ATV Florida Forum

In a message dated 3/1/2011 11:44:34 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, LJMoller@aol.com writes:

Folks here is why the USFWS will not grant the needed money to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission (FWC) to purchase the lands and easements in the new Everglades Headwaters NWRs. While this article from a western USA person is mostly about the issues in that part of the USA the ability to designate federal lands as Wild Lands without Congressional oversight, public hearings and NEPA required studies also applies to lands in the Eastern part of the USA - Florida.

 

Today National Wildlife Refuges tomorrow Wilderness Wild Lands and you locked off.

 

Jack Moller-------------------------
 
Sec. Salazar Bypassing Congress Creating New Wild Lands Areas

Secretary Salazar has taken Congressional Power for himself. He's
directing BLM to identify a new category of Wilderness area, what he
is calling Wild Lands.

This is a huge land grab meant to bypass Congress. Only Congress is
supposed to be able to designate Wilderness areas.

-----Word must get out about this quickly. Please forward this
message to your entire e-mail list as soon as you can.

-----Obama Is Eying Western Lands for new National Monuments.

 
What's the Wild Lands problem? What's the solution? Action Items
listed below.

Wilderness Areas and Monuments--- They're Back --- 

 

Interior Secretary Salazar is calling them "Wild Lands." He plans to
set millions of acres aside without Congressional approval . . .
unless you act now.

Only Congress is supposed to designate any new Wilderness Areas.

Secretary Salazar has decided that he can designate Wilderness areas
going around Congress and cutting you out of the process. He's
changing the name and calling the new areas "Wild Lands."

What Interior Secretary Salazar is proposing:

-----220 million acres of unclassified multiple-use lands in the
Western States and Alaska to be set aside for review and
determination if they are “Wild Lands.” (As proposed by the green
groups.)

-----All public lands will be considered for new restrictions that
would limit access;

-----Access limitations would curtail oil and natural gas leasing and
development;

-----Access limitations would restrict mining projects as well as
renewable and alternative energy development;

-----Access limitations could eliminate or reduce grazing;

-----Access limitation would likely eliminate many motorized
recreational uses;

-----The new restrictions could mean no campgrounds, no off-road
vehicle use and limited or no motorized use on many of the existing
roads and trails;

-----The access limitations would mean no way stations for veterinary
or emergency facilities;

-----Snowmobiles and snow machine use would be limited or eliminated
in these new Wild Land Areas. Your popular recreation access would be
cut off;

-----Access for the handicapped, elderly and children using
traditional off highway vehicles or snowmobiles could be eliminated;
and

-----Millions of people would lose access to traditional recreation
areas.

-----Anyone can nominate lands for Wild Lands Designation and it is
immediately presumed to be designated; BLM land use plans are then
required to be amended and all activities on those lands are
affected; and

-----Allows all actions under the Secretary’s Order to be
implemented without any economic or scientific study and without any
public notice, comment or review.

-----The Secretary's Order Scoffs at limitations imposed by the
Courts and laws passed by Congress;

-----This is a violation of the 1964 Wilderness Act that defined
minimum criteria for designation of areas as 'Wilderness';

-----This is violation of the spirit of the Department's 2003
Settlement Agreement with the State of Utah;

-----This action undermines every existing BLM land use plan already
adopted;

-----This action allows bureaucrats answerable to no one to impose
access restrictions to lands as though they have the Congressional
power; and

-----This action ignores the public processes identified and required
by FLPMA and NEPA(Federal Land Policy And Management Act of 1976 and
the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970).

----- The consequences of the Executive Branch (Interior
Department and the Secretary of Interior) taking legislative power to
themselves is staggering:

-----Millions of acres of Federal lands will now be closed to the
public making them off limits to fishing, hunting, camping or riding.

-----Much of today's domestic oil and natural gas is produced in the
affected states. More than 40% of that production comes from Federal
multiple-use lands. The "Wild Lands" designations will result in
delays or outright reductions in leasing and permitting for these and
other development activities.

