Trails for everyone, forever

Home News Blog What Will Obama Do For Public Lands?

What Will Obama Do For Public Lands?

Posted by Andrew Engelson at Nov 05, 2008 02:28 PM |
Filed under:

Well, it's been a long and historic political campaign, and now that it's over, we'll all begin sorting out what it means for the future.

In terms of trails and wilderness, it's too early to speculate exactly what an Obama administration will mean for public lands. I've posted previously on the buzz about who might be the next Secretary of the Interior to succeed Dirk Kempthorne.

The Obama campaign did release a document on forest policy, which included support for ending the practice of borrowing from Forest Service budgets to pay for fire suppression efforts. You can read the campaign's fact sheet on wildfire management here. If they can follow through, that's good news for recreation budgets, which have been hammered by ballooning firefighting costs.

In addition, the FLAME Act, which would create a new, dedicated fund for fighting fires (outside of standard Forest Service budget) will probably keep its momentum next year, witha  Democratic Congress and administration. The act, which was sponsored in part by Rep. Norm Dicks (D-WA), would create a new funding source for dealing with catastrophic fires.

In other news, the race for Washington state public lands commissioner is still up in the air, with Peter Goldmark narrowly leading incumbent Doug Sutherland. The state's public lands commissioner manages the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which includes many places familiar to hikers, including Mount Si, Greider Lakes, and Gothic Basin. Hikers should keep a close eye on this race.

Comments

broad domestic agenda

I think Americans are really wanting for a change. Therefore, they have supported the best one presidential candidate. What they think is the ability of the possible to be country leader. Have you heard about Barack Obama’s “Blueprint for Change?” I think an employee of the federal government will be wondering how the 44th President’s policies may affect them. According to Lois Romano and Eric Pianin of the Washington Post, there are “dozens” of proposals amid Obama’s Blueprint that could change the career path of scores of workers from among America’s 1.8 million federal employees. He plans to look at everything line by line to discover and cut waste. “I am not a Democrat who believes that we can or should defend every government program just because it’s there,” says the President Elect. While that may sound scary for some and send others running for personal loans, keep in mind that Obama does have a very broad domestic agenda that could move skilled employees from threatened divisions into new programs formed because of his idealist civic policies. Plus, Obama plans to encourage young public servants who share his sense of idealism to get involved in restoring faith in the American dream through service. Click to read more on <a title="Personal Loans" href=" http://personalmoneystore.com/[…]/">Personal Loans</a>





Posted by:


Lisa P on Nov 13, 2008 11:59 PM