Public Lands

No one in the cadre of national environmental activists seemed much surprised to learn last week that Vice President Dick Cheney is orchestrating the rollback in federal protections that marks the Bush administration's stewardship of America's natural resources. Most stunning about The Washington Post's revealing peek into Mr. Cheney's behind-the-scenes machinations was the depth and breadth of his involvement in a policy area not regarded as a key part of his portfolio. His many years in Washington - serving in three administrations as well as Congress - gave Mr. Cheney an intimate knowledge of how the place works, allowing him to put the government in service to his ideological and political goals.

"Try to find Goldtooth, Ariz.," Tony Hillerman says. "It's a great exercise in understanding the West."When Hillerman, a best-selling mystery writer, tried to find the deserted Navajo settlement himself, using his trusted AAA "Guide to Indian Country" map, he couldn't find it. He went back to Tuba City and asked a Navajo woman for directions. She didn't say, "Turn left where the windmill used to be" (my favorite from my own travels). But she came close: "Go up that big hill past Moenkopi Wash and look for tracks where people have been turning off the pavement."

The state Board of Public Works approved yesterday the $326,000 purchase of waterfront land in Rose Haven for a park.The owner, who had wanted to build homes on the property, decided in late 1994 to sell it for open space after residents opposed his development plans."

Alturas, California -- "This is a war and we're choosing up sides,'' Gene Gustin, chairman of a county public lands advisory board in Elko, Nevada, told a ''Win Back the West'' rally here early this year. ''This is about whether we'll live as a free society. We know it's getting close.''This was not a group of extremist militia men bent on overthrowing the government by armed force. No one was dressed in camouflage. No one carried an automatic weapon. The crowd of 350 in cowboy hats and gimme hats had packed the only movie theater in this rural ranching community in remote northeastern California to hear how Nevada's new generation of Sagebrush Rebels are fighting federal environmental regulations.

The struggle for control and use of federal lands in the West is an old one, more recently embodied in the Sagebrush Rebellion of the 1970s and today's declared War of the West.Residents of these states dominated by Uncle Sam's ownership are understandably irritated by their lack of local land-use authority, especially as Washington cracks down on private exploitation and environmental abuse of these government lands and opens them to public recreation.In response, some 35 counties through the West have adopted local ordinances and resolutions declaring home rule over federal holdings.

SEATTLE, Wash. -- Three weeks before the explosion in Oklahoma City, a bomb blew out windows and ripped open a hole inside the Forest Service office in Carson City, Nev.In Montana that week, a self-styled citizen's militia leader directed threats at several public officials: "There cannot be a cleansing without the shedding of blood."At least two judges say they fear for their lives.And in Idaho, some federal agencies have virtually stopped performing some of their duties, fearing violence from a handful of people who have made the government their No. 1 enemy.

Preserving habitat is the best way to preserve endangered plant and animal life. It's an even better way to preserve species before they become endangered, if the habitat is wisely chosen.Choosing the Florida Everglades as "the ultimate test case," Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt wants to adopt that idea to protect potentially endangered species by managing entire ecosystems to avoid last-minute conflicts between environment and economic interests. It's not just a proposal to lock up more land from human use, but to identify ecosystems for pre-crisis management before species there become endangered.

For more than a century, hardrock mining interests have profited from public lands, paying no federal royalties and acquiring title to government real estate for a pittance. Miners have been favored by a type of "homesteading" law passed in 1872 to encourage settlement of the West.President Clinton's showdown with sagebrush privilege, an effort to charge fees and impose environmental restraints, ended in sharp retreat. But the House has now voted resoundingly to extract royalties from miners of gold, silver and other heavy minerals on public land -- and use the money to reclaim abandoned mines.

Ethics, those systems of moral principles, pertain to all of us -- whether we are butchers, automobile makers or hunters.In our professions, the ethic usually is well-defined.A butcher will trim his cuts of meat so that excess fat is not sold at the pound price of steak; a welder on an assembly line will spot his welds within given tolerances to ensure a vehicle's integrity.A good hunter also is expected to adhere to a code of ethics.At a conference held by the Izaak Walton League of America late last year, representatives of nine national and international hunting, fishing and wildlife organizations determined that the future of hunting depends on ethical outdoor conduct.

Hunting seasons for squirrel and ruffed grouse open Tuesday in Maryland, and over the next five months or so, seasons for ducks, geese, woodcocks, quails, pheasants, turkeys, rabbits and deers will phase in and out.Hunters often prefer to use private lands, but public lands in Maryland can offer diverse hunting opportunities on tracts ranging from less than 100 acres to more than 52,000 acres.Public hunting lands come in many guises -- Wildlife Management Areas, Cooperative WMAs, Natural Resource MAs, state parks, state forests, National Wildlife refuges and other federal lands, and some municipal lands and reservoir watersheds.