-----A significant percent of the designated lands will be closed to
future energy uses, including wind farms and transmission lines for
clean energy;

-----These delays and closures will reduce revenues to the states,
counties and the Federal government from bonuses, rents and
royalties;

-----Counties, cities and states will lose much needed revenue. If
your county is already struggling with a budget deficit, these delays
in economic activities and land closures will result in the loss of
income from oil and gas revenues, ranching revenues and mining
revenues making the problem much worse;

-----The whole economic ecosystem of most Western States and counties
will by strangled in red tape and bureaucracy right in the middle of
our worst recession in 70 years;

-----Schools, libraries, police and fire protection will lose
important funding;

-----At a time when the national unemployment level is over 10% more
people will lose their jobs as resource based industries on Federal
lands are shut down; and

-----At a time when federal deficits are in the trillions, the
federal government will lose funds and billions of dollars in future
income and economic activity.

----- WHAT YOU CAN DO TO STOP THIS LAND GRAB

-----ACTION ITEMS:

-----1. Please forward this message to your entire e-mail list. The
more people who hear about this giant land grab the better chance you
have to defeat it.

-----2. Call, fax and e-mail any Democrat Senator from your state.
You can get their contact information by calling any Senator at (202)
224-3121. You should also contact the Republicans.

Urge him or her to join the effort to rescind the Secretary's Wild
Lands Order and stop the designation of any land in your state.

He or she can do it if they want to. It is a question of will. Make
sure he or she knows you will remember how they respond to this land
grab in coming elections.

-----3. Call, fax and e-mail any Democrat and Republican Congressmen
from your state urging them to oppose the Secretary's Wilderness
power grab through budget cuts, targeted prohibition and staff
reductions.

They can do it if they want to bad enough. You may call any
Congressman at (202) 225-3121. Make sure they know this will be an
issue in the 2012 election.

-----4. Forward this message to any people in the Tea Party movement.
This Secretarial big government land grab and increase in the deficit
is exactly the kind of thing they oppose.

-----5. Call your friends and neighbors to get them to call your
Congressman and both Senators. Ask them to do the same things we have
outlined above.

-----6. Ask Congress to take away all funding for Interior Secretary
Salazar's Wild Lands backroom order and any implementation that is
already in process.

-----7. Call, fax and e-mail your Congressman. All Congressmen may be
called at (202) 225-3121. That is the Capitol Switchboard. Ask for
your Congressman. When that office answers, ask for the person who
handles the BLM. Ask for his fax and e-mail address.

-----8. Call, fax and e-mail your Senator. All Senators may be called
at (202) 224-3121. Follow the same instructions as listed above.

The key is to make the Members of Congress in the Senate and House
responsible for the actions of the Secretary, especially his allies,
the Democrats.

Your calls will get your Congressman and Senator to ask President
Obama to direct the Secretary to suspend application of the Wild
Lands Order.

-----9. Call the White House at (202) 456-1111

-----http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

If you make enough calls, you can stop anything.

-----There must be an uprising of opposition to the application of
the Secretary's Wild Lands Order in each state insisting that the
Democrat Senators and Congressman from that state forcefully request
that Obama direct the Secretary not to designate Wild Lands in your
state.

-----You must know that President Obama will not designate any Wild
Lands in states where there are a significant number of Democrat
Senators or Congressmen in opposition. He will not want to risk
losing his allies in next years election.

-----You must make any Democrat Senators and Congressmen from your
state responsible for the designation of any Wild Lands in your
state. If they oppose them, the Secretary can be directed by Obama to
not designate the Wild Lands in these states.

By taking this action, one of two things will happen. First, your
Democrat Senators and Congressmen may be successful in getting Obama
to take lands in your state out of any Wild Lands Designation
process. That would begood for your state. The Democrat Senators and
Congressmen in your state would get some credit but that is OK if you
stop the designations.

