Adhering with tradition, this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that passed the Senate and is now making its way to the President’s desk contains a package of roughly 70 public lands and energy bills.
There are several positive pieces of legislation protecting wilderness across the country that the Sierra Club has supported for a long time and is pleased to see become law. Some of the highlights include permanently protecting the American side of the North Fork of the Flathead River Watershed in Montana by barring future mining or drilling; expanding the Oregon Caves National Monument by over 4,000 acres and establishing the Tule Springs National Monument in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Columbine-Hondo Wilderness Act and the Hermosa Creek Watershed Protection Act were also folded into the bill. See our earlier post for more details on those two provisions.
All told, the natural resources title of the NDAA designates approximately 245,000 acres of new wilderness. Considering the 112th Congress was the first since 1966 not to protect one single acre, it’s tempting to declare this package a significant victory. Unfortunately, the inclusion of egregious land exchanges and other harmful provisions far outweigh any conservation gains.
Among those harmful provisions is one that hands over federally protected land in the Tonto National Forest in Arizona – land that is sacred to local Native American tribes, to the Rio Tinto mining company to expand the Resolution Copper mine. This measure was brought to the House floor twice last year, but it was pulled both times because there weren’t enough votes to approve it. Using the NDAA as a vehicle for harmful, controversial legislation that privatizes our precious public lands is inexcusable.
In addition, this bill will transfer important areas of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest to the Sealaska Corporation. In doing so, Congress will sacrifice dozens of the best undeveloped coves, bays, and recreational areas in favor of commercial logging. This piece of the lands package causes irrevocable damage to vital fish and wildlife habitats and jeopardizes the livelihoods of several small communities and other users that depend on the forest.
-- by Marni Salmon
Trading away our public lands to mining and timber companies for commercial gain is not conservation. As we look to a new Congress, the Sierra Club will continue to work to pass clean public lands bills that truly protect America’s lands, waters and wildlife.