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Part Two - Big
Picture: In 1971, the UN Man and the Biosphere (MAB)
Program was established to promote ecosystem
management and “rational use.” 1980, the
International Union for Conservation of Nature (ICUN)
along with the United Nations and the World Wildlife
Fund (WWF) created the World Conservation Strategy.
The goal of the strategy was to protect ecological
processes, genetic diversity and endangered species,
as well as to limit man’s development of resources
to sustainable levels. In the 1980s, “Gap analysis”
mapped species and their habitat in the United States,
targeting areas where protection had not yet been
mandated or institutionalized.
After the
1992 Earth Summit in
Rio de Janeiro,
the Convention on Biological Diversity was signed by
President Clinton, (but never ratified by the
Senate.) Clinton agreed to establish a network of
protected areas to conserve biological diversity,
protect ecosystems and natural habitats. Signatories
pledged “sound
and sustainable development in areas adjacent to
protected areas with a view to furthering protection
of these areas.” http://www.cbd.int/convention/articles/?a=cbd-08
Clinton also
agreed to an implementation plan for sustainable
development called “Agenda 21.” Section 1, Chapter
7(c) establishes national land and resource
inventories, with designation of appropriate use and
environmental protections. Section 2, Chapter 10
establishes that land should be
allocated to
the uses that provide the greatest sustainable
benefits.
http://www.un.org/esa/dsd/agenda21/res_agenda21_01.shtml
(1992 also happens to be the year of the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change.)
Vice President Al Gore used his
National Performance Review to implement the (unratified)
treaty goals of ensuring sustainable development
while sustaining the environment through ecosystem
management. In 1993, the White House Office of
Environmental Policy (OEP) established the
Interagency Ecosystem Management Task Force (IEMTF)
of 14 federal agencies to carry out Vice President
Gore's mandate.
In 1992, Dr. Michael
Soule, Dr. Reed Noss and David Foreman published
"The Wildlands Project Land Conservation Strategy"
in the Magazine Wild Earth. The strategy
established core wild areas surrounded by buffer
areas where activities were regulated to protect the
characteristics of the core reserves. Areas outside
of the core reserves and buffer zones were
designated as “areas of cooperation” where use was
regulated to favor biodiversity and ecosystems. Core
areas are connected by biodiversity corridors
several miles wide. This pattern was used in
President Clinton’s Northwest Forest Plan to set
aside Late Successional Reserves, surrounded by
matrix lands. The California Forest Practices Act
implemented stringent protection on surrounding
private lands.
By 1994, the Wildlands Project
had identified 38 areas in west where minor road
closures would create large roadless areas. This
included two million acres of the Kalmiopsis/Siskiyous/Trinity
Alps in Oregon and
California. In
1999, the
Klamath-Siskiyou Conservation Assessment was
completed by Drs. Noss and Strittholt proposing to
protect 80% of federal land.
http://www.siskiyou.org/resources/conservation_plan.pdf
In 2004, The Nature Conservancy completed an
Assessment for the Klamath Mountains Ecoregion
identifying threats such as fire suppression,
incompatible grazing, timber harvest, mining, roads,
water use and homes. It also identified new target
areas for protection. By 2004, it was also
discovered that 13 million acres of the Klamath
River area in CA and Oregon had been nominated as a candidate for a
UN Biosphere Reserve.
Of course the main strategy is
to create the largest core areas possible. On
successful strategy has been to eliminate roads to
create “roadless areas” and then convert these into
protected Wilderness. In 1998, the Klamath National Forest
began a round of road decommissioning to reduce
public access. In 1999, the Clinton administration followed with its
Roadless Initiative to lock up additional land from
possible economic use. Currently, local National
Forests are again closing roads and access under new
Travel Management Plans.
In 2000, the
Clinton
administration employed a new use of the Antiquities
Act to declare large areas of federal lands as
National Monuments. An attempt to extend the newly
created
Cascade Siskiyou National Monument
over the border into Siskiyou County was thwarted. Monuments are
particularly useful in creating core reserves
because mining, grazing and timber harvest can be
eliminated. In addition, adjacent private land
access can be choked off by preventing road
maintenance for access.
In 2007, Senator Barbara Boxer
proposed the California Wild Heritage Act, which
would have substantially expanded Wilderness areas
in the Marble Mountain, Russian, Red Butte and Soda Mountain
Wilderness areas of Siskiyou County. Currently, the Obama
Administration may be considering declaration of the Siskiyou Crest National Monument
and extension of the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument
into California. This would severely restrict use
of the land north of the
Klamath River. In addition, the
Secretary of Interior was just prevented by Congress
from implementing a new “Wild Lands” policy that
would protect lands the Administration deemed
suitable as if they were designated Wilderness.
http://users.sisqtel.net/armstrng/agenda21.htm
or HERE
(Continued Next Week)
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