The second thing that could happen is that if you make enough noise
and clamor about this huge land grab, and Obama allows Interior
Secretary Salazar to go ahead and designate the Wild Lands, it will
make your Democrat Senators and Congressmen look weak and
ineffective.

That will help you defeat them in November 2012. Many are already
vulnerable and will not be eager to get the credit for creating more
Federal land set asides and hurting their local governments. And that
is exactly what they will be doing if they do not help you stop the
Wild Lands Designations now.

You must make your Democrat Senators and Congressmen responsible for
any Wild Lands designations in your state.

-----Don't make your calls like a threat. Just make it clear that you
and your neighbors are watching the Secretary's actions and those of
the unelected and unaccountable bureaucracies and will remember how
your Senators and Congressmen did or did not act to defend you from
the Obama land grabbers.

-----Everyone must pitch in, even if you have no potential Wild Lands
or Wilderness Study areas in your state at this point. This is a team
game; anyone losing property rights or access to Federal lands as a
result of Secretary Salazar's sneak attack on rural America means
everyone loses.

Remember what is happening is government taking access to and the use
of Federal lands by Salazar signing an order in a back room, dark of
night sneak attack without any public involvement.

The Interior Department and BLM make the rules, make the decisions
and no one, not even Congress, has control or oversight.

If the new Wild Lands rules don't hurt you today, they can and likely
will hurt you tomorrow. The Federal agencies can change the rules in
the back room, dark of night strategy they used to create the Wild
Lands with no notice, comment, or control.

This is a team game. If enough people are outraged, you can stop
anything.

Remember your concern about the proposed Obama National Monuments
last year? Early last year "Secret" documents from the Interior
Department identified more than 13 million acres were being
considered for "conservation". These areas included Arizona deserts,
California mountains, Montana prairies, New Mexico forests,
Washington islands and the Great Basins of Nevada and Colorado.

As a reminder, here is a partial list of the areas that have already
been unsuccessfully targeted by DOI, thanks to your efforts last
year:

-----Otero Mesa, New Mexico: The area stretches over 1.2 million
acres and is home to 1,000 native species. Gov. Bill Richardson has
sought protection for Otero Mesa for years, but the Bush
administration targeted it for oil and gas development;

-----Heart of the Great Basin, Nevada: Researchers call it a
"globally unique assemblage of cultural, wildlife and historic
values" that includes thousands of petroglyphs and stone artifacts
dating back 12,000 years;

-----Owyhee Desert, Oregon: Called one of the most remote areas of
the United States, the Owyhee is home to the largest herd of
California bighorn sheep;

-----Bodie Hills, California: Located in the fast growing eastern
Sierra Nevada mountains;Bodie contains the Golden State's best
preserved ghost town. But the area is also loaded with gold, and
several mining permits are pending; and

-----The Modoc Plateau, California: Spanning close to 3 million acres
in the northwest corner of California, the Modoc Plateau is "laden
with biological and archeological treasures." Interior officials call
it the second largest unprotected landscape in the state.

The Obama National Monument proposal is mild when compared to the
Secretary's Wild Lands Order.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Reminder: If you are the target of one of Obama and Salazar’s Wild
Lands, Wilderness Study Areas, National Monuments, Treasured
Landscape or other land grab, but sure to call American Land Rights
for help. ALRA can show you how to fight back and win against the
land grabbers.

American Land Rights works hard to help you compete in the political
process in Congress. Your support is critical to provide the
resources to allow ALRA to be successful.

Please go to www.landrights.org (http://www.landrights.org) <http://www.landrights.org/>
to join American Land Rights and provide your support. Membership is
$35 unless this is your first year. If you are a new member, you may
join at $25 for the first year.

You can use the place on the Home Page to make your membership
contribution or you may mail it to American Land Rights, PO Box 400,
Battle Ground, WA 98604.

Sincerely,
March -- 2011
Chuck Cushman
ccushman@pacifier.com
(360) 687-3087

If you know of others who would like to receive these alerts, reply
with their e-mail addresses.

Please forward this message as widely as possible. This is a historic
issue.