Cities in the Wilderness
While Interior Secretary for President Clinton, Bruce Babbitt lead restorations efforts from the Florida Everglades to dam removal on the Neuse River in North Carolina and the reintroduction of the gray wolf to Montana and Idaho. In his 2005 book, Cities in the Wilderness: a New Vision of Land Use in America, he argues the Bureaus of Land Management and Reclamation, and the Army Corps of Engineers drive federal land use decision. Given this cast of character, it’s not surprising that land use priorities are grazing and mining, dam construction, and water projects that have wreaked environmental havoc.
Babbitt argues a growing lobby has developed the clout to challenge the mining, ranching and real estate industries who have dominated the debate over land use in the west.
“As grazing denuded the land and mine wastes poisoned the streams, newcomers were arriving, residents from nearby cities demanding access to the land for hunting and fishing, or for just the enjoyment of wildlife, clean waters, and clear horizons. The rise of a recreation and tourism industry with large economic benefits brought a new user lobby into the mix of public-lands policy.�
Babbitt draws on his experience as Arizona governor in 1980s and interior secretary in the 1990s to offer a “a new vision of land use:�
“A basic measure of good land use is sustainability, a word that has come to signify living in a respectful relationship with the land, passing it on unimpaired, and even renewed and restored, to future generations. Development should enlarge the possibilities for human progress, creativity, and quality of life, which it cannot accomplish by continually eroding the beauty and productivity of the natural world.�
Babbitt describes a number of the initiatives that offer potential solutions for some of California’s most vexing problems–
- Redesign the federal Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers billions to idle some of their land, to fund comprehensive, and permanent land conservation and riparian restoration efforts.
- Fund voluntary “willing-seller� transactions in which conservation groups pay ranchers to retire their BLM grazing permits,
- Transform the Endangered Species Act to conserve critical habitats and watersheds, not just threatened species, leading to the restoration of entire ecosystems.
Pick up the book at your local public library, or go to the California Vagabond bookshelf at Powells Books Online.
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