The Great American Land Grab
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THE GREAT American LAND GRAB The Clinton administration's lands-locked legacy may be undone before it is even fully recognized as a sinister plan to manipulate the population and the economy of the United States. By Tim Findley A RAN G E PUB L I C AT I O N t the beginning of the influx of funding from founda- Clinton administration, tions that usually derived their Athe United States gov- wealth from the underpinnings ernment owned more than 630 of the establishment itself, the million acres of the nation’s land cause of protecting the environ- mass, most of it west of the ment from pollution and Rockies. Combined with state- destruction had become a owned land, military bases and morally-based crusade, with Indian reservations, it represent- detractors limited to question- ed the largest percentage of gov- ing some methods, but seldom ernment-controlled property of the cause itself. any non-communist country in In 1990, the Sierra Club, the world, including Russia. using Wisconsin-based re- Although challenged in the search, identified what would 1970s by the so-called become the icon of the move- “Sagebrush Rebellion,”most in ment and its inspiration in the the West remained satisfied with use of litigation. The “endan- the multiple use of federal land gered” Northern spotted owl that allowed production and rapidly emerged as the surro- profit from timber, mining and gate species for halting logging grazing under federal manage- on federal properties, first ment. Because most of the land THE WEST IN 2001. among “old growth” forests in remained remote, but open to SHRINKING PRIVATE California, and eventually recreation, “ownership” was sel- extending to at least 70 percent dom at issue among political LANDS AND EXPANDING of forests throughout the West leaders or the generally urban WILDERNESS HABITAT. previously open to harvest. populations on the coasts. The newly-elected President “Environmentalism” had “GROPING OUR WAY Bill Clinton, and Vice President been steadily rising as a cause BACK TO 1492?“ Al Gore, acknowledged the eco- among urban activists since it nomic impact of this on the was inherited as part of the gen- OR IS IT SOMETHING timber industry in a series of eral mistrust of the industrial CLOSER TO GEORGE “summit” meetings in 1992 “establishment” in the 1960s. By that promised, but never deliv- the late 1980s, aided by the ORWELL'S “1984“? ered, a new “partnership” that THE GREAT AMERICAN LAND GRAB • RANGE MAGAZINE • 1M President Clinton listens as Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt speaks at Hopi Point in Grand Canyon, Ariz. on Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2000. Clinton was visiting the Grand Canyon to dedicate three national monuments, the largest being a million-acre parcel of land along the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was just the beginning. AP Photo/Matt York would allow timber harvesting to continue under terms that ern states.“Recovery” of both species proved so rapid that were more environmentally cautious. the endangered status of both is being reconsidered. Between the promises made at those summit meetings Established on record for its strong environmental and the summer of 2000, more than 300 timber mills were stance by Vice President Gore’s campaign-conscious book, closed in the northwestern states alone, some at the cost of “Earth in the Balance” (1992), the Clinton administration economic catastrophe to entire towns. At least 130,000 peo- put aside its own choice of Bill Richardson as secretary of ple with jobs related to the timber indus- Interior to accept the recommendation of try were temporarily or permanently put the intimidating League of Conservation out of work, effectively devastating an "We must Voters (LCV) to name their president and industry worth some $4 billion to the identify our former Arizona governor Bruce Babbitt to national economy. enemies and the job. More importantly, the use of surro- Babbitt, himself a failed presidential can- gate species, like the spotted owl, to drive them into didate in 1988, was referred to by environ- establish zones of “critical habitat” made oblivion." mental organizations such as the Wilderness the Endangered Species Act the most Society as “our Babe Ruth.”The grandson of powerful tool of executive authority in Bruce Babbitt, 1991 an Arizona cattle baron, Babbitt nevertheless restricting land use. expressed his contempt for western livestock Since 1990, timber harvest on federal land has declined producers and vowed to the LCV that “We must identify our from 12 billion board feet a year to barely 2.5 billion board enemies and drive them into oblivion.”He set upon a course feet in 2000. aimed at revising and limiting the use of federal land for In 1990, 596 species were listed as threatened or endan- grazing purposes, while at the same time demanding new gered in the U.S. By 1999, the list had grown to 1,205. In the restrictions on mining and resource exploration on federal West alone,“critical habitat” for those species is estimated to properties. Thwarted by congressional resistance to his arbi- extend over more than 80 million acres. At the same time, trary revisions of law and regulations, Babbitt bluntly active reintroduction of predatory species, primarily wolves announced he would avoid Congress and carry out his pro- and grizzly bears, was a federal priority in at least four west- gram by executive authority. 