Dear HCN,
Your recent article
titled “Babbitt is Trying to Nationalize the BLM” (HCN, 5/16/94)
provided many perceptive insights as to the possible future
direction of that very important agency.
I do
encourage you to revisit the Indian School (Phoenix) Land Exchange
brokered in the 1980s by then Arizona BLM State Director Dean
Bibles, in close cooperation with then Gov. Babbitt. The recent
article implies the process “made a hash out of the public process
and, some say, gave away valuable land close to Phoenix for less
valuable distant land.”
Our office was an active
part of that process for over four years, and found it a very open
process, to the great credit of Bibles, Sen. DeConcini, Mo Udall,
Babbitt, and others. Furthermore, the nation received 56,000 acres
of exemplary riparian habitat along Arizona’s San Pedro River
Corridor and over 100,000 acres of critical wetland in Florida’s
Big Cypress Swamp in exchange for 135 acres of extremely valuable
Phoenix real estate. I believe that a vast majority of Americans
would applaud this precedent-setting land exchange, which enhanced
so much critical wetland habitat. Yes, there are an infinite number
of ways to invest the $100″ million from the sale of the Indian
School property, but few would have done more for wildlife. Thank
you, Messrs. Babbitt, Bibles, DeConcini and
Udall.
Robert K.
Turner
Boulder,
Colorado
The writer is
regional vice president of the National Audubon
Society.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Land exchange helped wildlife.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
