Cantwell Blasts House Proposal to Sell Public Lands in Handout to Mining Industry

Cantwell Blasts House Proposal to Sell Public Lands in Handout to Mining Industry

Ill-advised plan would open proposed Wild Sky Wilderness Area to mining

U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) condemned provisions buried in a House budget bill that would green-light big giveaways to the mining industry at the expense of pristine, irreplaceable federal lands. In a letter Tuesday to Senate leaders, Cantwell joined with other western Senators to voice strong opposition to the misguided proposal, and to request that the provision be removed from any final budget legislation before consideration by the Senate.

"This is nothing more than a big giveaway of America's most pristine public lands," said Cantwell, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. "I will do everything I can to prevent a government-sanctioned raid on natural treasures like Wild Sky."

The proposal included in the House budget bill would end the current moratorium on the purchasing, or patenting, of federal land by mining companies. This moratorium has been in place for over a decade, and was implemented in response to concerns that mining companies were purchasing valuable public land and the resources beneath the surface at $5 or less an acre under an 1872 mining law. There are thousands of acres of mining claims in the State of Washington that would be opened up to purchase if the House proposal were to become law—including at least 1,391 acres of claims within the proposed Wild Sky Wilderness Area. In addition, the House proposal would allow for the purchase and development of additional lands within the proposed wilderness area not currently encompassed by mining claims.

"This proposal bears no resemblance to sound fiscal policy and even if it did, we do not believe that the American people would want to balance the Budget by selling off our treasured public lands and resources to private interests for next to nothing," the senators wrote in their letter.

Cantwell is a co-sponsor of the bipartisan Wild Sky Wilderness Act of 2005, which she helped push through the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee earlier this year. The proposal would protect 106,000 acres of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest for a host of outdoor recreational activities, and would protect wildlife, promote clean water, protect threatened salmon, steelhead and trout, protect recreational opportunities for the region, and contribute to the local economy.

The proposed Wild Sky Wilderness area, led by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) and Rep. Rick Larsen (D-WA-02), is the result of more than five years of bipartisan collaboration, community involvement and hard work. Representatives Norm Dicks (D-WA-06), Dave Reichert (R-WA-08), Adam Smith (D-WA-9), Brian Baird (D-WA-3), Jay Inslee (D-WA-1), and Jim McDermott (D-WA-7) are all cosponsors of the House version of the Wild Sky bill.

http://cantwell.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=249534&&