Western Lands
Update Western Lands Project
Spring 2008 Research, Outreach, and Advocacy to Keep Public Lands Public Vol. 12, No. 1
Arizona congressman indicted in connection with land deals
R
epresentative Rick Renzi, (R-AZ) has brought
media attention to Congressional land trades
in the last several months—exposing his own
shady approach to our public lands and at least
temporarily undermining a major land swap
proposal in his state.
Renzi represents the vast 1st District of Arizona and
was until last year a member of the House Natural
Resources Committee, which oversees public lands.
In a 35-count indictment handed down in February,
federal prosecutors allege Renzi promised support
for land deals in exchange for a favor to his business
partner. He and partner James Sandlin had owned
property together and Sandlin was buying out Renzi’s
share. To help his friend and himself, Renzi tried to
compel two different groups planning land swaps to
make Sandlin’s property part of their trade proposals.
One was Resolution Copper, which has been attempt-
ing to get a land exchange bill through Congress
since 2005. The company wants to exploit what is
believed to be “one of the largest deposits of copper
ore ever discovered in North America,” but it lies
beneath Oak Flats, Tonto National Forest land spe-
cially protected by a 50-year-old Executive Order. Res-
olution has bought several pieces of private land to
trade to the public in exchange for Oak Flats. Renzi
apparently told the mining company that he would
not push its land swap unless the company purchased
Sandlin’s property for $4 million. The company’s
executives, eventually aware of the Renzi-Sandlin rela-
tionship, did not comply because they felt “uncom-
fortable.”
Seattle, Washington
Renzi then offered support, with the same condition,
for another land trade proposal. Preserve Petrified
Forest Land Investors LLC, which includes former
Interior Secretary and Arizona Governor Bruce Bab-
bitt, was putting together a land trade that would
bring 15,000 acres it had optioned within the Petri-
fied Forest National Park into public ownership.
(Some readers may recall that Babbitt greatly honed
his land-dealing skills when he was running Interior).
The group had already identified the public land
it wanted to acquire. Renzi told them he’d support
legislation for the deal, but only if they bought the
Sandlin property and added it to what they would be
trading to the public. While apparently suspicious
when Renzi demanded outright purchase rather than
optioning, the group purchased the Sandlin tract for
$4.6 million. More than $700,000 of that allegedly
went to Renzi, laundered through a family business.
Renzi came under grand jury investigation in early
2007 and at that time resigned from his Natural
Resources Committee post. He was indicted two
months ago, refused to resign, but has said he will not
run again.
Meanwhile, the Resolution Copper deal, already con-
troversial (and an awful proposal) has taken on some
of the taint of Renzi’s maneuverings and has stalled
in the current Congress. And the Petrified investor
gang now holds a 480-acre alfalfa field that used to
belong to Sandlin and Renzi. Few bad land deals ever
really go away, so it is probable that the Resolution
land swap will be resuscitated. Nor would it be all that
surprising if someone in Congress decided to intro-
duce legislation that would bring that alfalfa field into
public ownership and make Bruce Babbitt “whole.”
You just never know.
 Land swap proposed in Alaska’s
God bless Yukon Flats NWR
I
America. n late January the US Fish & Wildlife
Service released the Draft Environmental
Let’s save Impact Statement for the Yukon Flats
Land Exchange. In 2004, the agency
some of it. and Doyon, a native regional corporation,
reached an initial agreement to exchange
—Ed Abbey, 110,000 acres within the Yukon Flats
National Wildlife Refuge, plus subsurface
1927-1989 rights to another 95,000 acres within the
refuge, for about 150,000 acres of Doyon
land within the Refuge boundary. Doyon
seeks the trade in order to drill for oil and
gas on lands it already owns in the refuge
and the lands and subsurface it would
acquire via this trade.
