Dangers to public lands

[Shadow Catcher]

I may get giged for this but it affects us all who love to camp.
"Now that Republicans have quietly drawn a path to give away much of Americans’ public land, US representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah has introduced what the Wilderness Society is calling “step two” in the GOP’s plan to offload federal property."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jan/31/public-lands-sell-congress-bureau-management-chaffetz?CMP=share_btn_fb

[QueticoBill]

I'm sure we'll get gigged. I was interested in what 3.3m acres represented percentage wise. Feds own 640m acres, so selling or giving away slightly more than 1/2 of 1 percent. I suppose it could lead to more land sold. I just like some perspective on headlines.

[MtnDon]

Contact your reps and senators. Phone calls are best.

[tony.latham]

That's our land he's talking about selling and I know I won't be able to buy it.

Tony

[MtnDon]

Find your rep

[Wolfgang92025]

That's our land he's talking about selling and I know I won't be able to buy it.

Tony

Or use it......... with the rest of the public

[MtnDon]

That's our land he's talking about selling and I know I won't be able to buy it.

Tony

The wealthy will buy and either (a) close it to access and sit on it or (b) turn it into un-needed development.

[Shadow Catcher]

This is just the tip of the iceberg and only the first, or second step. "Essentially, the revised budget rules deny that federal land has any value at all, allowing the new Congress to sidestep requirements that a bill giving away a piece of federal land does not decrease federal revenue or contribute to the federal debt."
I do not know about you but this looks like a massive land grab and giveaway.

[HotRod1]

In the west the government owns over 70% if all the land. In some western states they have renamed areas "wilderness" preserves or areas and the public is not allowed in them at all. The treehugging wackos run the forest service and close most of it to the public. And if you do go where you used to camp as a kid, and it's been named as a preserve for the banana slug, you can be jailed and then be labeled a felon. It would be nice if the land was left open, but if things keep going like they are, only government employees and the elite will be able to go there. If they don't just burn down because they won't allow thinning and management. That is why the fires in western America keep getting worse. Just my two cents from someone who grew up there.


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[deleted]

I hate to add more bad news but thought this was pertinent to the topic at hand. This press release from the National Parks Conservation Association was published today: https://www.npca.org/articles/1462-house-moves-to-encourage-drilling-in-national-parks?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=pressrelease&utm_medium=socialmedia#sm.00006sjhhh180ne6yy52xdchqbhay

PRESS RELEASE Jan 31, 2017
House Moves to Encourage Drilling in National Parks

"Below is a statement by Nicholas Lund, Senior Manager of National Parks Conservation Association’s Conservation Programs:

“These challenges are direct attacks on America’s national parks. Each of these rules provides the commonsense protections for national parks that millions of Americans demand. If the Park Service’s drilling rules are repealed, national parks across the country would be subjected to poorly regulated oil and gas drilling, threatening parks’ air, water and wildlife... "

[HotRod1]

Actually oil companies will only drill where it is profitable. Yellowstone has no oil nor does most of the scenic epic parks (big bear, Yosemite etc). Maybe in south or North Dakota and Wyoming. But being from Texas, I don't see a problem, nor is our water polluted, etc, etc. Energy independence is a obtainable goal. The new shale formation just found in Texas is larger than Saudi


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[deleted]

There are more places in jeopardy than I think most of us realize

http://www.grandcanyontrust.org/uranium-mining

Yet, irresponsibly operated uranium mines located on federal public land just miles from the North and South Rims threaten to permanently pollute the Grand Canyon landscape and the greater Colorado River.

In 2012, the Secretary of the Interior issued a 20-year ban on new uranium claims on more than a million acres of public lands adjacent to Grand Canyon. However, the withdrawal does not apply to existing mines, even those located within a few miles of the North and South Rims. The Trust's fight continues against these existing mines and the obsolete rules that currently govern them.

And...

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/15/us/boundary-waters-minnesota-mining.html?_r=0

Conservationists and Native Americans regard the 1.09-million-acre Boundary Waters, part of the Superior National Forest, as a unique treasure teeming with wildlife, a patchwork of old-growth forest and waterways, including more than 1,000 lakes carved by retreating glaciers. Like the Everglades, the Boundary Waters and the adjacent Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario are sometimes called an unusually complex, broad and slow-moving river system.

[tony.latham]

In some western states they have renamed areas "wilderness" preserves or areas and the public is not allowed in them at all.

I live within a rock's throw of the Frank Church Wilderness that butts the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness to the north. Combined, it's the largest unroaded chunk of change in the lower 48 and anybody can go poke around anytime they want.





What "wilderness preserves in the western U.S. precludes the public? I'll be anxious to hear.

Tony

[Esteban]

The Los Padres national Forest in the Central Coast area of California near me is threatened by substantially more oil drilling.

Los Padres National Forest Geological Resources - Oil and Gas

Los Padres is the only National Forest in California with commercial petroleum reserves and the wells have been providing oil and gas for many years.

LOS PADRES FORESTWATCH

On July 28, 2005, the U.S. Forest Service approved a plan that will allow oil drilling to expand into some of the most pristine areas of the Los Padres National Forest. The decision - nearly a decade in the making - could cause widespread impacts to the forest's clean water supplies, recreation, wilderness, and wildlife.

The agency's plan allows drilling to expand across three areas of the national forest covering 52,075 acres in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. According to the agency, this new drilling will cause up to 4,277 acres of surface disturbance, including oil derricks and a network of roads, pipelines, transmission wires, and other infrastructure.

http://lpfw.org/victory-oil-drilling-and-fracking-plan-halted-indefinitely/

VICTORY: Oil Drilling and Fracking Plan Halted Indefinitely
ForestWatch on December 9, 2016 in California Condor, Fracking, Oil Development, Wilderness, Wildlife Protection
A new oil well is drilled as part of a fracking operation in the Sespe Oil Field, August 2012.

The environmental effects of fracking were not adequately addressed in the leasing plan.

Just last week the Forest Service officially suspended its plan to lease 52,000 acres of the Los Padres National Forest to new oil drilling and fracking operations. This decision was a direct response to ForestWatch’s notice of intent to file a lawsuit along with the Center for Biological Diversity and the Defenders of Wildlife that we sent to various federal agencies in October. The suspension of the plan is indefinite.

The suspension could be overturned and lead to thousands of new oil wells in our local national forest. That disturbs and frightens me.

[MtnDon]

I live within a rock's throw of the Frank Church Wilderness that butts the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness to the north. Combined, it's the largest unroaded chunk of change in the lower 48 and anybody can go poke around anytime they want.

Much of what has been preserved from development and destructive resource extraction** is due to what I consider to be the foresight of Frank Church. Church was also instrumental in retaining backcountry dirt air fields so he also understood access. Many folks believe the designated Wilderness areas are off limits but that is not true. Virtually all Wilderness areas are accessible, though not by mechanized means. So to many who don't walk much, yes, an area would be closed.

Yes, I do think energy self sufficiency is a admirable goal. That goal would be more easily reached if the top selling three vehicles in the USA were not the F-series Ford, Chevrolet Silverado or Ram pickups.

**destructive resource extraction.... Have you ever seen the way they dismantle entire mountains and fill valleys with the spoil or overburden plus the coal sludge that is stored in old mine shafts and ponds.