It’s time to speak up or hush up on the future of vast areas of
public lands in Idaho and the nation.
Two key hearings will be held in the week to come.
The first is a hearing on a proposal to expand Craters of the Moon
National Monument to include the Great Rift’s 62 miles of volcanic phantasmagoria.
The proposal is part of President Clinton’s push to expand protection
at some of the nation’s most spectacular and unusual areas by using his authority
under the Antiquities Act.
The hearing will be held this Saturday at the College of Southern Idaho
Fine Arts Auditorium in Twin Falls beginning at 9:30 a.m. The hearing was organized by the
office of Idaho Sen. Larry Craig, who has objected to Clinton’s sweeping proposals to
use presidential authority to protect natural areas.
In our view, the president is simply finishing the job started in 1924
when President Calvin Coolidge created the national monument.
Clinton’s proposal to halt road-building on 43 million acres of
national forest lands—1.2 million acres in the Sawtooth National Forest—will be
the subject of the second hearing, on Thursday, June 22, at 6:30 p.m. at Ketchum City
Hall.
The proposal has upset many conservatives who dislike the West’s
federal landlord and dislike Clinton for exercising presidential power. It also galls some
all-or-nothing environmentalists who claim it doesn’t go far enough because it
doesn’t ban heli-logging.
President Clinton has only until the end of the year to finalize his plans
and to get them in place. The hearings are critical. Public reaction will determine
whether or not Congress will attempt to override the president. There may never be a
better chance to protect what’s left of the nation’s wild and scenic heritage.
