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Taking the public out of our public lands
 The Bureau of Land Management is responsible for managing 262 million acres of land: about one-eighth of the entire area of the United States. Right now, the Bush administration is proposing a harmful new policy that would exempt many destructive activities on these public lands from environmental review and public input.
These rule changes would allow unsustainable grazing and harmful logging practices to pollute streams and watersheds, as well as certain types of oil and gas exploration to tear up sensitive lands all across the West, without any analysis about potential environmental impacts of these activities.
We cannot let the Bureau of Land Management throw away these safeguards that ensure our public lands are protected from harmful actions. Please, tell the agency and the Bush administration to keep environmental review and public participation as vital parts of how our public lands are managed.
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Please take a few minutes to personalize your letter -- identical comments have very little weight with the BLM!
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Don't adopt proposed categorical exclusions on public lands
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed policy change that would exempt many destructive activities on BLM lands from environmental analysis and public review. In addition, I request that you extend the comment period, as 30 days for such a significant proposal is insufficient.
Under the National Environmental Policy Act, federal agencies must evaluate the impacts of their proposed actions on the environment. Additionally, the agencies are required to seek public input throughout the process of determining those impacts. Expanding the use of Categorical Exclusions for activities such as grazing, logging, and oil and gas exploration skirts our government's duty to ensure that the public has a voice in the management of our public lands.
The activities proposed for categorical exclusion, are, by their very nature, likely to have significant impacts on the land. For example, renewing unsustainable grazing permits and allowing fuel-reduction logging are actions that have caused serious damage to publicly owned resources in the past, and are likely to continue to do so.
NEPA provides the public with the necessary tools both to learn about and be involved in federal agency actions that might affect the health of our public lands. Public involvement has been and still is crucial to ensure that harmful projects are either altered or abandoned. Please take my concerns into consideration as you move forward in evaluating this proposal.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
February 21, 2006
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 The administration has recently issued a new proposal that would affect the lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. This proposal would eliminate many of the safeguards put in place to ensure our public lands are protected from harmful activities like logging, oil and gas drilling, and overgrazing. Because the BLM is responsible for managing over one-eighth of America’s total area, the proposal would have widespread, lasting impacts on our national landscape.
Background
Specifically, the BLM would change the way it follows the National Environmental Policy Act, the primary law that forces the government to study possible environmental impacts of its actions before a final decision is made. Under NEPA, if the impacts of a project are deemed to be significant, alternative designs or approaches must be investigated to minimize damage, and these options must be shared with the public and afford opportunities for the public to comment (find out more about NEPA here)
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| Thumper trucks |
Under the new plan, BLM would no longer be required to conduct an environmental review or take public input for a variety of damaging projects by issuing “Categorical Exclusion” decisions. Categorical Exclusions determine that no environmental or public review is needed, and are usually applied to small, low-impact projects like building a trail. Under the new policy, however, they would be applied to many activities with serious environmental impacts, such as renewing unsustainable grazing permits and allowing fuel-reduction logging.
Additionally, massive thumper trucks, which are sixty thousand pound monster trucks with massive tires, would be allowed to travel unimpeded over vast areas in the quest to find oil and gas. These trucks leave a wake of deep ruts, compacted soil, and destroyed wildlife habitat, and could damage ancient ruins.
Take Action: Help keep the public in public lands
 We cannot let such harmful actions go forward unimpeded across huge areas of our nation’s public lands, without any public involvement in decision-making or environmental review of potential harmful impacts to ecosystem health, water quality, or wildlife. The public has a right to voice opinions about how our lands are to be managed by the agencies sworn to protect them.
We need your help! Please, tell the agency to be good stewards of the millions of acres of forests, grasslands, deserts, and other wild landscapes it oversees. Send a message by February 24 to insure your comments are heard, and urge the Bush administration not to eliminate environmental review or public involvement in BLM land management. In addition, ask the BLM to extend the comment period, as 30 days for such a significant proposal is insufficient.
If you’d like to mail your comments directly, send them to:
Content Analysis Team
BLM Categorical Exclusions
Post Office Box 22777,
Salt Lake City, Utah, 84122-0777
Fax (801) 517-1014
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