US Senate Bill 47 – Natural Resources Management Act

March 4, 2019

In a sweeping 600-plus-page bill, the federal government proposes to seize millions of acres and hundreds of miles of rivers from almost every state. This land grab expands the federal estate yet again.

The US Senate's bill, S. 47, the Natural Resources Management Act, passed 92-8, and passed the House with only 62 NO votes. Senator Barrasso and Senator Enzi voted for S. Bill 47, but Representative Cheney voted against the bill. By all accounts, this is the most wide-reaching and important public lands legislation since the 1970s.

The bill is a batch of over 170 pet projects, crafted as an automatic vote-getter. It designates 1.3 million acres as new Wilderness Area, which prohibits roads and motorized vehicles. It is comprised of more than 100 local and regional land protection bills, and would result in over 2 million acres of new protected lands and rivers.

It expands the boundaries of half a dozen national parks and creates three new ones.

It permanently withdraws 370,000 acres of land from mining, including 30,000 acres outside Yellowstone Park, thwarting the gold mining prospects there.

As a sop to hunters and anglers, it permits hunters to transport bows through national parks to legal hunting areas. The Act also automatically makes all federal lands open to hunting and fishing, unless they are "specifically designated otherwise." Watch the specific designations start flying as federal land managers scramble to further thwart access to our forests and rangelands.

S. Bill 47 designates 620 new miles of rivers across seven states as components of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers system, preventing damming and other development, just as western states are desperately seeking more water storage.

Half of a river in Utah was swept into the Wild and Scenic category. According to the executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, "We'll have to come back and protect the other half of the river later."

The act's biggest component permanently authorizes the Land and Water Conservation Fund program to spend off-shore drilling revenue on conservation efforts, such as national parks and wildlife preserves (and baseball diamonds and basketball courts).

The Land and Water Conservation Fund used to need periodic authorization, but now becomes permanent, allowing congressmen to avoid the occasional debate and up or down vote. Further, 40% of the money can be used to purchase land, up from 25%. However, over 60 percent of the $18 billion that been spent since the inception of the LWCF has gone to federal land acquisitions, completely out of balance from what was originally contemplated or intended.

A letter from the Public Lands Council says that makes the bill "a blank check to the federal agencies for the purposes of land acquisition. The LWCF keeps buying new lands without securing any method for maintaining the land they already control. The maintenance backlog federal land is up to $18.6 billion."

New Wilderness designations, in addition to the new national heritage areas, are expanded by this bill, and will impact ranchers' access to grazing lands, as well as commercial and recreation activities. Wilderness areas cannot be harvested for timber, setting up future catastrophic tinderboxes.

Lawmakers patted themselves on the back, proud of their bipartisanship on this "old school green deal." Yet, it is widely known that this bill was entirely crafted by capitol hill staffers, with priorities of their own, in a quick and dirty effort to "clear the deck."

We should be alarmed at the standard this perpetuates for federal land policy in the West. Opening a basket into which every senator can chuck a pet "conservation" project is no way to govern.

Perhaps most alarming is the precedent S. 47 sets. Governors and state legislatures are completely cut out of the process. States are entirely dependent on which special interest groups get a seat at the table with senate and house staff.

The bill does have some good policies in it, but they have been stuffed into the same bill with bad federal land management policies that are particularly harmful to Western states. "It moves federal land policy in the wrong direction by failing to reform federal land acquisition programs and adding new restrictions to how Americans are allowed to use land already under federal control," said Senator Mike Lee, R-UT.

According to Senator Lee, Western "communities should not be forced to accept harmful policies to the state and their communities just so they can make some commonsense land transfers that communities in non-western states are free to do without congressional permission."

Senate Bill 47 is a move in the wrong direction. It gives the US Congress a sense of entitlement to the lands within our state borders, to designate as they, and their fat cat, green decoy, special interests, want. This bill is supported by The Wilderness Society, the National Wildlife Federation, The League of Conservation Voters, New Mexico Wildlife Federation, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, and many others of that ilk.

Senate Bill 47 further demeans the roles of governors and state legislatures over the governance of their states. State sovereignty is rapidly being eroded when the US Congress asserts this level of control and authority over the land within state boundaries.

