Plan to shift use of public land in Nevada riles Heller

WASHINGTON -- Nevada Rep. Dean Heller issued a strong rebuke Thursday to plans by the Obama administration to make millions of undeveloped acres of land eligible for federal wilderness protection.

"This action is a blatant attempt by this Administration to circumvent Congress and create de-facto wilderness," said Heller, a Republican. "If a portion of land is truly deserving of a wilderness designation, this Administration should not be afraid to engage Congress."

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday that his agency would review about 220 million acres of land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management to see if it should be given a new "Wild Lands" designation as a step toward wilderness designation.

The new policy replace the so-called "No More Wilderness" policy adopted in 2003 under former Interior Secretary Gale Norton, Salazar said. That policy stated that new areas could not be recommended for wilderness protection by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and opened millions of acres in the Rocky Mountain region to potential commercial development.

Lynn Davis, Nevada field office manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the change would appear to "open dialogue" about what public lands should be further protected as wilderness.

"In Nevada -- where 85 percent of the land is owned by the federal government -- dialogue is good," she said. "Gale Norton's order arbitrarily shut down that dialogue."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Peter Urban at purban@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.