BREAKING! President Obama acknowledges that he'll probably never shoot a bear! Yes, that's designed to grab your attention to his remarks at the America's Great Outdoors Conference this morning, part of a tribute to America's greatest conservation president, Teddy Roosevelt.
"The ages have been at work on it," Roosevelt declared upon seeing the Grand Canyon. "Man can only mar it." Roosevelt first protected the Grand Canyon as a national monument decades before Congress declared it a national park. Obama now faces challenges both similar to those of a century ago, and unique to this ever-warming era. Today's conference gave some hints as to how he'll meet them.
Officially, the just-concluded America's Great Outdoors Conference focused on how to conserve the land with local leadership, as opposed to a heavy federal government role. The President signed a memorandum of understanding creating America's Great Outdoors Initiative (4 pg pdf). The initiative's goals are to reconnect people, especially children, to America's outdoors; build upon state, local, and tribal efforts and establish federal partnerships with same; and, perhaps most interesting for those following climate news, "use science-based management practices to restore and protect our lands and waters for future generations." Listening tours, interagency coordination, and reports are envisioned. And the initiative seems partly designed to alleviate fears that the federal government would unilaterally lock up land -- fears fanned by the likes of Rob Bishop (R-UT) and Fox News, but wholly chimerical.
Local input is important, of course. But what should the nation be doing about conservation? Notice any themes coming out of the conference? Some of the lines generating the most applause (besides the President acknowledging that he's unlikely to shoot any ursines), with my helpful hints in italics:
-- Gov. Bill Richardson (NM) discussing Otero Mesa, a potential national monument.
-- Remembering Franklin Roosevelt's national Civilian Conservation Corps.
-- Connecting urban youth to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
-- Obama's remarks on Teddy Roosevelt: "from that sense of commitment sprang five national parks, 18 national monuments, 51 federal bird reservations, and 150 national forests."
President Obama, it's time to be like Teddy. Talk with local residents, but remember that they, and all of us, are also citizens of a nation. Don't hesitate to take decisive actions. At the beginning of the 20th century, Roosevelt's use of the Antiquities Act to create vast national monuments was criticized as socialistic, but his bold vision preserved the Grand Canyon.
As a native Angeleno, I'd like to see America's Great Outdoors expand the Santa Monica Mountains along the Rim of the Valley, creating trails easily accessible to residents from Simi to La Crescenta. And I'd like to see federal funds for schoolchildren's field trips up the mountains. Los Angeles best exemplifies a vast urban population adjacent to, but not using, vast open space.
A commitment to conservation would fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This program uses up to $900 million/year in oil lease money to buy land from willing sellers, but Congress has a bad habit of raiding the oil lease funds for other purposes, leaving as little as $30 million/year for the whole country. Senator Bingaman's S.2747 would fund the program in full.
I'd like to see various wilderness bills moving through Congress consolidated into one omnibus public lands bill similar to the one signed by Obama in March 2009.
Most of all, science demands a recognition that every acre of wilderness preserved is a deposit into a carbon bank, while every acre logged is a withdrawal from that same bank. Every proposal for acquiring wilderness should be evaluated on the carbon absorption of the land. Every proposal for public land use needs to consider its carbon footprint.
No shooting of bears is needed, just Teddy Roosevelt's vision for America.