Debate averted on conservation areas

As the U.S. House moved toward completion of its mammoth spending and spending cut bill early Saturday, debate was averted on an amendment over the Bureau of Land Management’s handling of environmentally sensitive areas.

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, withdrew an amendment dealing with the National Landscape Conservation System. The designation covers 27 million acres of wilderness, wilderness study areas, national monuments and conservation areas managed by the BLM.

Conservationists and Democrats such as Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., sounded alarms in advance that the amendment could cut off funding for popular visitor areas like Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and the Sloan Canyon National Conservation Area.

The amendment said “none of the funds made available by this act may be used for the National Landscape Conservation System.”

Bishop insisted his amendment would not affect day-to-day operations of areas like Red Rock and Sloan Canyon, and was intended rather to “streamline” what he called redundancies in BLM management.

“I have heard some of the most amazing accusations of what would happen if we would do that, everything from the sun coming up in the West to the immediate beginning of the Mayan calendar,” Bishop said.

In calling off debate on the amendment, Bishop said the House Natural Resources Committee will hold hearings on the issue this year. He is chairman of the public lands subcommittee.