WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, joined members of the Congressional Western Caucus in sending a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar reminding him that The Wilderness Act of 1964 gives Congress sole authority to designate wilderness and asking him to join their efforts as a willing partner in the creation of jobs and economic opportunity.  The letter comes in response to a June 11, 2011 letter from Salazar asking Congress to help “identify BLM-managed public lands where there is strong support in the local community and among elected officials for permanent protection.”

“In Western states like Montana, our land plays a huge role in our economy,” said Rehberg.  “Secretary Salazar was just in Montana, so he saw first-hand that we need the federal government to become a willing partner in job creation.  Whether it’s resource development for energy and timber or public access for fishing, hunting and hiking, there’s no one who knows how to manage Montana’s lands better than the people who live, work and play here.  It’s time to put partisanship aside and find a way to cooperate in order to move our state forward.”

Rehberg’s letter comes in response an ongoing unilateral effort within the Department of Interior to further restrict access to land in Montana.

Last year, an incomplete version of a “NOT FOR RELEASE” memo drafted within the Department of Interior revealed clandestine plans to declare millions of acres in Montana as National Monuments.  This “Treasured Landscapes” plan relied heavily on input from a few special interest groups and seeks to abuse the Antiquities Act for the presidential designation of National Monuments across the west, including Montana.

The abuse of the Antiquities Act to circumvent congressional and public input is not unprecedented.  In the eleventh hour of the outgoing Clinton Administration, the President used his authority granted under the Antiquities Act to create the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, despite outright opposition from Montanans across the state.

Then, last Christmas, the Interior Department issued Secretarial Order 3310, which allows the federal government to create a new “Wild Lands” classification for public lands, once again circumventing congressional authority and public input.  Specifically, Secretary Salazar’s order directs the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to designate appropriate areas with “wilderness characteristics” as “Wild Lands”, and to manage them to protect their “wilderness values.”  This sets the stage for more public land to be managed as de facto wilderness, stifling job creation by severely limiting agriculture, hunting and recreational uses, along with potential energy and mineral development.

Rehberg has introduced legislation, the Montana Land Sovereignty Act to address these concerns with overreaching executive action taken to circumvent Congress and the public.  In both cases, it protects the people of Montana by requiring Congress to approve executive actions that impact our land management.

“Whether it’s bypassing Congress or using back door strategies to implement its anti-use approach, the Department of the Interior seems intent on locking up land in the West to the detriment of rural people, rural towns and rural jobs,” said Western Caucus Vice-Chair Cynthia Lummis (WY-AL).  “No one understands these impacts better than the people of Wyoming.  The Secretary does not have the resources or the time to be distracted by efforts that are not part of his job description. I call on Secretary Salazar to join with members of the Western Caucus to promote jobs, rebuild our economy, and embrace the significant contributions our Western communities make.”

LETTER:

Dear Secretary Salazar,

We have received your letter, dated June 10, 2011, seeking our input to “identify BLM-managed public lands where there is strong support in the local community and among elected officials for permanent protection.”  We appreciate your recognition of Congress’s role in any wilderness discussion and taking the time to ask for our opinion.  The unique landscapes of the west add to the quality of life to those who have the opportunity to enjoy them.  However, the content of your letter indicates that you have not fully understood our concerns, or the concerns of our constituents, regarding expansion of wilderness in the west, nor does it show an understanding for the economic crises in which our country and region is currently mired.

As members of the Western Caucus, our top priority is the creation and sustainability of jobs.  Individually and collectively we have introduced and cosponsored dozens of pieces of legislation to improve the economic environment in the west.  This includes legislation to release Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) and so-called roadless areas; to advance responsible energy development; to expedite fuels reduction work on beetle ravaged forests; to relieve the tax and regulatory burden on farmers and ranchers; to advance the country’s position with respect to rare earth, critical minerals, and other hard-rock mining; to help your agency crawl out from under the constant onslaught of litigation; to increase timber sales; and many others. 

From the content of your letter, we can only conclude that the Department of Interior remains intent on spending its time and limited resources on efforts to hinder job creation in the west.  While it may be possible in some cases for new wilderness areas to result in economic benefit and new jobs, often that is not the result.  Further, in the few instances where there is “strong support in the local community and among elected officials” for new wilderness protections, we trust the Member of Congress representing the area in question to advance that cause consistent with the Wilderness Act of 1964.  After all, the designation of Wilderness is solely the purview of Congress – it is not the job of the Department of Interior to “build a strong, bipartisan wilderness agenda.”

Given this, and in response to your letter, we write today with a counterproposal.  To help inform our efforts at job creation, we respectfully ask that you help identify legislative proposals we have put forward that the Department of Interior could support to create jobs in the west.  For example, the Department could identify BLM WSAs to release for multiple uses.  The Department could remove the burdensome and unnecessary delays imposed by Master Leasing Plans in order to advance domestic energy production.  The Department could allow the current Resource Management Plan process to dictate land-use decisions on areas with so-called “wilderness characteristics,” rather than pushing duplicative plans that only serve to confuse, divide, and delay economic growth.  These are just a few.

The areas we represent are poised to be economic drivers for our country, but only if the federal government is a willing partner.  Responsible energy development and access to traditional uses of public lands will help to create jobs and stabilize our economy to far greater effect than any “wilderness agenda” could hope to achieve.  Towards this end, we invite you and selected staff to discuss this directly with us at a joint meeting of the Western Caucuses.  We look forward to hearing how you can work with us to build jobs and restore the nation’s economy.

Sincerely,