| OCR Text |
Show L.M. settles on ground rules for roadless area inventory ii months of : . ,,d "iy s rviw. the i.of the Inter- .u of Ud lent Wednesday IveJure for is l,L wilderness public lands. .w to Pul L- . "blm i'uh 9tu' -. ivx' w,th "I 'fa inclusion by . in the National C ..jjj Preservation x i.nl Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (KLPMA) requires that an inventory bt made of the public lands to determine the existence of all roadless tracts of more than 6,000 acres, and roadless islands, having wilderness characteristics. characteris-tics. These areas will txvome Wilderness Study Areas. Secretary of the Interior Cecil D. Andrus said, "We feel that the extensive exten-sive public involvement in drawing up those procedures proce-dures has given us real foresight into what we and the public want from the inventory process." Congress Will DeHignate When the inventory is complete, the Bureau will evaluate Wilderness Study Areas through its multiple-use planning process, and make recommendations recom-mendations through the Secretary and the President Presi-dent to Congress on areas suitable for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System, or not suitable because of other public values. Only Congress can designate an area as Wilderness. During the evaluation of Wilderness Study Areas and until Congress makes its final determination, most existing activities such as mining, mineral leasing, wildlife management, manage-ment, livestock grazing, fire management, and off-road vehicle recreation can continue so long as the wilderness designation designa-tion potential is protected. Guidelines for this interim management protection, required by the law, will be issued by the Department Depart-ment and BLM later this year and will undergo further public review before be-fore they are final. Comments Received BLM prepared draft procedures covering the entire wilderness review process and submitted these to the public nt GO workshops hold across the country. The Bureau received re-ceived more than 5,000 written comments. Bureau of Land Management Man-agement Director Frank Gregg said all of these comments were carefully considered in formulating the inventory procedures. An analysis summary of all the comments received and the Bureau's response re-sponse will be mailed to all of those who participated. participat-ed. The comments will also be used in the development of guidelines for the other phases of the wilderness program, Gregg pointed out. Of all the inventory issues raised, the proposed propos-ed definition of a "road," received far and away the most written comments, the majority of which protested that if this definition were used, too many roadless areas would be identified. BLM made a minor change in the definition to make it conform strictly to the only definition used by Congress in the legislative history of the Wilderness Act. Concerns Exp-eHsed According to Gregg, of greater importance to public land users is whether an area truly has wilderness characteristics in the first place. A 5,000 acre "roadless area" must meet the characteristics character-istics criteria of the Wilderness Act before it can bo identified as a Wilderness Study Area. One of the concerns expressed in the comments com-ments was that the public should be able to participate partici-pate fully in the review process since subjective values will have to be used in the inventory process. Judgments must be made as to what constitutes a "road," "solitude," "outstanding," and "naturalness." "nat-uralness." Gregg said that the Bureau is in complete agreement on the need for full public involvement. Decisions will not be made simply by an internal inter-nal administrative determination, deter-mination, but rather with strong consideration of the concerns expressed by members of the public. The final procedures give opportunity for the fullest possible public involvement in the process, pro-cess, including direct participation in the inven-' tory and public review of selections of areas with wilderness characteristics, characteris-tics, ho added. Land Tie Up Another major public concern was that the inventory process could tie up uses on lands that would not qualify for wilderness. Gregg said that the Bureau has devoted a great deal of study to these concerns I i m m w and thut the procedures now provide for quickly identifying lands that cluurly and obviously do not meet criteria for designation. desig-nation. These areas, through public review and confirmation, will be removed re-moved as soon as possible from the management limitations imposed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act to protect pro-tect wilderness values " Jf during the review period, he pointed out. The procedures are spelled out in a Wilderness Wilder-ness Inventory Handbook available from Bureau of Land Management Offices. Of-fices. The handbook covers cov-ers the wilderness inventory inven-tory process; guidelines for other aspects of the BLM wilderness program will be provided in separate separ-ate documents. |
