Editorial: Our natural heritage

Thursday, Sept. 27, 2007 | 7:21 a.m.

After 12 years of Republican leadership, a Congress now run by Democrats is working to pass several pieces of legislation that, when combined, could designate up to 3 million acres of new wilderness areas across the nation.

A story by The Wall Street Journal on Monday notes that there are about a dozen bills pending in the House and Senate that call for wilderness designations from Oregon to Virginia.

These measures have garnered bipartisan support, especially from members of Congress who represent the states involved. But conservative Republicans have held up crucial discussions and votes on these bills in past years, siding with motorized recreation advocacy groups and natural resource extraction industries in opposing most, if not all, wilderness designations.

A wilderness designation protects undeveloped areas and wildlife habitat by closing land to mining, oil and timber interests and to all motorized and mechanized recreation or travel, which includes snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and mountain bicycles.

During his two terms, President Theodore Roosevelt - a Republican - helped place 230 million acres of wild lands under federal protection. So it is somewhat ironic that, more recently, Republicans have been the ones to fight against wilderness designations.

Under Republicans' control, from 1994 to 2006, just 3.5million acres were designated as wilderness, the Journal notes. In contrast, Congress set aside 23 million acres of wilderness from 1982 to 1994, when Democrats were in control.

When Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., a rancher and stubborn property-rights activist, was chairman of the House Resources Committee, he held many of the Democratic proposals hostage by refusing to release them from his committee. Pombo was unseated in 2006 by Democrat Jerry McNerney.

The value of wilderness areas cannot be measured in the same manner that we measure the extraction of oil, timber or precious ores. But there is value in protecting centuries-old trees, ancient cultural sites and habitats where wildlife can roam free from the disturbances of human activities.

As our nation of 300 million people continues to grow, Congress must work to release the stranglehold that Republican leadership has had on the legislation that would help protect our nation's remaining wild lands and open spaces.