Show BLAA wilderness review By Helen C. You can actually go this summer with many teams the i Bureau of Land Management making field Inspections potential wilderness areas on If you have expertise to offer on I specific ot if you are the wilderness review for an environmental organization or a user such as or get in touch with your state Kent Salt Lake Tell him of your interest in going on field inspections Inspection Do it directly as this is the start of the summer field inspection period for the wilderness You cannot be accommodated in all instances or The Nevada State of fiestas so much acreage to cover cannot make such to time But you can go IK most other states if you act That's the word from Terry who is in charge of wilderness and environmental area the extent it is we are glad to have people who are actively involved in the go out on field inspections with our Sopher told Resources Wrap-up in interviews on June like to have a mix of groups going with and environmentalists in Those interested contact our state We cannot accommodate people on the helicopter but if special arrangements are in many cases they can go with us on the ground field Sopher This is in life with official policy to involve the public in its wilderness much as think national groups our review feel that we have performed in a highly open that we have made real attempts at stimulating public involvement in the Sopher STATUS OF REVIEW The 1976 Federal Land Policy and Management Act directed to review all of the public lands that it manages for wilderness announced on Jule 11 it had completed its initial inventory on about million acres of land in the 11 Western The public has 90 days to comment on this following the announcement by each state office of its tentative decisions on areas under its The public comment period will end in most states this month or with final public comment due in Colorado and Nevada on July tentative decision on the initial inventory was to drop out million acres land because it and-obviously did not meet wilderness and to return it immediately i to multiple-use the 62 million acres million acres will undergo a second-phase intensive inventory if they should be included in formal wilderness study 6 acres of the California Desert undergone intensive Final decisions on the initial will be made by the of the following evaluation public In case of areas which the judgement call can go either Sopher told they into the intensive The initial inventory was done on the basis of to With the intensive inventory teams survey a potential wilderness a helicopter or a small plane circling the boundary of the area and evidence of man's such and A field inspection The field team attempts to determine on-the-ground inspection the area surveyed does meet wilderness criteria and how many man there are In the It a recard of mine stock watering and other man-made features that have been built Into hopes to complete its' second-stage intensive inventory by areas which are not to have wilderness be dropped out and returned to multiple-use Those ae found following the intensive inventory to have real wilderness potential will be designated as Following such the President will recommend to Congress areas which he believes should be included within the National Wilderness Only Congress can establish a formal wilderness Under all' areas designated as wilderness study areas must be managed as wilderness until Congress takes specific action on those areas NOT recommended by the President formal wilderness is expected to complete Its wilderness review by is years after the enactment of into Alaska wilderness study has been deferred pending settlement of the Alaska Lands legislation now before PROBLEMS to our we are on schedule due to hard work and Sopher told Initial Inventory will be completed by the end of this We are already starting on the next our Intensive with field work this We plan to complete our intensive inventory by when we'll know for certain what areas will become wilderness study have had some In a couple of states environmentalists have felt that the quality of our initial inventory results left a lot to be he Sopher identified those states as Utah and have found some inconsistencies among the states on their interpretation of wilderness We have to strive for more uniformity in this Sopher The wilderness handbook defines wilderness characteristics of a area as at least continuous acres of public land on which the imprint of man's work is substantially with the area affording either an outstanding opportunity for solitude or an outstanding opportunity for a primitive and unconfined type of This is subject to many find there is a lot of confusion in the public's mind between our wilderness review and RARE II program of the Forest which has been Sopher The RARE II Forest Service study of areas in the National Forest System stirred up a lot of controversy which Sopher and his staff want to He said has a good working relationship with the Forest that it is generally cooperative in sharing its experience gained in its study with Sopher went the Forest Service disbanded its RARE II team immediately after the study was completed early this so it is often difficult to find a resident expert here on RARE and it is impossible to get such a Forest Service detailed to Sopher told BEHIND SCHEDULE ON MANAGEMENT POLICY Another Sopher is that are behind schedule in putting out our final interim management policy for wilderness study We hoped to have it out by May Now we know it will take a at the and probably to put it We received 1000 written comments on our draft They ranged over the full spectrum of those interested in and using public from those affiliated with organizations and There is concern on both sides of the question of impairment of wilderness The environmentalists think we went too far in allowing mining to continue on such while the miners felt that we did not give them enough time to rehabilitate mined Sopher told There is a grandfather clause in which allowed mining to continue after its enactment on in the same manner and degree as of that providing the mined can be rehabilitated within five years after Congress officially designates a study area as It's a Other questions which have come up that are Can a dry desert be Tentative answer from is What if a road intrudes deep into an area with wilderness Tentative answer from or draw a line around it and exclude Sopher It is the wilderness review properly Sopher says his staff is able to do acceptable work with the funding provided to we are in the easiest phases of the work He is clearly concerned about keeping up the quality of the work with the money and staff has for the wilderness review this 1979 fiscal and the President asked for in 1980 fiscal beginning Additional funding is available thru the Bureau of Mines and the U S. Geological Survey which conducts the mineral studies on proposed wilderness areas for both and the Forest according to Frank Wiles of the Interior Department Budget Sopher said he plans to have the Intensive Inventory on the Over-thrust Belt-the most promising area for domestic on-shore oil and gas development along the ridge of the Rocky Mountains from Montana to by the end of the calendar and that includes the public comment It's also being accelerated on the natural and primitive areas within on areas where projects are and It has just been completed on the California desert the ii kh AGAIN- DEPARTMENT BOOST IN FEDERAL TIMBER CUT The White House on June 11 ordered the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to increase their timber cut to help ease the limitation on the supply of timber for U.S. Forest Service Chief John R. McGuire later told the press it would take one-to-three years to boost the timber cut on federal lands Most of the softwood areas affected would be in Northern Idaho and Western NEW OMNIBUS ENERGY BILL Henry M. and 19 colleagues on June 11 introduced a bill to provide incentives fully develop and exploit including and expedite decision-making on energy |