2M • RANGE MAGAZINE • THE GREAT AMERICAN LAND GRAB Wa s h i n g t o n 32.8% Mo n t a n a 31.9% Al a s k a 67.0 % Or e g o n Id a h o 55 . 5 % Wy o m i n g 65 . 2 % 49 . 7 % Ne v a d a Co l o r a d o Ut a h 35. 9 % 87.6 % 67.9 % Percentage of federal Ca l i f o r n i a ownership in 49 . 9 % New Mexico Ar i z o n a western states 36.2 % 44.3 % Primarily due to allotment reductions and wilderness one of only two deposits of the most valuable low sulfur expansion, livestock production on public lands in the West coal in the world. The other deposit, in China, is being has declined by more than 20 percent under the Clinton mined by an Indonesian company that was a contributor to administration. the Clinton campaign. By the end of his first term in office, Clinton’s admin- In 1999 alone, the federal government removed over stration claimed to have established an unparalleled record 2.3 million acres from access to mineral exploration. These in the preservation and protection of the environment. The withdrawal notices were taken in spite of congressional 1996 report of the Department of refusal to grant Babbitt’s demand to Interior hailed new acquisition or revise mining laws. extended control over more than 141 By 1996, the Clinton The “Heritage Site” declaration of million acres, most of it in the West, by administration the Grand Staircase was done without the federal government. It amounts to consultation with or notification to an area roughly the size of the state of proudly claimed to any elected representative in the state West Virginia and was added on to the have added or of Utah, including its two U.S. sena- more than one million square miles of extended control tors. Following his re-election, Presi- the West already in federal ownership. dent Clinton once again named Although those acquisitions were over new public Babbitt as his secretary of the Interior accomplished largely in piecemeal lands amounting and entrusted him with what was to steps often involving wetlands and for- to the size of become the most intense and contro- est habitats, the Clinton administra- versial period of federal expansion of tion took an unprecedented campaign the state of control over United States lands in his- advantage in 1996 by using the 1906 West Virginia. tory. Antiquities Act to declare 1.7 million While millions of acres of lands in acres of Utah’s Grand Staircase- the West were either added to federal Escalante a National Heritage Site, restricted from any ownership or further restricted in their use, only one signifi- exploitive use, including extraction of what is thought to be cant region was divested of federal ownership. That was the THE GREAT AMERICAN LAND GRAB • RANGE MAGAZINE • 3M FEDERAL LAND ACQUISITIONS OR EXPANSION OF CONTROL UNDER CLINTON Grand Staircase-Escalante, Utah 1.7 million acres Grand Canyon Parashant, Arizona 1.1 million acres Aqua Fria, Arizona 71,000 acres Pinnacles, California 8,000 acres California Coastal 840 miles (offshore coastline) Hanford Reach, Washington 200,000 acres Cascade/Siskiyou, Oregon 52,000 acres Canyons of the Ancients, Colorado 164,000 acres Ironwood Forest, Arizona 134,000 acres Sequoia National Forest, California 328,000 acres ADDITIONALLY PROPOSED MONUMENTS Craters of the Moon, Idaho 661,000 acres Vermillion Cliffs, Arizona & Utah 293,000 acres Missouri Breaks, Montana (1) Steens Mountain, Oregon (2) Santa Rosa Peak, California (3) FEDERAL PURCHASE (LANDS LEGACY) Baca Ranch, New Mexico 96,000 acres Mojave Desert, California 405,000 acres (4) (1) 149 miles of the Missouri shoreline in Montana are in the “Breaks.” A region of protection has been proposed on a minimum of 230,000 acres. Much of that expands into currently used grazing areas. (2) Environmentalists demanded up to 6 million acres around the highest peak in South Central Oregon. Pressure from Secretary Babbitt on state authorities would set a minimum of 143,000 acres aside from grazing or other uses. (3) A minimum of 31,000 acres in the mountain itself, although checkerboarded with private inhold- ings and expanded with unclear “buffer zones” in federal demands.