BRC America's Great Outdoors Initiative Update - August 30, 2010
Important update on the Obama Administration's ambitious new conservation agenda
On April 16, 2010, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum that will radically change the U.S. Government's conservation policy. The Memorandum created the America's Great Outdoors Initiative (AGO Initiative) which, among other things, will take public input on how to conserve public and private lands and how to promote outdoor recreation among young Americans.
Many OHV enthusiasts across the nation have attended the meetings and reported in so we wanted to give our members an update. This information is published below.
There are still many questions about the AGO Initiative and how it relates to its companion, the Treasured Landscape Initiative, and we are learning more every day... so watch your inbox for updates and action alerts.
BRC AMERICA'S GREAT OUTDOORS INITIATIVE UPDATE - August 30, 2010
The two key goals of the American's Great Outdoors Initiative
I want to begin by saying this update will not speculate on what President Obama will do insofar as exercising his authority to designate National Monuments. We'll wait until after the November election for that. And we wont be speculating on how the Treasured Landscape Initiative is related to the America's Great Outdoors Initiative (AGO Initiative) - yet.
There seem to be two key goals in the American's Great Outdoors Initiative. One is to facilitate another omnibus public lands bill and the other is to increase White House involvement in the Departments of Interior and Agriculture's activities.
Underneath all of the 'let's get America recreating outdoors' rhetoric, President Obama's Memorandum lists three "functions:" 1) outreach; 2) coordination; and 3) reports. The outreach function includes the various listening sessions we've been alerting you about, as well as the information obtained by the Department of Interior (DOI) website http://www.doi.gov/americasgreatoutdoors/. The result of which will be included in a report due November 15, 2010, just in time for a lame duck Congress.
At this point its obvious that the "outreach" function is all about pushing a legislative agenda. The AGO Initiative has already been used by the Wilderness activists to push several wilderness bills. There are a couple of dozen bills that are already queued up and could pass via a "pass all or nothing" omnibus or separately. Either way, wilderness advocates are hopeful the AGO Initiative, and the attention in the media, will push several bills through during the next session of Congress (scheduled for September 14 through October 8).
The second goal of the Initiative is embedded in the "coordination" function of Obama's Memorandum. It directs the Environmental Protection Agency, Council on Environmental Quality, the Departments of Ag and Interior to "identify existing resources and align policies and programs to achieve its goals." The Memorandum also requires the Chair of the CEQ to issue a report by November 15, 2010, and Annual reports by September 30, 2011, and 2012.
At first glance, that doesn't seem all that significant. The administration, via CEQ, can already get into AG's and Interior's business, and for many previous administrations has been used to advance various White House programs. Still, adding a formal coordinating function is one more way the Executive Branch is putting its fingers in what is properly Congress's business.
Is it really all about the money?
At second glance, this new coordination function could be a very clever way to have the administration's hand on a billion dollar money spigot.
Right now, Congress is debating whether or not to fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), and if yes, how to fund it and for how much. LWCF is a fund that diverts federal excise taxes from offshore oil and gas development for state and local conservation programs such as buying private lands and otherwise increasing the federal estate. But it is sporadic because Congress must allocate funding each fiscal year. Congress is considering giving it long term funding authorization via a comprehensive energy bill (HR 3534) that would guarantee the program funding for the next 30 years, but there is a lot of opposition.
A separate source of funding is also on the horizon. Every version of climate change legislation has provisions that would establish some sort of "climate adaptation fund" (or similar), that would provide billions of dollars for all kinds of "climate change mitigation" projects, including buying private lands. The source of funding varies with the legislation, but essentially it's a carbon tax. Potentially, such legislation would eclipse the LWCF both in scope and the amount of tax dollars spent.
The agencies are literally salivating at the prospect of this new source of tax dollars. As far back as 2009, when the first climate bill was making its way through the House, federal bureaucrats and environmental groups have been making plans to spend it. Actually, for the last couple of decades, preservationist oriented employees inside the land managing agencies have been promoting a ambitious conservation agenda, seeking not only to greatly expand the federal estate, but also to influence what activities occur on adjacent private and state owned lands. All of the work and preparation is done. All that is needed is a source of funding.
It seems obvious that this administration, under Secretary Salazar, is determined to get it -whether through climate legislation or direct taxes. When reporting about the AGO Initiative Jim Coffin wrote in a
June 28 edition of Public Lands News:
The administration under the lead of the Council on Environmental Quality will have its hands full trying to come up with a conservation consensus after the listening sessions. Citizens have focused on everything from a demand for guns to broad conservation agendas.
Instead of beginning the initiative with a set of concrete proposals the administration said it will listen to interest groups and the American people first. If and when the initiative is fleshed out, insiders believe it could include:
* full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund,
* revitalization of the National Park System in time for its 100th Anniversary in 2016,
* the designation of a number of national monuments on Bureau of Land Management land,
* an omnibus public lands and parks bill (as is in the works now in Congress), or
* all of the above.
The source of the billions of dollars to accomplish such ambitious goals will be most controversial and has of course not been identified. However, Salazar has given broad hints in a dozen Congressional hearings that he has his eye on offshore oil and gas royalties. And, perhaps, on a sharp increase in onshore oil and gas royalties.
