Conservation has always been controversial. Well, not always: the creation of the National Park System represented a rare confluence of the monied interests, like the railroads, and political support. But it's unlikely this could happen today. Today, even a change in designation of Federal Land provokes cries of a "land grab." How it can be a "land grab" when the land begins and ends as federal land is something of a mystery, but last week's leak of an internal DOI document has raised the ire of Utah politicians because it suggested two areas in the state that might be suitable for National Monument designation. Even AP reporters are coming right out and calling it a land grab.

Here is the list from the leaked document:

Prospective Conservation Designation:
National Monument Designations under the Antiquities Act

1. San Rafael Swell, UT
2. Montana's Northern Prairie, MT
3. Lesser Prairie Chicken Preserve, NM
4. Berryessa Snow Mountains, CA
5. Heart of the Great Basin, NV
6. Otero Mesa, NM
7. Northwest Sonoran Desert, AZ
8. Owyhee Desert. OR/NV
9. Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, CA (expansion)
10. Vermillion Basin, CO
11. Bodie Hills, CA
12. The Modoc Plateau, CA
13. Cedar Mesa region, UT
14. San Juan Islands, WA

Politicians are trying to portray this as Federal ex cathedra pronouncement imposed on the states, but the truth is that all of these areas have local public support. It's just not always the right local support. Consider the many comments attached to Utah House of Representative Brad Last's editorial last week. Also, neither Utah suggestion is new. The creation of a national monument around the San Rafael Swell, for instance, is an idea that Mike Leavitt proposed when he was governor of Utah (a Republican governor, no less). The New York Times dug up a little Utah trivia to add some perspective to the histrionics surrounding this memo:

In 1969, for example, the town of Boulder, Utah, passed a resolution changing its name to Johnson’s Folly, and predicted the town’s demise after President Lyndon B. Johnson added thousands of acres to Arches and Capitol Reef National Monuments, which were both later designated national parks by Congress.

The town later reverted to its original name, and on its Web site the Boulder Business Group now proudly calls the town the “gateway to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.”

—In the West, ‘Monument’ Is a Fighting Word, By Kirk Johnson

The political posturing is unfortunate because the list, in spite of the administration's insistence that it is simply the result of internal brainstorming, is really inspired. Consider the Montana Northern Prairie monument—a proposal that is both ambitious and desperately needed. The prairie that once defined the west is now almost completely gone. The opportunity to create a monument saving the last bit of intact prairie ecosystem will not last long. When you consider that the possibility exists to create a cross-boundary ecosystem linking a US monument with Canada's Grasslands National Park, it seems downright negligent to let this idea slip away due to political posturing and anti-government sentiment. It also opens the possibility of establishing a national bison range and reclaiming part of our heritage so recklessly destroyed by previous generations. The Nature Conservancy has an fact sheet (PDF) about their efforts to preserve the prairie in northern Montana.

The memo also contains three areas curiously under a heading:

Areas worthy of protection that are ineligible for
Monument Designation and unlikely to
receive legislative protection in the near term

1. Bristol Bay Region, AK
2. Teshekpuk Lake, AK
3. Red Desert, WY

I'm not sure what this means or why the administrations has included lands it feels are ineligible. I suspect that these places receive frequent lobbying efforts which the administration wants to acknowledge while admitting that at this time a monument designation is not an option. The two in Alaska are already well-known and politicized. Bristol Bay is currently at the center of a very emotional and polarizing fight involving the Pebble Mine project—a large, open pit mine proposal in the heart of one of the richest salmon watersheds in the world. It has the potential to bring jobs to an economically depressed area, but risks destroying both the watershed and the culture it supports. The photographer Robert Glenn Ketchum has been a tireless advocate for the Bristol Bay area and is a vocal opponent of the mine.

Teshekpuk Lake is the second largest lake in Alaska and is the centerpiece of the most important wetland in the arctic. It is the primary calving ground of the Teshekpuk Lake Caribou Herd and summer destination of the hundreds of thousands of birds like the arctic tern, a bird that values the area so highly it is willing to fly from Antarctica every year. It was at the heart of a political battle in 2006 when the Department of Interior under President Bush tried to include it in an oil and gas lease. It ended up in the Federal Courts which blocked the lease sale. Teshekpuk Lake's problems are not over, however. Because it sits so close to the arctic ocean, the lake and surrounding wetlands will likely see an early impact of climate change due to the quickly eroding shoreline north of the lake.

Now, if you want to read about a real land grab, the LA Times is reporting that the Utah state House has passed a bill allowing the use of eminent domain to take federal lands.