DuBois: Enviros challenge grazing in wilderness and the lingering odor of fake wilderness

Enviros challenge grazing in wilderness and the lingering odor of fake wilderness

Grazing in Wilderness

New Mexico and other states have been recently blessed with new Wilderness areas, so we are keeping a watch on recent developments concerning livestock grazing in such areas.

Two new events in Colorado, brought to our attention by Wilderness Watch and Western Watershed Project, deal with the issue of motorized vehicles and equipment in Wilderness.

The first instance is in the Black Ridge Canyon Wilderness, where the enviros have challenged the issuance of ten-year grazing permits because BLM has authorized motorized access to haul camp supplies to support the annual gather, to place salt, and to “check on livestock to avoid or detect emergencies.” Wilderness Watch is claiming ‘this is the only place motor vehicles are allowed for such routine livestock management practices.”

The second instance has occurred in the Powderhorn Wilderness, where the enviros have challenged the renewal of a ten-year permit because the BLM has authorized the use of a chainsaw to clear fifteen miles of cattle movement corridors, the use of a mini-excavator to clean out a stock pond, and the use of Utility Transport Vehicles to haul in fencing materials.

In both instances, the enviros claim violations of the Wilderness Act, the Congressional Grazing Guidelines, and BLM’s own regulations. They say the BLM failed to analyze the use of nonmotorized alternatives such as using a crosscut saw or the use of pack animals.

As you contemplate how the pending decisions may affect your allotment, keep in mind the following language from the Congressional Grazing Guidelines:  

The maintenance of supporting facilities, existing in the area prior to its classification as wilderness (including fences, line cabins, water wells and lines, stock tanks, etc.) is permissible in wilderness. Where practical alternatives do not exist, maintenance or other activities may be accomplished through the occasional use of motorized equipment. This may include, for example, the use of backhoes to maintain stock ponds, pickup trucks for major fence repairs, or specialized equipment to repair stock watering facilities. Such occasional use of motorized equipment should be expressly authorized in the grazing permits for the area involved. The use of motorized equipment should be based on a rule of practical necessity and reasonableness…

Indeed, if you are a wilderness allotment owner, you should have the complete guidelines readily available whenever dealing with the Forest Service or the BLM.

Fake wilderness

You have heard of fake meat and fake news. Let me introduce you to fake wilderness.

In December of 2010, during the Obama administration, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar issued Secretarial Order 3310 which instructed BLM to inventory “lands with wilderness characteristics” on a regular and continuing basis, and further to protect these lands through land use planning. This created a huge controversy among stakeholders and members of congress. 

For instance, Idaho Governor Butch Otter testified, “I urge Congress to take back its authority and prevent further development and implementation of Secretary Salazar’s Order. This Order exempts stakeholders, threatens the spirit of collaboration and cooperation, weakens the process, discounts state sovereignty, and sends the message to the citizens of Idaho that the federal government will continue to treat the valuable and diverse open spaces of the West not as lands of many uses, but rather as lands of no use and no access for the people who live and work in Idaho and other western states.” 

As a result, Congress prohibited the use of federal money to carry out the order and in June of 2011 Salazar revoked Secretarial Order 3310. That, however, has not stopped the BLM from continuing to implement the policy. 

In August of 2012 the Congressional Western Caucus discovered two BLM manuals that resurrected the controversial policy and that even included language lifted directly from the supposedly revoked Secretarial Order. The Caucus then wrote to Interior saying, “The Department’s recent actions greatly undermine both your commitment to working with us, your duty to follow both the letter and spirit of the Congressional mandate to withhold funding for the Wildlands policy, and the Obama Administration’s commitment towards being the ‘most transparent’ in history.  We urge you to withdraw BLM Manuals 6310 and 6320 immediately…”

The BLM manuals have not been revoked and that is where we stand today.

These lands were originally inventoried under Section 603 of FLPMA and found to be unsuitable for wilderness. So how is the BLM getting around that? By lowering the standards. Lands with wilderness characteristics (LWC) do not have to have the mandatory wilderness characteristics, i.e., they are fake wilderness. And, lowering the standards means that more lands can be designated under this new criteria.

Here we are three years into the Trump administration and BLM field staff are still inventorying and designating “Lands with Wilderness Characteristics.”

The President of the New Mexico Federal Lands Council, Bebo Lee, has written to the BLM Acting Director and requested that he “rescind Instruction Memo No. 2003-275 and BLM Manuals 6310 and 6320”, and that he replace those documents with directions the lands under consideration meet the definitions articulated in the 1964 Wilderness Act. Lee also said the new policy should state that “no management changes will occur on any lands perceived as LWC until Congress acts on any new designations.”

We know how President Trump feels about fake news. I suspect he would have the same opinion of fake wilderness. Let’s hope his appointees at Interior take note, and rid us of this holdover Obama administration gift to the enviros.

Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation

This column originally appeared in the May issues of The New Mexico Stockman and The Livestock Market Digest.