COMMITTEE ON NATURAL RESOURCES
1324 Longworth House Office Building
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
2:00 p.m.

• Official hearing transcript
• Blog Post - Governors Discuss Job Losses Associated with Interior’s Backdoor Wild Lands Order (3/2/2011)
• Press Release - Administration Admits it Doesn’t Have Statutory Authority to Prioritize Wild Lands over other Uses (3/2/2011)
• Press Release - Republicans Highlight Job Loss, Economic Impacts of Administration’s Wild Lands Order (3/1/2011)
• Press Release - State and Local Officials Decry Administration’s Wild Lands Order (3/1/2011)
• Committee Action - Committee to Hold Oversight Hearing on Interior Department’s “Wild Lands” Policy (2/22/2011)

OVERSIGHT HEARING ON:

• "The Impact of the Administration's Wild Lands Order on Jobs and Economic Growth"

OPENING STATEMENT:

The Honorable Doc Hastings
Chairman

WITNESSES AND TESTIMONY:

Panel I

The Honorable C.L. "Butch" Otter
Governor
State of Idaho

The Honorable Gary R. Herbert
Governor
State of Utah

Panel II

Joel Bousman
Sublette County Commissioner
Pinedale, WY

Mike McKee
Uintah County Commissioner
Vernal, Utah

Lesley Robinson
Phillips County Commissioner
Malta, MT

Dennis C.W. Smith
Jackson County Commissioner
Medford, OR

William G. Myers, III
Partner
Holland and Hart
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Peter Metcalf
CEO/President
Black Diamond Equipment
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Professor Mark Squillace
Director
Natural Resources Law Center
University of Colorado Law School
(Truth in Testimony Form)

Panel III

Robert Abbey
Director
Bureau of Land Management
U.S. Department of the Interior

BACKGROUND:

Two days before Christmas last year, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued Secretarial Order No. 3310 asserting that the Bureau of Land Management has the authority to “designate appropriate areas with wilderness characteristics under its jurisdiction as ‘Wild Lands’ and to manage them to protect their wilderness value.” The Wilderness Act of 1964 gives only Congress the authority to designate public lands as Wilderness areas. The Administration does not have the legal authority to impose policies to create de facto Wilderness. Designating an area as Wilderness imposes the most restrictive land use policies that can be taken. It places severe limitations on public access, prohibits many popular forms of recreation and severely restricts job-creating, and energy-producing activities.