Secretary Jewell may withdraw lands pending legislation

No stone of preservation was left unturned by advocates of landscape resource protection in the Crown of the Continent Saturday during a meeting with Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell and U.S. Sens. Jon Tester and John Walsh at the Hungry Horse Ranger Station. Tribal members, environmental groups, Glacier National Park brass, civic leaders and federal officials attended the gathering, which was organized to update stakeholders on the progress of the widely supported North Fork Watershed Protection Act, and for attendees to voice concerns about the need for additional federal measures to protect the landscape in the transboundary Flathead Valley. Democrats Tester and Walsh have overwhelmingly supported the North Fork Watershed Protection Act, a version of which was first introduced by former Sen. Max Baucus, whose retirement to become ambassador to China cast doubt on the bill’s future. However, Jewell emphasized the importance of a lands protection bill like the North Fork measure and said she may seek administrative relief to temporarily implement the bill as it languishes in Congress, while Tester and Walsh pledged to continue to work toward permanent passage of the bill. “As human beings we haven’t always appreciated these great landscapes. I know there have been decisions made by some of my predecessors to put leases in areas right on the edge of a national park, right on the edge of a wilderness area and right in areas that are too special to be developed,” Jewell said. “You have all worked very hard to make people understand why these places are too special to be developed. This is a very important place to protect into perpetuity.” Jewell, who visited Hungry Horse and Glacier Park on a three-day tour of Montana, said the prospect of an administrative withdrawal – a temporary decree that enacts the fruits of legislation without congressional action – is a strong possibility, but she must work with Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “There is an administrative ability to exercise, when there is legislation in play, for us to administratively withdraw lands from future mining leases while that legislation is pending,” Jewell said. “We are going to work on it to get it done. It crosses two departments. It is now on my radar and I will make sure it is on Tom Vilsack’s radar.”...more