The Obama administration has decided to restore a wilderness protection policy that was eliminated during George W. Bush’s first term in office.

 

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will once again reassert its longstanding efforts to grant temporary protection to areas possessing wilderness qualities that fall outside officially established wilderness regions approved by Congress. BLM used to preserve roadless landscapes until 2003, when the Department of the Interior under Secretary Gale Norton approved a settlement with the state of Utah that established the “no more wilderness” policy and weakened BLM’s ability to protect undeveloped acres from oil, gas and mineral exploration.

 

“The new Wild Lands policy affirms the BLM’s authorities under the law—and our responsibility to the American people—to protect the wilderness characteristics of the lands we oversee as part of our multiple use mission,” said BLM Director Bob Abbey.

 

The new policy will create a wilderness inventory of lands to be classified as “Lands with Wilderness Characteristics (LWCs).”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

BLM to Overturn Bush's 'No More Wilderness' Policy (by Phil Taylor, Greenwire)

Interior Plans New Wilderness Protections, Scrapping Bush-Era Policy (by Ben Geman and Andrew Restuccia, The Hill)

Salazar, Abbey Restore Protections for America's Wild Lands (Department of the Interior)

Order No. 3310: Protecting Wilderness Characteristics on Lands Managed by the Bureau of Land Management (Department of the Interior) (pdf)

Wild Lands: Inventory and Planning Guidance Questions and Answers (Bureau of Land Management) (pdf)