It is not clear how USFWS believes the
public would benefit. Although we would
gain more surface ownership within the
Refuge, the EIS does not state whether –
Your land—
Beaverhead-Deerlodge
National Forest,
Montana
Western Lands Update 2 Spring 2008
after oil and gas development, including a
spur pipeline across the refuge–we would
realize a net gain in protected wildlife
habitat. Currently, both the federal and
the Doyon lands within the refuge are
undeveloped and provide habitat for ducks
(the highest density of breeding ducks in
Alaska), other migratory birds, salmon, and
other fish and wildlife. The Doyon lands
offered for trade do not face impending
development, so the project could in fact
reduce protected habitat—to say nothing of
the litany of other environmental problems
resulting from oil and gas drilling in the
Arctic.
The next 30-day public comment period
will open after USFWS publishes the Final
EIS, sometime this summer.
Colorado exchange halted by court
I
n May of last year the Federal District
Court of Colorado ruled that the Forest
Service could not proceed with the Rio
Oxbow land exchange, a proposed trade
of almost 470 acres of land on the Rio
Grande National Forest. The Forest Service
and an intervenor initially appealed that
decision, but withdrew their appeals in
March of this year.
The district court held that the Forest Ser-
vice violated NEPA in issuing a finding that
the loss of several of the federal parcels in
the trade would not have a significant envi-
ronmental impact. The court ruled that
the agency understated or ignored impacts
to an extremely rare geologic formation
found on one of the federal parcels. The
agency had noted in its analysis that the pri-
vate proponent was offering to give profes-
sional geologists limited access to the area
(called the Creede Formation), under cer-
tain conditions. The court also determined
that trading another parcel with the only
public frontage on a 10-mile stretch of the
Western Lands Update 3 Spring 2008
Rio Grande would have a significant impact
on the public’s enjoyment of the river, and
that residential development resulting from
the trade would significantly impact the
scenic value of the Silver Thread Scenic
Byway.
The court was most troubled that the
Forest Service had apparently predeter-
mined its finding of no significant impact
and decision to approve the exchange.
The administrative record showed that an
agency official wanted to avoid compiling
a full environmental impact statement and
thus understated the scenic impacts of the
project. Emails revealed that the agency
rushed the analysis and decision in order to
complete the exchange before the apprais-
als expired. The Forest Service says it is
not currently planning to revive the proj-
ect with the improved analysis that would
require.
Your land—
Muddy River near Logandale, NV
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 Quickies
O
ur monitoring work has extended to
land sales proposed by the Forest Ser-
vice under the Facility Realignment
Consider and Enhancement Act (PL 109-54),
which gives the agency new, limited author-
this…It’s ity to put buildings and land up for sale
to generate funding for maintenance and
easier than development of other facilities. Most sales
ever to give we have reviewed haven’t caused alarm, but
there is room for error: one proposal in
to Western the Gifford Pinchot National Forest would
relinquish for development a parcel along a
Lands Proj- stream that provides critical salmon spawn-
ect online, ing habitat. The Act is likely to come up for
reauthorization, and Western Lands is sub-
whether mitting information to Congress regarding
pitfalls in the program.
monthly or in
T
he Los Angeles Times published a guest
several incre- column by Western Lands board
member Erica Rosenberg on the
ments. Most increasingly-popular “collaborative”
banks are now agreements conservationists are entering
into with opposing interests. These “agree-
equipped to set ments to agree” on how particular public
lands or national forests will be managed
it up easily. may exclude the public, increase extraction
and development, and waive environmental
laws. See “Environmentalists out on a limb”
on the In the Media page of our website.
While there, check out articles from Portfo-
lio, The Hill, and other publications.
In my opinion, the proper course
to take with regard to [the public
domain] is to divide it up among
the big corporations and the
people who know how to make
money out of it...
--Richard A. Ballinger, Secretary
of the Interior 1909-1911
Western Lands Update 4 Spring 2008
Western Lands Project is seeking
board members
Western Lands Project is growing! We are
seeking two or three new board members.
Major requirements are a commitment
to preserve and protect our treasured
public lands, and skills like networking,
fundraising, or governance. It will be an
extra bonus if members live in the Puget
Sound area. If interested, please contact
Development Manager Sharon Angle at
206.325.3503 or angle@westernlands.org.
If you know of someone who might be
interested, please pass this message along.
