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http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-outdoors28-2010mar28,0,371471.story The White House Conference on America's Great Outdoors will be held April 16. It will focus on how local leadership, not the federal government, can encourage conservation.By Jim Tankersley March 28, 2010 Reporting from Washington - Voicing concerns that Americans are losing their connection with nature -- and that natural areas are falling victim to sprawl and pollution -- the Obama administration is inviting hundreds of sportsmen, environmentalists and other champions of the outdoors to Washington next month for a summit on conservation. The White House Conference on America's Great Outdoors, on April 16, will focus on how to conserve the land with a focus on local leadership, as opposed to a heavy federal government role, administration officials announced Friday. Under President Obama's vision for a "21st century conservation agenda," the federal government would bring together cities, states, tribes and nongovernmental organizations working on conservation efforts, and encourage families to spend more time outdoors, officials said. The conference follows the trail of presidential conservation summits dating back to Theodore Roosevelt, and most recently held by Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush. It comes when Obama, like so many of his predecessors, is struggling to balance competing pressures on public land from hunters and anglers, green groups and industry. Oil and gas companies have criticized Obama's Interior Department for revoking some drilling leases -- many of them near national parks -- issued under Bush. Congressional Republicans have accused Interior Secretary Ken Salazar of pushing to "lock up" swaths of federal land in the West, after the public release of a department document suggesting possible sites for new national monuments. Salazar has defended the revoked leases and dismissed the monument document as an early draft, assuring Western lawmakers that the administration won't declare new monuments without public input. (Ask folks in Utah how that worked out for them!) Sport fishing groups, fueled by Internet rumors, have said in recent weeks that the administration could be preparing new restrictions on recreational fishing -- assertions that the White House and fisheries officials deny emphatically. Even environmentalists, while largely pleased with the administration's stance on public lands, have said that Obama has not gone far enough to block mountaintop coal mining. An administration official said the Great Outdoors conference is aimed, in large part, at alleviating fears of the federal government locking up land unilaterally. "This conference is about starting a conversation about conservation in America," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the summit had not officially been announced, "and about learning more about what local communities, tribes and stakeholders are doing to protect the places they love." jtankersley@latimes.com ******************************************* What we post is for information on the issues. We do not always agree with the position or statements of the articles. NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
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A vision for the North Woods
In delicate talks, the many factions of landowners are forging a plan that tries to satisfy all of their interests.
The long-simmering debate over the future of Maine's northern
woodlands is about to move back to the front burner.
A group called the Keeping Maine's Forests steering committee is working on a proposal to protect millions of acres of the working forest from further development. The committee is close to having a final plan and will deliver it to federal officials as early as this month
STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Eliza Townsend, Maine Department of Conservation Wolfe Tone, The Trust for Public Land Rosaire Pelletier, adviser to Gov. John Baldacci Sherry Huber, Maine Tree Foundation Karin Tilberg, Office of the Governor Mike Tetreault, The Nature Conservancy Alec Giffen, Maine Forest Service Patrick Strauch, Forest Products Council Ted Koffman, Maine Audubon Roger Milliken, Baskahegan Co. Marcia McKeague, Acadian Timberlands John Williams, Maine Pulp and Paper Association Eleanor Kinney, Environmental Funders Network Council Karen Woodsum, Sierra Club Brownie Carson, Natural Resources Council Alan Hutchinson, Forest Society of Maine Peter Triandafillou, Huber Resources Walter Graff, Appalachian Mountain Club Don White, Prentiss and Carlisle Mathew Dunlap, Sportsmans Alliance of Maine Rich Merk, Small Woodlot Owners of Maine Ken Elowe, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife
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DIF&W's Maine Fish & Wildlife, published quarterly, is now available on the Web.
The latest issue can be viewed here: Maine Fish & Wildlife Magazine
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston agreed with a lower court that management of the Allagash is largely a state prerogative even though the waterway is part of the federal National Wild and Scenic Rivers System. Read the Bangor Daily News article here: Text of Court's ruling:
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