Congress Passes Sweeping Public Lands Package, National Parks Will Benefit

Even Little River Canyon National Preserve will benefit from the Omnibus Public Lands Bill of 2009. NPS photo.

Hundreds of thousands of acres of officially designated wilderness. Boundary adjustments that will preserve cultural and ecological resources, not to mention scenery. Authorization to create the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail. Official designation of wild and scenic rivers.

Those are some of the successes in public lands protection realized today with Congress's passage of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009. True, there are some questionable projects among the more than 160 individual bills contained in the measure, such as the addition of Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park.

Overall, though, the package on its face seems to contain many more pluses than minuses if you enjoy public lands. Indeed, it makes the largest contribution to the nation's wilderness system in a long, long time, in part by permanently creating the National Land Conservation System. This system consists of national monuments, national conservation areas, wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers, national scenic and historic trails and other protective designations totaling over 850 sites and 26 million acres.

"I can’t think of a single bill that has ever done more to ensure the enjoyment of, and access to, wilderness areas, historic sites, national parks, forests, rivers, trails, public lands and water resources," said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and moved the omnibus bill forward. "Altogether, it is one of the most sweeping conservation laws that Congress has passed in many, many years.”

Even the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, praised the package.

“I’m happy to see that this important lands bill is finally on its way to the president. This bill designates those parts of our natural landscape and historical structures that deserve protection," she said. "I believe that we, as a nation, can maximize the development of our domestic energy resources while protecting our nation’s other natural resources and wilderness. While each individual bill in this package is not the kind of thing that makes national headlines, as a whole, it is clearly important enough to justify the time that this body has committed to it. This bill is especially important in the West, where simple real estate transactions that are taken for granted in the East, often literally take an act of Congress.”

Over at the National Parks Conservation Association, President Tom Kiernan praised the bipartisan support that rallied around the measure. That support "has ensured that many of our national parks will be enhanced and preserved for our children and grandchildren,” he said.

In terms of the National Park System, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 will:

• Expand Minute Man National Historical Park in Massachusetts to protect the historically-significant farm of Colonel James Barrett, commander of the Middlesex Militia.

• Study the possible addition of the Green McAdoo School in Clinton, Tenn., to the park system. In 1956, 12 students from Green McAdoo became the first African-Americans to integrate a state-operated school.

• Establish a commemorative trail in upstate New York that connects local and state sites to the Women’s Rights National Historical Park.

• Protect the cultural, ecological and scenic integrity of the Little River Canyon National Preserve in Alabama and Fort Davis National Historic Site in Texas from adjacent development by adjusting the boundary.

• Offer wilderness protection to remarkable landscapes within Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan, and Zion National Park in Utah.

• Authorize the creation of the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail in the Pacific Northwest—the first national geologic trail in the National Park System.

• Designate the Amargosa River as Wild and Scenic, providing much-needed protection for water resources at Death Valley National Park in California.

• Protect our nation’s irreplaceable fossil record and ensure that fossils from public lands are available for educational and scientific research by codifying the existing practice of requiring that vertebrate fossils and other rare and scientifically-significant fossils be collected only by qualified researchers who obtain a permit. The bill toughens penalties on the illegal collection of fossils on federal lands, including national parks such as Badlands in South Dakota and Petrified Forest in Arizona.

As for the National Landscape Conservation System, it contains areas of rich archaeological and cultural significance including Canyons of Ancients National Monument in southwest Colorado, and Agua Fria National Monument in Arizona as well as vast wild areas such as Nevada’s Black Rock Desert National Conservation Area and California’s King Range National Conservation Area. The Conservation System protects critical habitat for fish and wildlife, provides access to world-class hunting and fishing, and offers challenging recreation for the self-guided adventurer.

"These places tell the story of America -- and now, thanks to a concerted effort by many people, their future is more secure. That's good news for everybody," said Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

“Even as a passionate supporter and regular visitor to our national parks and wilderness areas, I was unaware that an enormous number of our nation’s wildest and most historically significant public lands were outside this network, poorly managed and under threat,” said Edward Norton, actor, conservationist, and National Conservation System Foundation board member. “By permanently approving the National Landscape Conservation System, Congress has ensured that these irreplaceable natural treasures will receive the protection they deserve.”

Other federal land management agencies already oversee land conservation systems, including the National Park System and the National Wildlife Refuge System. By approving legislation establishing the National Landscape Conservation System, Congress has entrusted the Bureau of Land Management with protecting the United States’ newest land conservation system.

“Each generation leaves a legacy to future generations,” said Stewart Udall, former U.S. Secretary of the Interior. “This is right at the heart of the National Landscape Conservation System.”