The time commitment is not onerous—
we promise! This is a great opportunity to
make a difference.
Thank you, Dinah Bear
We want to note the departure from the
Council on Environmental Quality of
Dinah Bear, who was General Counsel at
CEQ for many years and has moved on to
work on, as she puts it, “sane immigration
policy” in the non-profit world.
The CEQ was created to oversee imple-
mentation of the National Environmental
Policy Act (NEPA), one of the most impor-
tant environmental statutes we have, and
one that we depend on mightily to evalu-
ate and sometimes challenge federal land
exchanges and sales. Dinah started at CEQ
during the Reagan Administration and
we first encountered her early on in our
work—finding her to be one of a small
handful of government officials who under-
stood the impact land trades were having
on our public land. Dinah has always been
a passionate defender of NEPA, and NEPA
needed her: the statute has been under
attack almost since its inception and is a
favorite target of anti-environmental ideo-
logues. Despite a phenomenal workload,
Dinah always had time to listen and to help.
We wish her fulfillment in her new work.
Many thanks to our wonderful members & supporters!
Victor Anderson, Sharon Angle, Marlin
Ard, Dave Atcheson, Lynne Bama, David
Beebe, Janine Blaeloch, Joann Blalock,
Stephan Block, Vernon Brechin, Barton
Brown, Robert Buselmeier, Robert Castle-
berry, Craig Dible, David Doty, Mark
Drake, Linda Driskill, Marianne Dugan,
Paul Eaton, Bill Eifrig, Josiah Erickson
Alan Erwin, Garth Ferber, Deborah Fil-
ipelli, Dot Fisher-Smith, Katie Fite, Linda
Garrison,Thelma Gilmur,Tony Gioia, David
Gladstone, Charles Hancock, Ann Harvey,
Rebecca Haseleu, R.J. Haskins, Joanne
Hedou, Wade Higgins, Randall Holmberg,
Dave Jacobs, Dave Kaiser and Kristin Tem-
perly, Steve Kelly, James Thaddeus King,
John King, Fayette Krause, Chris Krupp,
Jerome Krupp, Joseph Krupp, Jessica Lang-
Western Lands Project
P.O. Box 95545
Seattle, WA 98145-2545
phone 206.325.3503
fax 206.325.3515
www.westernlands.org
Board of Directors
Rebecca Rundquist, President,
Portland, ME
Marianne Dugan, Eugene, OR
Sandy Lonsdale, Moab, UT
Erica Rosenberg, Phoenix, AZ
Staff
Janine Blaeloch, Director
blaeloch@westernlands.org
Christopher Krupp
Staff Attorney
krupp@westernlands.org
Sharon Angle
Development Manager
angle@westernlands.org
Western Lands Update 5 Spring 2008
sam, Deborah Lans, David Leibforth, Craig
Lorch, Susan Lynn, Jack MacDonald, Victor
Magistrale, Mike Maloney, Louise Mariana,
Marion Marsh, Joan McClelland, Caro-
lyn McConnell, Laurene McLane, Leslie
McLean, Dorothy Musil, Ralph Nader,
George Patrick Nease, Andrew Nelson,
Mary O’Brien, Colleen O’Sullivan, Debra
Patla, Sandra Perkins, Everett Peterson,
Theresa Potts, Hank Rate, William Rod-
gers, Beth Rogers, Erica Rosenberg, Lin
Rowland, Rebecca Rundquist, Susan Saul,
Gordon Schochet, Michael Shurgot, Rich-
ard Slagle, Don Steuter, Robert Stivers,
Richard Strickland, Peggy Titus, Stephen
Trimble, Jeanne Turgeon, Shirley Vaughn,
Dale Volz, Jerry Williams, Kim Wolborsky
Thanks to the foundations
supporting our work!
Conservation and Research
Foundation
Deer Creek Foundation
Fund for Wild Nature
Furthur Foundation
Good Works Institute
Hewlett Foundation
Horizons Foundation
New-Land Foundation
Strong Foundation
 Western Lands Project PRSRT STD
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