An omnibus public land bill (S. 22) that cleared the U.S. Senate on January 14 failed to pass the House of Representatives on March 11, calling the measure's future into question, reports the Wildlife Management Institute.

The legislation combines more than 160 wilderness, water and public land management bills packaged together. The omnibus bill was crafted in 2008, but Senator Tom Coburn, who argued against the scope of the bill and its cost, used procedural tactics that stalled it for almost a year in the last Congress. The Senate easily defeated Coburn's filibuster by a vote of 74-21 in January 2009. However, any changes to the bill made by the House would require it to go back for consideration by the Senate, where it would face Senator Coburn's objections once again.

With that in mind, bill managers in the House requested that it be considered under suspension of the rules of the House. This procedure restricts any amendments from being offered on the House floor but requires a two-thirds House majority to pass the legislation. As the vote drew closer, opposition to the bill developed. To try to reach the two-thirds majority vote, bill managers included a provision to ensure lands currently open to hunting and fishing would not be closed off as a result of the legislation. Nevertheless, the final vote was 282-144, just two votes shy of the majority needed. After the House vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he will move the bill forward again in the Senate the week of March 16, to regain the traction needed to finalize the bill.

In total, the bill would bring together 15 different proposals to designate more than 2 million acres of wilderness in nine states. It has the potential to be the largest expansion of the National Wilderness Preservation System since 1994. Many of the proposals include provisions to protect large tracts of land but also allow for multiple uses, such as grazing and access to off-road vehicles, in areas not considered "significant" by stakeholders. Included in the wilderness designations are Owyhee-Bruneau Canyonlands in southwestern Idaho, Copper Salmon and Mt. Hood in Oregon, Virginia Ridge and Valley, and Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel in California.

The bill also includes a measure from the Wyoming delegation to withdraw 1.2 million acres of the Wyoming Range in the Bridger Teton National Forest from future oil and gas leasing. Also part of the package is a new forest landscape restoration program to prioritize and fund collaborative, sustainable treatments of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service lands in order to reduce overall costs of wildfire management.

In addition, the omnibus bill would formalize the National Landscape Conservation System?lands considered to be the "crown jewels" of the BLM. The Conservation System involves more than 26 million acres and more than 800 individual units designated to "conserve, protect, and restore these nationally significant landscapes that have outstanding cultural, ecological, and scientific values for the benefit of current and future generations." While many of the System's components are isolated landscape units including national monuments and wild and scenic rivers, codifying the System would allow the BLM to manage them consistently and will ensure their permanence.

Other provisions of the bill would establish three new national park units, a new national monument, three new national conservation areas, more than 1,000 miles of national wild and scenic rivers, and four new national trails. It also would enlarge the boundaries of more than a dozen existing national park units and establish 10 new national heritage areas. The bill would authorize numerous land exchanges and conveyances, and mandate climate change and water resource provisions, including a cooperative watershed-management program. A coastal and estuarine land-conservation program was added, as were components that focus on the management, use and preservation of oceanic, marine and coastal areas and the Great Lakes.

At more than 1,200 pages, the omnibus bill includes many other provisions that portended a lasting impact on public lands and federal land management for many years. In addition, it could pave the way for a string of additional wilderness designations pending in Congress. Bill proponents in both the House and Senate are continuing work to gather the support they will need to pass the bill in both chambers. (jas)