We're now 78 days away from the final report, we've had 27 meetings, and about a gazillion hits on the DOI website. It looks as if Coffin's sources will be right. Reports from meetings in CA, MT, UT, OR, CO (and other states) certainly confirms that input the agencies are getting is all over the map. Every interest group imaginable is pitching the administration for funding. At the Salt Lake City break out session, I got the impression that every "save the bug," "save the bog" and "save the beast" group in the Northern Hemisphere was angling for their piece of those carbon taxes.
Then you have input from farmers, livestock growers, and recreational users. The input is so wide ranging and general in nature that the administration could decide on virtually anything and the report would justify it as "reflecting the view of a majority of Americans." Sadly, such is an all-too-typical result of federal land manager's "public outreach" these days.
It's always tricky to make land-use predictions, however, I do feel it is safe to say the AGO Initiative will at least include two key tenets. One is directly related to the next omnibus public lands package, the other is to increase White House involvement in the day-to-day activities of the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture, and to influence where the Natural Resources Climate Adaptation Fund is spent.
BRC Recreation Advisory
America's Great Outdoors Initiative - What you need to know
On April 16, 2010 President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum that will radically reshape the U.S. Government's conservation policy. The Memorandum created the America's Great Outdoors Initiative which directs the Environmental Protection Agency 
(EPA) and the Council for Environmental Quality (CEQ) to coordinate with the Interior and Agriculture Departments on a program to promote conservation and outdoor recreation.
According to Obama's Memorandum, the goals of the Initiative shall be to:
1. Reconnect Americans, especially children, to America's rivers and waterways, landscapes of national significance, ranches, farms and forests, great parks, and coasts and beaches by exploring a variety of efforts, including: promoting community-based recreation and conservation, including local parks, greenways, beaches, and waterways; advancing job and volunteer opportunities related to conservation and outdoor recreation; supporting existing programs and projects that educate and engage Americans in our history, culture, and natural bounty.
2. Build upon State, local, private, and tribal priorities for the conservation of land, water, wildlife, historic, and cultural resources, creating corridors and connectivity across these outdoor spaces, and for enhancing neighborhood parks; and determine how the Federal Government can best advance those priorities through public private partnerships and locally supported conservation strategies.
3. Use science-based management practices to restore and protect our lands and waters for future generations.
The Memorandum listed three "functions:" 1) outreach; 2) coordination; and 3) reports. The outreach function includes the listening session mentioned above and directs that special attention should be given to bringing young Americans into the conversation. The coordination function directs the EPA, CEQ, Dept. of Ag and Interior to work with various agencies of the federal government to "identify existing resources and align policies and programs to achieve its goals." The Memorandum also requires the Chair of the CEQ to issue a report by November 15, 2010, and Annual reports by September 30, 2011, and 2012.
Why this matters to you:
There is a very real possibility this might just end up being a giant vehicle to hand the "conservation community" whatever is on its latest wish list.
"We need new outdoor initiatives that retain the basics and core of conservation and I'm going to talk about them today. Expanding our wilderness systems and parks protecting our air, water and habitat the basics, the Mo Udall, the Stewart Udall, the Bruce Babbitt agendas that were so
worthy of American support. And now with Ken Salazar emerging, somebody that is driving this excellent agency into another period of excellence."
"... We have to work together to develop landscape conservation legacies that include a new series of parks, new monument, new management strategies for public lands. This isn't a decades-long fight, it should happen now. What do we need first?"
"I would say an omnibus wilderness bill, wilderness legislation consolidated. The San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act in Colorado, Berryessa Snow-Mountain Conservation in California, the bills to provide Yute [Ute] Mountain and Rio Grande Del Norte as well as the Organ Mountains in New Mexico and other proposed landscape protections in Arizona, in Idaho, in Nevada and across the west."
"Secretary Salazar has wasted no time in protecting treasured landscapes working in partnerships with the states. I urge the Interior Department to move forward quickly on its expanded national monument plan and I commend Secretary Salazar for engaging the governors early on this initiatives."
What you need to do
First of all, don't panic. Governor Richardson's fondness for the "bad old days" of Clinton era land grabs
notwithstanding, Secretary Salazar seems to be pushing back a bit from adopting the Wilderness Society's wish list, at least not all of it. As if to hint at this, Secretary Salazar made the following comment to Governor Richardson immediately after his speech: "Governor Richardson, thank you for your presentation and your great ideas. We agree with most of them. [Laughter] But you were never shy."
Participation in the "outreach" portion of President Obama's Memorandum is MANDATORY.
BRC is encouraging our members to attend the meetings in Asheville, NC, Minneapolis, MN, Hudson River, NY, Maine/New Hampshire, Anchorage and Denver. Meeting time and locations as well as additional meetings will be announced soon. (Subscribe to BRC's Action Alert email list for regular updates and info.)
IMPORTANT: The DOI has an online "idea generator." There are many good ideas that you can "vote" for and you might want to submit your own.
http://ideas.usda.gov/ago/ideas.nsf/ We've posted a few ideas and talking points below. Feel free to use these if you wish.
Finally, call your congressional representatives! With all that is going on in Washington these days, your Congressman and Senator may not even know about this initiative. Make sure he or she knows and remind them that it is their (Congress) responsibility for provide oversight and represent constituents' interests - especially when access to public lands is at issue. Easily find your Congressman's contact info via our Rapid Response webpage.
http://www.sharetrails.org/rapid_response/