More than 200 people turned out last night to debate the merits of allowing wind turbines in state forests. The vast majority of those who signed up to speak at a public hearing in Annapolis opposed using public lands for private energy projects. Pennsylvania-based U.S. Wind Force has proposed erecting about 100 turbines in the Savage River and Potomac state forests in Garrett County. The high-tech windmills -- 400 feet high -- would be built atop mountain ridges visible from Deep Creek Lake and Western Maryland's other tourist attractions.

No one in the cadre of national environmental activists seemed much surprised to learn last week that Vice President Dick Cheney is orchestrating the rollback in federal protections that marks the Bush administration's stewardship of America's natural resources. Most stunning about The Washington Post's revealing peek into Mr. Cheney's behind-the-scenes machinations was the depth and breadth of his involvement in a policy area not regarded as a key part of his portfolio. His many years in Washington - serving in three administrations as well as Congress - gave Mr. Cheney an intimate knowledge of how the place works, allowing him to put the government in service to his ideological and political goals.

On Sunday, The Sun profiled the top two Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate with articles beginning on the front page and continuing for another entire page in the middle of the section ("Same race, different starting points," Aug. 27). I began reading with interest but was disappointed by the end. The candidates' lives were profiled in depth. However, the reporting on their stands on the issues was limited to a few lines, and information on environmental issues was missing. The Sun's profiles also failed to report on the biggest issue of our time and a defining problem for generations to come: How will the federal government address global warming?

ROANOKE, Va. -- Along a rocky path of the Appalachian Trail, Sherman Bamford pointed to a mist-shrouded mountainside in the Thomas Jefferson National Forest, where 121 acres could soon be up for public auction. The land is on a list of about 300,000 acres of national forest the Bush administration has proposed selling to help fund the operation of rural schools and offset cuts in federal aid. Forest Service officials said yesterday that they do not expect to sell more than about 175,000 acres in order to reach their goal of raising $800 million.

Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, who gave notice of her resignation two weeks ago, could simply have ridden off quietly into the sunset. Instead, she chose to launch one final, potentially devastating assault on the vast and precious public lands within her domain. Under sweeping guidelines Ms. Norton issued Wednesday, state and county governments across the West are invited to stake their claim to any old trail or closed road through national parks, wilderness and rangeland with implicit assurance that federal managers will approve upgrades of such pathways into major thoroughfares.

WASHINGTON -- President Bush said yesterday that he will nominate Gov. Dirk Kempthorne of Idaho to be secretary of the Interior Department, selecting a former senator - and fellow bike rider - to "ensure wise stewardship of our resources." "Dirk will continue my administration's efforts to conserve our land, water and air resources, reduce the maintenance backlog of our national parks, support historic and cultural sites ... and develop the energy potential of federal lands and waters in environmentally sensitive ways," the president said in an Oval Office appearance with Kempthorne at his side.

Few tears are being shed by environmentalists - or even by many of her own employees - over Gale A. Norton's decision to step down after five years as U.S. interior secretary. She was, like her predecessor and mentor James G. Watt, the antithesis of her job description as chief steward of public lands. She chose not to protect these national treasures but to exploit or destroy them. Most famously, Ms. Norton opened millions of pristine federal acres in the West to oil and gas drilling.

Land conservation important for future The Maryland legislature passed a law of special significance to all who value Maryland and Harford County's commitment to land conservation. SB306 prevents the sale of state lands by current and future administrations without a public process of oversight and approval by the General Assembly. Unfortunately, this law became necessary when it was learned last year that important and environmentally sensitive public lands in St. Mary's County were quietly being sold to a developer with political connections.

EVERY SO often during Washington's long-running battle over drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska came warnings that the conflict was an elaborate diversion drawing attention away from equally ruinous violations of public lands in the lower 48. As The Sun's Tom Pelton recently reported, those warnings have been dismayingly dead-on. Federal permits for drilling on previously pristine and protected parts of five Western states have more than tripled over the past six years, with the pace escalating as the Bush administration responds to soaring prices of oil and gas. Forests are being plundered, water supplies are being poisoned, federal regulators are being intimidated by the White House, and ranchers and recreational users are being driven off the land -- all for the sake of erecting hundreds of noisy, polluting wells to extract whatever fossil fuels lie beneath.

THE EHRLICH administration no longer wants to designate certain waterways as "limited use," or, in actual English, too polluted to be bothered with. This is welcome news, a small victory for the environmental community and another example of how Maryland's governor perceives these issues mostly as matters of public relations. One year ago, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. seemed to have turned a corner. His "flush tax" -- a surcharge on sewage bills to upgrade treatment plants -- had just passed the General Assembly.