State sovereignty at issue in ‘wild lands’ conflict, proposed bill

A member of the Idaho House is proposing a law in the nullification vein regarding designations of wilderness areas. The proposal from Rep. Paul Shepherd, R-Riggins, comes on the heels of Gov. Butch Otter in a Feb. 3 letter requesting a meeting with President Barack Obama to discuss Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s new “Wild Lands” policy. “As it stands, this policy is seen by many of us as representing a new “War on the West, which I believe is not your intention,” Otter wrote to Obama. “This new policy has the potential for severe economic consequences. Salazar’s secretarial order issued in December calls for the Bureau of Land Management to “protect wilderness characteristics” and to identify parts of the 245 million acres the agency manages in the West that can be handled as de facto wilderness. Otter argues the order flies in the face of the Federal Land Policy Management Act, which establishes a process for state involvement. “The Secretarial Order destroys this process and threatens school funding and jobs at a time that we can least afford such impacts,” wrote Otter...more