exhaust-belching vehicles. A
federal judge reinstated the old ban for next winter; Bush is expected to appeal
the ruling.
Road Rage
Bush opened the door
to logging roads in 60 million acres of currently roadless wild forest-counter
to the whishes of more than 2 million Americans who sent comments or
participated directly in the planning process. Alaska's huge Chugach and Tongass
National Forests were entirely removed from protection. Tongass roadless areas
alone count for 9 million acres. Above: two
views of the Tongass.
Highway
Spaghetti
Wilderness-quality
lands are also ate risk because the Bush administration is allowing states and
counties to claim old cow paths and off-road-vehicle trails as
"highways". More than 10,000 claims have been catalogued in Utah
alone. Claims shown here in red are in Canyon Lands National Park, adjacent
potential wilderness, and other public lands.
Gas on the Range
The Bush
administration has approved 82,000 new oil and gas wells in the Powder River
Basin in Montana and Wyoming, roughly doubling the current number. The map below
shows the wells already in Wyoming. Altogether, 4 million acres have been opened
to oil and gas drilling in the Lower 48, and an additional 9
million onshore acres in Alaska's western Arctic.
Enough Wilderness ?
Bush's Interior
Department has declared that the United States has all the wilderness it needs.
That means that the BLM's unprotected wilderness-quality lands will no longer be
given special status, and could be opened to mining, drilling, or logging. Among
the areas at risk: 600,000 acres in Colorado: 7 million
acres in Utah; 61 million acres in Alaska.
Mountaintop Removal
The Bush administration has made it
easier for coal companies to cut the tops off mountains and dump the waste in
adjoining valleys, where more than 700 miles of streams have been buried. So far
300,000 acres of forest in central Appalachia have been obliterated, with 1
million more acres at risk.
No Species Great or Small
Endangered species need places to
live. But the Bush administration has removed 16.4
million acres from "critical habitat" status, and has also
refused to offer protection to struggling species.
The Bush administration is trying to
strip endangered species status from the grizzly bear, manatee, and other
threatened animals.
