If you have not heard about Wildlife Services, a branch of the USDA, you should read this report by WildEarth Guardians that is being presented to Congress and the President. Wildlife Services are the ones responsible for killing wolves, grizzlies and numerous other predators to often protect livestock grazing on public lands. It is costly and controversial and subsidizes an industry at the expense of a more natural ecosystem. In some situations, predators are targeted solely to increase the number of elk and other species for hunters. You can read about one such example at wolves.wordpress.com.

Authors of the 108-page report being presented to USDA, members of Congress and the White House on Tuesday described it as the first comprehensive, national, independent assessment of the agency in 40 years.

In sum, each year, Wildlife Services kills tens of thousands of wild animals and pets,endangers public safety and the safety of its own employees, and spends millions of tax dollars (local, state, and federal) to do so. The 1994/1997 PEIS upon which Wildlife Services relies is anachronistic. Despite the $100 million annual investment in killing over one million animals each year, the GAO, and independent researchers and an economist have shown that the program is ineffective, and the costs outweigh any perceived benefits. Wildlife Services kills wild predators by the thousands using controversial and dangerous methods in futile attempts to bolster the nation’s declining sheep industry.

Link to 108 page pdf

The trails program on Forest Service lands will be taking a serious cut in 2009 with overall funding down 33% for 2009. The overall Forest Service budget is facing a decrease of 8% from 2008 with Wildland Fire being the only program with an increase in appropriations. Some more data on trail maintained:

2007
Miles Maintained: 25,696
Miles Improved: 1,594

2008
Miles Maintained: 20,790
Miles Improved: 956

2009
Miles Maintained: 11,650
Miles Improved: 500

This is an enormous cut to a relatively low cost program that provides over 50 million visitor days per year. These budgets simply mean that organizations such as the SCA will play a larger role in the future trail needs of public lands.

Forest Service 2009 Budget Justificaion - pdf Trails is on page 284

The Bureau of Land Management is currently starting a firesale of oil and gas leases without consideration of environmental and social impacts, specifically near national parks in Nevada and Utah.

The view of Delicate Arch natural bridge, an unspoiled landmark so iconic it's on Utah's license plates, could one day include a drilling platform under a proposal that environmentalists call a Bush administration "fire sale" for the oil and gas industry...

An examination of the parcels, superimposing low-resolution government graphics onto Google Earth maps, shows that in one case drilling parcels bordering Arches National Park are just 1.3 miles from Delicate Arch.

"If you're standing at Delicate Arch, like thousands of people do every year, and you're looking through the arch, you could see drill pads on the hillside behind it. That's how ridiculous this proposed lease sale is," said Franklin Seal, a spokesman for the environmental group Wildland CPR.

Fortunately the NPS was able to convince the BLM to back off some of the parcels on the park borders, however many other areas are still at threat.

Other leases certain to draw objections from conservation groups include parcels on high cliffs along whitewater sections of Desolation Canyon, an area little changed since explorer John Wesley Powell in 1896 remarked on "a region of wildest desolation" while boating down the Green River to the Grand Canyon.

Still others extend to plateaus populated by big game atop Nine Mile Canyon, home to thousands of ancient rock art panels.

"This lease sale continues to be a disaster in the making," said Stephen Bloch, a staff attorney for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "The Park Service has concerns about a number of other parcels close to the national parks, and it seems evidence they were rolled, and couldn't maintain their opposition."

One of the biggest misconception about BLM lands is that they are desolate lands that have no value, but those same characteristics make it one of the best places to learn about our archeological and geological history. There are some truly amazing places on blem lands.

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4896160
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081116/ap_on_bi_ge/national_parks_drilling