Posted Tuesday - May 2, 2000

EPA Reports Smog Getting Worse In National Parks
Babbitt May Back More Monuments
White House Moves To Save Giant Sequoias
Bioprospecting Deal Gains In Yellowstone
New National Park Passes Available
Clinton Sets Aside Sequoia Track
Golden Eagle Price Hike
Colorado Senate Asks Congress To Designate Dunes As National Park
National Parks In Peril: Yellowstone Heads List
FAA Caps Air Tours To Cut Noise Pollution In Grand Canyon
Joshua And The Battle of Smog

EPA Reports Smog Getting Worse In National Parks 
EPA PRESS RELEASE, WASHINGTON, DC --

The EPA has released its latest atmospheric air quality trends report, showing that overall air quality nationwide continues to improve, although ground-level ozone (smog), the nation's most pervasive pollutant, is on the rise in certain parts of the country, including many rural areas.

Although national trends have improved over 10 years, air quality in some rural areas has worsened especially in the East. Smog concentrations, for example, increased at 17 of 24 National Park Service monitoring sites; from 1992-1998 (the most complete data available) fine particle concentrations increased at seven of 10 eastern rural monitoring sites.

This rural pollution may be attributed to a phenomenon known as regional transport: smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) and fine particles can be carried on the wind hundreds of miles from their origin, causing pollution problems several states away.

EPA is taking a number of steps to reduce smog in the United States, including: issuing stringent rules to reduce car and truck tailpipe emissions; requiring cleaner fuel; proposing stringent new emission standards for all heavy-duty trucks, including the heaviest categories of sports utility vehicles (SUVs); and setting forth emission reduction standards for small hand-held engines.

In addition, EPA is moving to implement its rule, recently upheld in federal court, to reduce the regional transport of smog and bring cleaner air to millions of Americans in the eastern United States.

This annual air quality report, which looks at trends over ten years, shows a number of improvements from 1989 through 1998: lead concentrations decreased 56 percent; carbon monoxide fell 39 percent; sulfur dioxide also declined 39 percent; coarse particulate matter (dirt, dust, soot) dropped 25 percent; nitrogen dioxide (NOx) was pared 14 percent; and smog was reduced 4 percent. The Agency plans to release a summary of 1999 air quality trends later this summer.

Wednesday, April 26, 2000

Babbitt May Back More National Monuments

By MATT KELLEY, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - A swath of Colorado canyons dotted with American Indian ruins and an ecologically diverse mountain in Oregon are ``at the top of the list'' to be new national monuments, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said.

Babbitt indicated Monday he is on the verge of recommending that President Clinton create monuments around the southwestern Colorado canyons and Soda Mountain near the Oregon-California line. They would be the fifth and sixth monuments created by Clinton this year.

Babbitt has said the areas are unique and need to be protected from mining and overuse by off-road vehicles.

The 1906 Antiquities Act gives presidents broad power to create monuments and decide what uses should be restricted. Clinton has created two new monuments each in California and Arizona this year, prohibiting mining and logging in sequoia groves, the Grand Canyon watershed, an arid mountain valley and hundreds of small islands in the Pacific.

Congress also may declare areas monuments. Republicans say Clinton is circumventing the review process and ignoring the wishes of local residents by unilaterally making the declarations.

``This is not about the environment. It is about the constant abuse of power by the Clinton-Gore administration,'' said Rep. George Radanovich, R-Calif., and chairman of the House Western Caucus.

Sue Kupillas, a county commissioner who lives near Soda Mountain, questioned whether monument designation is needed.

``It could eliminate all of the multiple uses - grazing, timber harvest, recreational vehicles - anything but hiking,'' she said. ``If this area is so valuable today, and we've had multiple use all these years, why should we change it now?''

Babbitt has discussed recommending the Colorado and Oregon monuments before, and they are now ``at the top of the list'' as the Clinton administration works to fill out its environmental legacy, he said in a telephone interview.

Babbitt would not say precisely when he would ask Clinton to declare the new monuments.

He discussed the monument recommendations in an interview in Washington before leaving for his hometown of Flagstaff, Ariz., to renew his criticism of the 1872 law governing mining on federal land.

Babbitt arranged to visit a pumice mine on the flanks of the San Francisco Peaks today to criticize the law, which allows companies to buy mining land for as little as $2.50 an acre and does not require them to pay royalties to the government. He called the mine, which produces rock used in stonewashing blue jeans, ``a poster child for the abuses'' of the law.

