In and Out of the Wilderness

Watt angers conservationists, then surprises them

One step forward, one step back. It was that kind of week for James Watt, President Reagan's controversial Secretary of the Interior. First, his department announced plans to lift wilderness protection from more than 805,000 federally owned acres in ten Western and Southwestern states, possibly opening the land to various forms of development. Then, in a move that some conservationists dismissed as more symbol than substance, he laid to rest his longstanding intention of issuing oil and gas leases in existing wilderness areas.

The Interior Department announced its decision to drop wilderness protection for the 805,000-plus acres less than a week after a weary Congress had adjourned for the holidays. The timber, mining and petroleum industries applauded. Conservationists and some Congressmen called the timing contemptible. The announcement, snapped Ohio Democrat John Seiberling, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Public Lands and National Parks, was "a deliberate attempt to evade the law."

The decision directly affected about 3.4% of the 24 million acres on Interior's wilderness "study list," lands temporarily protected from development while the department examines them for inclusion in the federal wilderness system. But after recent administrative reviews of this inventory, Interior Solicitor William Coldiron recommended dropping protections for three types of land: parcels of fewer than 5,000 acres (total: 340,526 acres); "split estates," where the Government owns the surface rights but not the mineral rights (total: 464,975 acres); and areas adjacent to wilderness sites (70 parcels of undetermined acreage in nine states).

Watt later surprised environmentalists by declaring he would issue no more drilling leases in 200 million acres of wild land, even though the law technically permits him to do so during the last three months of this year. As it happens, the lands will be exempt from leasing anyway when a congressionally imposed moratorium takes effect Dec. 31, 1983, and Watt's previous attempts at lease issuance have met with strong resistance on Capitol Hill. Admitted the Secretary: "It is not worth the political hassle."