WOW.
Again, I am speechless, I thought this would pass easily, although I disagree with locking up more federal land from public use (make no mistake that is the bottom line).
Of course, these lands hold vast deposits of oil and minerals, so it is imperitive these be shut out from exploration.
Sometimes (gulp, sticking my neck out) I wonder if we aren’t fighting a war much greater here on the homefront than the ones in the middle east.
Like everything else, a lot of well meaning people support crap (like wilderness protection) and have no idea what they are supporting.
I won a National Wildlife Federation Award back in the 1990s for reporting on wildlife management issues, and used to be a member of the organization. You couldn’t FORCE me now to join them or support their agenda (I still get news releases from them and am sickened by them now).
It’s great to hear some good news for a change, thanks for this ping jaz.
I thought it was in the bag for the enviros too, this really surprised me.
This was such a monstrosity that the full impact wouldn’t have been known for several years and I’m pretty sure little of it would be good.
What slays me is these lands are already under FS and BLM management so people using the lands for various reasons are still governed by rules and can’t just go out and do whatever they feel like.
That’s not good enough for the enviros and anti-everything people, they want a Park employee looking down the neck of anyone using the lands and they also want it closed for any commercial (oil, gas, timber, mining, etc.) use.