In many cases the mines are key to the local economy and Babbitt acknowledged Congress is unlikely to change the law in an election year.

Clinton vetoed an industry-backed reform proposal in 1995, saying it had too many loopholes.
Copyright 2000, Associated Press
All Rights Reserved

Monday, April 24, 2000

White House Moves To Save Giant Sequoias
Looking Out For The Forest And The Trees
By David Whitman

The conservationist John Muir called them "nature's forest masterpiece." Teddy Roosevelt pronounced that no architect could create "a vaster and more beautiful cathedral" than a grove of giant sequoias. Last week, President Clinton decided to protect 34 of the country's 75 giant sequoia groves by establishing a national monument on 328,000 acres in California's Sequoia National Forest, adding to the 25 groves already safeguarded in national parks. Hunting, fishing, rafting, biking, and camping would continue in the newly protected groves, but commercial logging would be phased out. Environmentalists say the plan will shield the ancient trees from runoff and erosion that could damage their underground water supply. But California's Republican lawmakers fumed that Clinton had bypassed Congress and local officials. "Clinton sold out to a small band of radical environmentalists," said California Rep. George Radanovich. "And hands-off management could actually harm the sequoias by leading to catastrophic fires."

Clinton's end run of Capitol Hill was very much in keeping with Washington's current modus operandi for environmental policy. As his presidency draws to an end, Clinton is relying more than ever on executive fiat. Last October, he announced a ban on logging and road building in more than 40 million acres of national forests, effectively ruling out development in an area larger than Georgia. The Sequoia National Monument will be the fifth national monument he has established in Western states-four this year alone-under the authority of the obscure Antiquities Act of 1906. Clinton has now set aside more land in national monuments in the lower 48 states than any other president in history-a little more than 3 million acres, an area about the size of Connecticut. "When President Clinton leaves office," says Carl Pope of the Sierra Club, "the state of the environmental union will be much, much better than anybody would have guessed just two years ago."

Battling branches. While Clinton has bypassed Capitol Hill, Congress has virtually stopped enacting major environmental legislation. Bills to reauthorize the Clean Water Act and the Superfund toxic-waste cleanup program died. So did legislation to overhaul mining laws, curb factory-farm pollution, cut power-plant emissions, and reduce sprawl. The Kyoto protocol, an international agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global warming, was never ratified either. Last year, President Clinton accused Congress of being "the most anti-environmental Congress ever."

As the legislative casualties have piled up, Republican lawmakers have inserted dozens of riders, or pet provisions, in budget bills. Environmentalists have mounted fierce opposition to most of the riders, which have, for example, barred the Department of Transportation from even studying the need to update fuel efficiency standards for gas-guzzling SUVs. The backdoor legislative attacks-the so-called riders on the storm-were especially evident in 1999. According to a report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, Congress enacted almost 50 environmental riders to appropriations bills last year. But it did not pass a single major environmental bill that moved through the traditional legislative process of public hearings and floor debate.

Senate Republicans like Bob Smith of New Hampshire, the new chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, concede that legislation by riders has failed. But Smith faults the administration, saying it often refuses to work on a bipartisan basis or dawdles in sending up legislation. "You can plan on three things in life," Smith says, "death, taxes, and the Democrats attacking the Republicans on the environment."

With an election underway, the finger-pointing is unlikely to stop soon. By year's end, Clinton is expected to name yet another half-dozen national monuments in the West, most of which could prove popular with voters and unpopular with Republican lawmakers. Thirty years ago, the first Earth Day prompted the House to pass the Clean Air Act by a vote of 374 to 1. Today, on the eve of Earth Day 2000, there is no such consensus among Democrats and Republicans about how to best protect the environment.

Wednesday, April 19, 2000

Bioprospecting Deal Gains In Yellowstone National Park

- Yellowstone National Park won a federal court decision Monday that allows its bioprospecting "benefit-sharing" agreement with the Diversa Corporation of San Diego, California, to continue. The Edmonds Institute, International Center for Technology Assessment, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and a Bozeman, Montana, citizen group filed a complaint more than two years ago that the agreement, known as a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, violated park conservation laws. The judge said the agreement is proper and does not conflict with the conservation mandate. Yellowstone's Center for Resources and the National Parks and Conservation Association support the agreement.

