Order stirs debate over BLM inventories

A recent federal land policy change is being treated as a power grab by some and a return to mandated management by others. On Dec. 22, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar signed Order 3310, directing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to regularly conduct wilderness resource inventories and give consideration to lands with wilderness characteristics when making land-use planning and project decisions. In the three weeks since the announcement, protests have begun to dribble in, including Tuesday’s letter of opposition to Salazar from Idaho Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter. Otter claimed the order directs the BLM to “treat much of the Idaho acreage under its control as ‘de facto wilderness.’” “Without any state or public input, the Interior Department has circumvented the sovereignty of states and the will of the public by shifting from the normal planning processes of the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA) to one that places significant and sweeping authority in the hands of unelected federal bureaucrats,” Otter wrote. BLM managers point out that everything still has to go through the public comment process...more