1975/01/03 S3433 Eastern Wilderness” of the White House Records Office: Legislation Case Files at the Gerald R
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The original documents are located in Box 20, folder “1975/01/03 S3433 Eastern Wilderness” of the White House Records Office: Legislation Case Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Copyright Notice The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material. Gerald R. Ford donated to the United States of America his copyrights in all of his unpublished writings in National Archives collections. Works prepared by U.S. Government employees as part of their official duties are in the public domain. The copyrights to materials written by other individuals or organizations are presumed to remain with them. If you think any of the information displayed in the PDF is subject to a valid copyright claim, please contact the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Exact duplicates within this folder were not digitized. Digitized from Box 20 of the White House Records Office Legislation Case Files at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library ACTION THE WHITE HOUSE Last Day: January 4 WASHINGTON s January 2, 1975 I lot ?b ~ . () ,, , 5 MEMORANDUM FOR THE ~ESiiNT FROM: KEN~ SUBJECT: Enrolled Bill S. 3433 Eastern Wilderness Attached for your consideration is S. 3433, sponsored by Senator Aiken and 21 others, which designates 16 National Forest wilderness areas as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System. In addition, 17 National Forest areas would be studied as to their suitability or non-suitability for preservation as wilderness, and the President would be required to make his recommendations to Congress within five years. The enrolled bill would authorize appropriations of not to exceed $5,000,000 for land acquisition and $1,700,000 for wilderness study purposes. OMB recommends approval and provides additional background information in its enrolled bill report (Tab A). Interior, Agriculture, Friedersdorf (Loen) and Areeda all recommend approval. RECOMMENDATION That you signS. 3433 (Tab B). EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET WASHINGTON. D.C. 20503 DEC 3 l 1974 MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT Subject: Enrolled Bill S. 3433 - Eastern Wilderness Sponsor - Sen. Aiken (R) Vermont and 21 others Last Day for Action January 4, 1975 - Saturday Purpose Designates certain lands for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System and provides that certain other lands be studied for their wilderness potential. Agency Recommendations Office of Management and Budget Approval Department of Agriculture Approval Department of the Interior Approval Department of Commerce No objection Department of the Army No objection Federal Energy Administration No position (Ir,;f' ~"- ·' ~,llJ) Federal Power Commission No position (In~.")~,·~J ly) Discussion Under the Wilderness Act, Agriculture and Interior are required to make recommendations to the President for additions to the National Wilderness Preservation System, and the President is required to submit these, along with his own recommendations, to the Congress. To qualify for wilderness designation, an area must generally be undeveloped ,,. ~·~ ..~.}-'··"'~.. ~ ..~ /'iJ 2 Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions. However, in the eastern United States, Agriculture has been unable to nominate National Forest areas for wilderness designa tion because the Forest Service does not believe that these areas are sufficiently pristine to qualify as wilderness. Many eastern National Forests have been cut over within the past century and now support new stands of timber. Interior, on ·the other hand, is not so constrained due to (a) the nature of its eastern parks and refuges, and (b) a different management philosophy with respect to wilderness areas. This has led to a situation where there are very few National Forest wilderness areas east of the lOOth meridian (boundary dividing the Texas panhandle from Oklahoma). In an effort to remedy the above problem and create more balance in the overall Wilderness System, the Nixon Adminis tration proposed legislation in early 1973 to establish less stringent standards for National Forest wilderness areas east of the lOOth meridian. The Administration bill would have designated 16 eastern National Forest areas as wilder ness and nominated 37 other areas for wilderness study. To be eligible, lands where man and his works have once significantly affected the landscape must have been restored to a point where the imprint of man's work is substantially erased and the area has generally returned to a natural appearance. s. 3433 would designate 16 National Forest wilderness areas as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System. These areas, which are listed separately in Attachment 1, comprise 207,908 acres located in 13 eastern States. In addition, 17 National Forest areas would be studied as to their suitability or nonsuitability for preservation as wilderness, and the President would be required to make his recommendations to Congress within five years. These study areas, which are listed separately in Attachment 2, comprise 125,000 acres located in nine eastern States. Both the designated and study areas would be administered under provisions of the Wilderness Act so as to maintain their primitive, natural character. '':' ~' fJ' ~\ '•, 3 The Secretary would be authorized to acquire lands within the 16 designated wilderness areas by donation, purchase, or exchange -- limited condemnation would be allowed. Owners of property could retain a right of use and occupancy for a specified term, although in doing so would waive certain relocation benefits. The enrolled bill would authorize appropriations of not to exceed $5,000,000 and $1,700,000 for land acquisition and wilderness study purposes, respectively. In .its views letter on the enrolled bill, Agriculture notes that: " ••• The enactment does not give recognition to eastern National Forest conditions and to the fact that the characteristics of the lands it would designate as wilderness do not conform for the most part to the statutory definition of wilderness. This implied broadening of the definition of wilderness raises questions as to what lands qualify for designation as wilder ness and could set the stage for prolonged public conflicts as to whether developed lands should be considered for wilderness designa tion. The failure of the Congress to adopt our recommended amendment to the Wilderness Act is our principal concern with the enactment. In spite of this concern and other concerns expressed below, we recommend that the Presi dent approve the enactment. In many respects, the enactment and our proposal are reasonably similar. The differences are not so extreme as to warrant disapproval in face of the con siderable bipartisan support for eastern wilderness legislation. "S. 3433 would immediately designate sixteen areas as wilderness. Twelve of these a_reas were also proposed (with some boundary differ ences) for immediate designation in our proposed legislation •••• The four additional areas that would be immediately designated as 4 wilderness by S. 3433 (Upper Buffalo, Bradwell Bay, Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock, and Otter Creek) have not been similarly studied. The designa tion of areas as wilderness without the benefit of a review and recommendations by this Depart ment and the Administration establishes an undesirable precedent. In this case, the practical effects relating to the specific areas are not likely to be very detrimental. We have, in our proposal, recommended that these four areas be studied for possible future designation. "S. 3433 would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to review 17 areas within eastern National Forests as to their suitability or nonsuit ability for preservation as wilderness. Our proposal would have established 37 such areas. Twelve of the seventeen areas contained in s. 3433 are identical to areas contained in our proposal: two encompass more land than contained in our proposal; and three are not contained in our proposal. Neither the inclu sion of the additional lands nor the additional three areas appear to pose any serious resource management or administration problems. We are not overly concerned that other areas which we had proposed for study were not included in S. 3433, since we can recommend designation of these additional study areas at some future time." We share Agriculture's concern that inclusion within the Wilderness System of lands that do not meet the statutory definition of wilderness could lead to difficulties in future wilderness decisions. However, we also recognize that the bill incorporates much of what the Administration had proposed. If the definition problem proves unmanageable in the future, we would not hesitate to recommend remedial legislation. Accordingly, we recommend approval of s. 3433. Assistant Director for Legislative Reference Enclosures Attachment 1 DESIGNATED WILDERNESS AREAS National Forest Wilderness (acres) State 1. Bankhead Sipsey (12,000) Alabama 2. Ouachita Caney Creek (14,433) Arkansas 3. Ozark Upper Buffalo (10,590) Arkansas 4. Appalachicola Bradwell Bay (22,000) Florida 5. Daniel Boone Beaver Creek (5,500) Kentucky 6. White Mountain Presidential Range- New Hampshire Dry River (20,380) 7. Nantahala and Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock North Carolina Cherokee (15,000) and Tennessee 8. Sumter, Nantahala, Ellicott Rock (3,600) South Carolina,