After stumbling short of the finish line in mid-March, congressional leaders used procedural tactics to pass the massive public lands protection bill just one week later, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009, the most sweeping land-protection measure in decades, was signed into law by President Obama on March 30. The new law packages more than 160 separate natural resource related bills. It designates more than 2 million acres in nine states as wilderness, protects thousands of miles of trails and wild and scenic rivers, creates new public land units, extends boundaries for more than a dozen existing national parks, establishes 10 new national heritage areas, and much more.

?"This legislation guarantees that we will not take our forests, rivers, oceans, national parks, monuments and wilderness areas for granted; but rather we will set them aside and guard their sanctity for everyone to share. That's something all Americans can support," stated the President at the signing ceremony.

The bill had passed the Senate, but failed to pass the House under suspension of the rules (a procedure that requires a two-thirds majority vote for passage) by just two votes on March 11. Senate leaders quickly developed a new strategy?taking a bill to protect Revolutionary War battlefields (H.R. 146) that had passed the House, stripping its contents and replacing it with the omnibus lands bill. After Senate passage on March 19 by a vote of 77-20, the House only needed to concur to the Senate amendment and pass it by a simple majority. The House voted 285-140 on March 25, easily sending the package to the President for his signature.

While supported by a broad coalition of hunting and fishing, environmental, land conservation groups and more, a provision in the bill authorizing the construction of a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska has raised some concerns. Groups, including the National Wildlife Refuge Association, the Wilderness Society and others, are asking Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to determine the project is not in the public interest, which would effectively kill it. The provision, included to gain the support of the Alaska delegation, allows the construction of a 25-mile road between the Aleutian village of King Cove and an all-weather airport in Cold Bay. In exchange for permission to build the road, 62,000 acres would be transferred to the Izembek and Alaska Peninsula wildlife refuges.

Evan Hirsche, president of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, expressed concern over implications for other protected federal land. "In terms of precedence, it could threaten wilderness across the country for years to come. It's a harmful provision and one that's completely out of place in a public lands bill."

Interior officials are evaluating that portion of the bill and have not yet made a decision on their course of action. (jas)