Wyoming began as a federal territory, and in 129 years is well on its way to becoming a federal territory again.

2/12/19 Washington Post

The bipartisan measure would create more than 1.3 million acres of wilderness out West, add three national park units and expand eight others.

The Senate on Tuesday passed the most sweeping conservation legislation in a decade, protecting millions of acres of land and hundreds of miles of wild rivers across the country and establishing four new national monuments honoring heroes including Civil War soldiers and a civil rights icon.

The 662-page measure, which passed 92 to 8, represented an old-fashioned approach to dealmaking that has largely disappeared on Capitol Hill. Senators from across the ideological spectrum celebrated home-state gains and congratulated each other for bridging the partisan divide.

"It touches every state, features the input of a wide coalition of our colleagues, and has earned the support of a broad, diverse coalition of many advocates for public lands, economic development and conservation," said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

It's a paradoxical win for conservation at a time when President Trump has promoted development on public lands and scaled back safeguards established by his predecessors.

The bill, which the Congressional Budget Office projects would save taxpayers $9 million, enjoys broad support in the House. The lower chamber is poised to take it up after the mid-February recess, and White House officials have indicated privately that the president will sign it.

The measure protects 1.3 million acres as wilderness, the nation's most stringent protection, which prohibits even roads and motorized vehicles. It permanently withdraws more than 370,000 acres of land from mining around two national parks, including Yellowstone, and permanently authorizes a program to spend offshore-drilling revenue on conservation efforts.

The package is crammed full of provisions for nearly every senator who cast a vote Tuesday. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) lauded the fact that it will create 273,000 acres of wilderness in his state, most of it within the boundaries of two national monuments that Trump threatened to shrink. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who co-authored the bill, inserted a provision that allows native Alaskans who served in Vietnam to apply for a land allotment in their home state.

"We have also worked for months on a bipartisan, bicameral basis to truly negotiate every single word in this bill — literally down to one one-tenth of a mile for [a] certain designation," Murkowski said as she urged her colleagues to vote for the bill on Monday.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl M Grijalva (D-Ariz.) hailed it as "an old-school green deal," saying he and the top Republican on his panel, Rep. Rob Bishop (Utah) "are happy to work together to get this across the finish line."

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), a lead negotiator on the bill, said the fact that the legislation protects so much of the nation's prized properties won a broad constituency. "There's some corners that tried to demonize access to public lands as — 'oh that's just some environmentalists and that's it,'" she said in an interview. "And that's not it. It's way bigger than that."

The legislation establishes four new monuments, including the Mississippi home of civil rights activists Medgar and Myrlie Evers and the Mill Springs Battlefield in Kentucky, home to the decisive first Union victory in the Civil War.

John Gilroy, who directs U.S. public lands conservation at the Pew Charitable Trusts, said in an interview that the package's more than 100 provisions arose from negotiations on the local level, which provided enough momentum to overcome the typical gridlock that has come to define Capitol Hill.

"What we saw all the way through was a sincere effort to get to yes on a lot of pieces that had local support, bipartisan support and support across the two bodies," Gilroy said. "It's been years in the works. These are not proposals that were thought up just last week, somewhere in Washington D.C."

Perhaps the most significant change the legislation would make is permanently authorizing a federal program that funnels offshore drilling revenue to conserve a spread of sites that includes major national parks and wildlife preserves, as well as local baseball diamonds and basketball courts. Authorization for the popular program, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), lapsed months ago due to the partial government shutdown and other disputes. Liberals like the fact that the money allows agencies to set aside land for wildlife habitat. Conservatives like the fact that taxpayers don't have to foot the bill for it.

Congress is now set to reauthorize the fund in perpetuity, though it will not make its spending mandatory. Congressional funding for the program has "fluctuated widely" since its inception in 1965, according to a 2018 Congressional Research Service report. Less than half of the $40 billion that has piled up in the fund during its five decades of existence has been spent by Congress on conservation efforts.

