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Regulating Public Lands under the George W. Bush Administration
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Regulating Public Lands under the George W. Bush Administration
Charles Davis
Department of Political Science
Colorado State University
Ft. Collins, CO 80523
e-mail:
charles.## email not listed ##
Abstract
This research focuses on the efforts taken by President George W. Bush to alter the direction of several federal land policies administered by Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Forest Service through rulemaking processes. Of particular concern here are three programs – the hardrock mining program under BLM’s jurisdiction, the grazing program managed by both agencies, and the Forest Service’s handling of the roadless area policy. An examination of these regulations reveals far reaching differences when compared with earlier versions of these rules developed under President Clinton. From a substantive policy perspective, all three regulations were designed to increase natural resource production under Bush while the Clintonian rules placed greater emphasis on environmental conservation. In addition, the Bush Administration placed greater emphasis on procedural changes aimed at limiting public participation opportunities for some groups at the expense of others. Thus, Presidents will occasionally stretch the boundaries of statutory interpretation to maximize regulatory policy impact. However, this strategy is also accompanied by a degree of political risk since groups opposed to new rules may react by mounting legal challenges in the federal courts. Federal judges recently ruled that the grazing and roadless regulations were invalid because Administration officials had gone too far in their interpretation of existing laws and in their attempts to limit public access in land use decision-making.
Introduction
America’s federal lands covers over 700 million acres of mountains, prairies,
rangelands, swamps, and deserts throughout the U.S. For over a century, these lands have
been utilized for a variety of economic and environmental objectives. Two key agencies,
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) within the Interior Department and the Forest
Service within the Agriculture Department, manage much of the public land acreage in
the U.S. And both agencies have historically employed a multiple-use management
philosophy to develop mineral, timber, rangeland, and energy resources under a host of
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Regulating Public Lands under the George W. Bush Administration
Charles Davis
Department of Political Science
Colorado State University
Ft. Collins, CO 80523
Abstract
This research focuses on the efforts taken by President George W. Bush to alter the
direction of several federal land policies administered by Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) and the Forest Service through rulemaking processes. Of particular concern here
are three programs – the hardrock mining program under BLM’s jurisdiction, the grazing
program managed by both agencies, and the Forest Service’s handling of the roadless
area policy. An examination of these regulations reveals far reaching differences when
compared with earlier versions of these rules developed under President Clinton. From a
substantive policy perspective, all three regulations were designed to increase natural
resource production under Bush while the Clintonian rules placed greater emphasis on
environmental conservation. In addition, the Bush Administration placed greater
emphasis on procedural changes aimed at limiting public participation opportunities for
some groups at the expense of others. Thus, Presidents will occasionally stretch the
boundaries of statutory interpretation to maximize regulatory policy impact. However,
this strategy is also accompanied by a degree of political risk since groups opposed to
new rules may react by mounting legal challenges in the federal courts. Federal judges
recently ruled that the grazing and roadless regulations were invalid because
Administration officials had gone too far in their interpretation of existing laws and in
their attempts to limit public access in land use decision-making.
Introduction
America’s federal lands covers over 700 million acres of mountains, prairies,
rangelands, swamps, and deserts throughout the U.S. For over a century, these lands have
been utilized for a variety of economic and environmental objectives. Two key agencies,
the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) within the Interior Department and the Forest
Service within the Agriculture Department, manage much of the public land acreage in
the U.S. And both agencies have historically employed a multiple-use management
philosophy to develop mineral, timber, rangeland, and energy resources under a host of
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