Wednesday, April 19, 2000

New National Park Passes Available

Vacationers who want to tour as many of the national parks as possible this summer have a new way to save money.

The National Park Service on Tuesday began offering a new $50 "National Park Pass" that allows people access to any national park that charges an admission fee. The pass is good for one year.

It costs between $2 and $10 to get into many of the national park units and as much as $20 to visit some of the most popular parks such as the Grand Canyon. Visitors can be charged either by the carload or individually.

If the park charges by vehicle, the pass exempts only one vehicle. If the park charges by person, the pass admits only the purchaser, spouse, children and parents.

A "pop-out map" of the 379 national parks, monuments, seashores and historic areas is included with the purchase.

The new park pass was approved by Congress as a way to reduce the cost for those who plan to make frequent visits or plan extensive tours of the park system.

Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyoming, said the National Park Service expects to sell 485,000 of the passes this year and as many as 1 million a year in coming years. He said the new passes could raise $160 million for the park system.

The new pass also "gives Americans a special connection to their parks," said the National Park Foundation, a group charged by Congress to help park fund-raising activities.

Each year the pass will feature a different park. The inaugural pass features a scene from Yellowstone National Park.
Copyright 2000, Associated Press
All Rights Reserved

Sunday, April 16, 2000

Clinton Sets Aside Sequoia Tract
By Associated Press

Dwarfed by towering trees that are among the oldest and largest living things on earth, President Clinton set aside 328,000 acres of federal forests Saturday to permanently preserve 34 groves of giant sequoia.

"These giant sequoias clearly are the work of the ages," the president said. "They grow taller than the Statue of Liberty, broader than a bus." He said they were so perfectly adapted to their environment that none has ever been known to die of old age.

In a decision praised by environmentalists but scorned by loggers and others as a federal land grab, Clinton ordered the formation of a national monument that will halt commercial timber sales, mining and some recreational activities.

Motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles will be allowed only on regular roads while snowmobiles will be restricted to well-traveled areas. Hiking, horseback riding and other recreational activities will be permitted.

"This is not about locking lands up," the president said. "It is about freeing them up for all Americans for all times."

For a lame-duck president seeking an environmental legacy, the declaration gave Clinton perhaps the best conservation record in the lower 48 states since Theodore Roosevelt, who is generally regarded as the father of the national park system. Clinton already had carved out 2.8 million acres as federal monuments in Utah, Arizona and California.

A week before the 30th anniversary of Earth Day, Clinton walked on a carpet of pine needles to inspect the massive reddish trunks in an area called the Trail of One Hundred Giants. He marveled at the resilience of a partially charred tree that had been struck by lightning 30 or 40 years ago. "Look how deep the burn goes," he said.

It was a clear, chilly day with pockets of fresh fallen snow on the ground. Clumps of ice fell from branches overhanging Clinton's lectern.

The sequoia, some of which are more than 3,000 years old and measure 100 feet around the base, once were scattered across western North America but now grow only in about 70 groves on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in central California.

About half of the remaining groves already are protected because they lie within the Sequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks. Clinton's declaration applies to 34 groves outside those boundaries and within the borders of Sequoia National Forest.

The trees protected within the Giant Sequoia National Monument already are temporarily protected from logging. The monument designation makes protection permanent and creates a buffer zone around the trees where commercial logging of other species would be banned along with some forms of recreation and development, Frampton said.

No roads would be closed, and the area will remain open to hikers, sightseers and for grazing and other agricultural uses, Frampton said.

Clinton's protective order could force the closing of a family-owned logging company in the small town of Terra Bella and cost up to 150 jobs, said George Frampton, chairman of the president's Council on Environmental Quality. The order allows a transition period of 2-2 1/2 years for timber sales already under contract before a complete ban on commercial logging.

Critics say fire dangers will increase with a logging ban. Frampton said noncommercial cutting and prescribed burning would be permitted for ecological reasons.

The president issued his order under the 1906 Antiquities Act, which allows him to safeguard objects of historic or scientific interest without going to Congress.