"We wish we would have gotten it, but it's still a big win," said Jonathan Asher, a government relations manager at the Wilderness Society who worked at the Environmental Protection Agency during the Obama administration. "There are plenty of members of Congress that want mandatory funding, but it's a longer, heavier lift."

The bill reauthorizes and funds the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act through 2022, which provides habitat protection for more than 380 bird species, and codifies a signature program of President Barack Obama's. That program, the Every Kid Outdoors Act, allows U.S. fourth-graders and their families to visit national parks free.

The measure also expands the boundaries of more than a half-dozen national parks and adds three units, including two Civil War sites in Kentucky, the Mill Springs Battlefield and Camp Nelson.

The package adds acreage to Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks while protecting 350,000 acres of public lands between Mojave National Preserve and Death Valley, increasing the connectivity of the three sites. "This is one of the missing pieces in the landscape connection puzzle in the California desert," said David Lamfrom, director of California Desert and Wildlife Programs at the National Parks Conservation Association.

The bill would also be a boon for another constituency — hunters and anglers.

Bow hunters would be allowed to bring their weapons through national parks when trying to reach areas where it is legal to hunt. More important, it makes all federal lands open to hunting, fishing, and recreational shooting unless otherwise specified.

Jesse Deubel, executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, said in an interview that expanding wilderness in his state will be a powerful lure for hunters seeking bighorn sheep, mule deer, quail and other animals. "People will travel to these places to pursue game in this wild, untamed habitat."

The public lands package would also protect nearly 620 miles of rivers across seven states from damming and other development, often delegating management of the waterways to local authorities. It includes safeguards for a variety of rivers — everywhere from the tributaries for the wild Rogue River in Oregon, known for its vibrant salmon populations, to the once heavily polluted Nashua River that flows from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and is popular with kayakers.

In many cases, locals have been asking Washington for years for these protections to bolster tourism.

Montana's entire congressional delegation — two Republicans and one Democrat — pressed for the permanent withdrawal of mineral rights of roughly 30,000 acres of U.S. Forest Service lands near Yellowstone National Park. Another provision in the bill would keep lands in Washington's Upper Methow Valley from mineral entry and exploration, to protect North Cascades National Park.

"It took public lands to bring divided government together," said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) after the vote.

Colin Davis, owner of Chico Hot Springs resort in Montana's Paradise Valley, said that he and other local business owners have spent the last four years working to eliminate the prospect of gold mining on Yellowstone's doorstep. Companies have eyed two separate sites, both near Davis's 120-year-old historic property.

"To have industrial mining in both those places, on a scale that would make it financially viable, is really threatening to our economy," said Davis, who employs 180 people. "This is the heart of the last best place. ... This community has come together over this."

A series of compromises won over advocacy groups representing hunters and anglers, conservationists, geologists, Native Americans, along with local officeholders and chambers of commerce. Utah's Emery County, for example, blessed the designation of 661,000 acres of wilderness, 300,000 acres for a national recreation area and 63 miles of protection on the Green River in exchange for more than 75,000 acres of land that it can develop elsewhere.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) emerged as the legislation's most vocal opponent, decrying the restrictions that accompany any new wilderness and the possibility that the bill will make it easier for the federal government to acquire private land.

"This bill perpetuates a terrible standard for federal land policy in the West, and particularly for Utah," he said.

[Trump to nominate David Bernhardt, former oil lobbyist, as next Interior Secretary]

Lee outlined his opposition in the Deseret News a day after junior Sen. Mitt Romney (R) of Utah defended the package in the same paper. "We can conserve wildlife, protect historic sites, maintain access and preserve Utah's public lands in a way that reflects the priorities of rural Utahns," Romney wrote. "This is the future our public lands need and deserve."

In an interview, Heinrich noted that Republican and Democratic supporters of the bill stuck together to defeat hostile amendments such as Lee's, which could have unraveled the deal.

"That's something you used to see all the time," he said. "That's been much more rare in recent years."

The package designates several other protected areas in Utah, including the 850-acre Jurassic National Monument and the much more vast San Rafael Swell Recreation Area. Scott Groene, executive director of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said the wilderness designations will keep motorized vehicle use at bay in Desolation and Labyrinth Canyons, part of the dramatic red rock landscape that defines the state.

"Spectacular canyons will remain quiet places," Groene said.

But in a sign of the trade-offs activists made in the legislation, Groene noted that only half of the river running through these canyons will be protected since only Emery County endorsed the bill. "We'll have to come back and protect the other half of the river later."

2/13/19 Agri-Pulse

Look for Congress to finish shoving a broad, multi-year public lands, parks and water management bill — sort of like what the farm bill is for agriculture — out the door and to the White House this month.

The Natural Resources Management Act had broad bipartisan support last fall but stalled in the end-of-year legislative logjam. So the Senate resurrected it and passed it overwhelmingly, 92-8, this week, and the House likely will also approve it after the chamber's upcoming week-long Presidents' Day break.

On the Senate floor Monday, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, voiced many western lawmakers' objections to the Antiquities Act, which allows the president to set aside expanses of federal land permanently as historical monuments, and called for an amendment to limit such designations in Utah. It was rejected on a 60-33 vote.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, said she sympathized with Lee's intent, but declared her panel wanted to "clear the deck and then move on to some new issues" on public lands and water in the year ahead.

The bill is a batch of over 100 pieces of legislation, written as a crowd-pleaser. The League of Conservation Voters, which favors most of the provisions, extolled the bill as including "more than 100 local and regional land protection bills, including legislation to designate wilderness and . . . would result in over 2 million acres of new protected lands and rivers and boost our nation's outdoor recreation economy."

It also includes, for example, the Every Kid Outdoors Act, which will try to foster bonds between America's youth and their public lands by granting a year of free entry for fourth graders (along with their family members and vehicle) to all legally accessible public lands and waters.

A major feature is permanent authorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which was created by Congress 54 years ago. The fund receives revenue from federal offshore oil and gas royalties and other sources and uses it to acquire and improve lands for public use and preservation. Congress' periodic reauthorization for the fund expired last fall.

"There's some good stuff in this bill ... legislation that helps with wildlands fires, resolutions to boundary disputes," and more, says Ethan Lane, executive director of the Public Lands Council.

However, the PLC and its affiliate ranching groups, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and the American Sheep Industry Association, support the overall bill but object to the high proportion of LWCF allocations used to purchase land. The bill sets a minimum share of 40 percent to be directed to local and state grants to buy and improve public recreational sites and facilities, compared with about 25 percent through the history of the trust fund.

Still, Lane says that over 60 percent "of the $18 billion that been spent since the inception ... has gone to federal land acquisitions," and that's "out of balance from what was originally intended."

"There's quite a bit of wilderness throughout the West that is expanded by this bill . . . (and) some national heritage areas created," Lane says. , and they "will impact some ranchers long-term access to graze livestock in the West." He points to the bill's designation of the Mountains to Sound Greenway as a new national heritage area: "Our Washington cattlemen have been very concerned about that," he said.

"Any time you start creating new barriers to grazing . . . (and) creating wilderness areas . . . giving lands special designations, it has a major impact on how ranchers operate," Lane declared.

What's worse, Lane added, even though Congress must approve the annual LWCF expenditures, the bill's permanent LWCF authorization "effectively leaves the majority of the funds devoted to federal acquisitions" in perpetuity. A letter from PLC says that makes the bill "a blank check to the federal agencies for the purposes of land acquisition."

Some of the provisions designate new wilderness areas in New Mexico, Utah and California. The bill also protects 30,000 acres adjacent to the Yellowstone River in Montana from mining and conserves 100,000 acres of the Umpqua watershed in Oregon, one of the most important areas in the Pacific Northwest for salmon and steelhead trout, according to the National Wildlife Federation.

Jonathan Asher, government relations manager for The Wilderness Society, says that annual LWCF funding to state and local projects has been robust for years. That's because a 2006 law mandates state and local grants as a permanent share of LWCF revenue, "giving them an inherent advantage over the federal side," he says, because the dollars for federal land purchases has floated up and down according to appropriation committees' preferences.

In the House of Representatives, staff for Natural Resources Chairman Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., and Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, the ranking Republican, echoed Murkowski's view of the bill as 2018 leftover work that needs to get done.