Republicans, in particular, have been incensed by Clinton's use of the law. However, the White House said the same law has been invoked to designate more than 100 monuments in 24 states and the Virgin Islands, protecting about 70 million acres. Since Theodore Roosevelt, only three presidents have failed to exercise the law: Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

Former Sierra Club President Joe Fontaine said Clinton was leaving a "priceless, irreplaceable gift to future generations of Americans." Thomas Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association, said Clinton's action ensures the sequoia "will still inspire visitors in the year Y3K."
Copyright 2000, Associated Press
All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, April 12, 2000

Golden Eagle Price Hike

The cost of a Golden Eagle Passport will go from $50 to $65 April 18. Persons holding this pass can gain entry to any federal entry fee sites, such as national parks. The Golden Eagle pass is part of the congressionally authorized fee demonstration program, allowing federal land management agencies to retain 80 percent of entrance fees at participating site projects. Revenues from the pass will be used to help address maintenance backlogs on public lands administered by the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Saturday April 8, 2000

Colorado Senate Asks Congress To Designate Dunes As National Park
By Tom McAvoy, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

The Colorado Senate adopted a resolution Tuesday asking Congress to designate the Great Sand Dunes National Monument as a national park.

Sen. Gigi Dennis, R-Pueblo West, introduced Senate Joint Resolution 11 to reflect legislative sentiment in favor of Congressman Scott McInnis' efforts to convert the San Luis Valley's dunes into a park.

Rep. Lola Spradley, R-Beulah, will carry the resolution in the Colorado House.

Dennis said McInnis has introduced Great Sand Dunes National Park legislation in the U.S. House and U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., plans to do the same in the Senate.

All of Colorado's congressional delegation supports the parks effort except for U.S. Rep. Joel Hefley, a Republican from Colorado Springs.

"However, the other five congressman and woman and both United States senators have thrown their support to it," said Dennis, whose legislative district includes the San Luis Valley.

She said the Colorado Water Congress endorsed the national park Monday after hearing a presentation by former legislator Lewis Entz and Ralph Curtis of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District.

One of the selling points is the added protection a national park might lend to the valley water aquifer underneath the sand dunes.

The water issue didn't come up during legislative discussion of the Dennis-Spradley resolution.

In the end, the state Senate's 29-1 margin for SJR11 included only one dissenting vote from Sen. MaryAnne Tebedo, who like Hefley is a Colorado Springs Republican.

The resolution has 25 Senate and 25 House co-sponsors.

San Dunes National Monument was established in 1932 and covers 39 square miles. As a park, the area would be expanded to 138,000 acres and encompass a vast ecosystem of desert and tundra, ranging from mountain peaks to streams and sand-covered forest.

"Designating the Sand Dunes as a national park would also make it more attractive to tourists," Dennis said. "More visitors would boost the local economy and Southern Colorado would benefit tremendously."
Copyright 2000, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune
All Rights Reserved

Wednesday, April 6, 2000

National Parks In Peril: Yellowstone Heads List

Yellowstone National Park, the oldest national park in the United States, is also the most endangered, according to a new survey by the National Parks and Conservation Association.
Read the Full ENN Story:
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2000/04/04062000/tenparks_11758.asp

"Some of our national parks are becoming a national disgrace. But if America has the will, we will find the way to rescue even the most endangered park."
Tom Kiernan, President, NPCA, April 5, 2000

Read the complete NPCA Press Release:
http://www.npca.org/readaboutit/pressreleasetopten.html

Tuesday, April 4, 2000

FAA Caps Air Tours To Cut Noise Pollution Over Grand Canyon 

The Federal Aviation Administration has established new regulations designed to reduce noise from commercial air tours in Grand Canyon National Park. The rules will redirect routes away from sensitive areas of the park and limit the number of tours.

Read the Full ENN Story:
http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2000/04/04042000/gcnoise_11673asp

Monday, April 3, 2000

Joshua And The Battle Of Smog

The National Parks and Conservation Association berated the California Air Resources Board last week for failing to recognize Joshua Tree National Park's high levels of ozone pollution. Ozone levels in the park are well above federal standards, says the NPCA. "CARB followed their district boundaries rather than the park boundaries, resulting in protection for just a thin northern slice of the park," said Helen Wagenvoord of NPCA. "The whole park suffers from air pollution and has for years. Because air pollutants can travel hundreds of miles, measures to protect the park require a regional strategy. CARB may be refusing to appropriately designate and protect the park because that would have implications on development in southern California." Amendments to the 1977 Clean Air Act designated national park lands as Class I, meriting the highest air-quality protection. The park is also a United Nations Biosphere Reserve.

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