President Obama Signs the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009 into Law

Please click here to read a copy of the president's remarks provided by the White House and published in The New York Times.

President Obama's historic signing of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009 was completed yesterday in a ceremony at the White House.

The Omnibus bill is actually a "compilation of natural wilderness Acts to designate certain land as components of the Natural Wilderness Preservation System and it authorizes the Department of the Interior and Department of Agriculture to participate in specified programs and activities concerning natural wilderness, rivers, boundary line adjustments, and much more." The bill actually protects "more than two million acres as wilderness and creating a new national system to conserve land held by the Bureau of Land Management."

The White House called the bill "one of the most sweeping pieces of conservation and public land management legislation in years."

Before the bill signing by President Obama Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar made some prefatory remarks:

"Over the last two centuries, America’s best ideas for protecting our vast lands and open spaces have often arrived while our country has faced its greatest trials.

"It was in the midst of our nation’s bloodiest conflict – the Civil War – that President Abraham Lincoln set aside the lands that are now Yosemite National Park.

"It was at the dawn of the 20th century, with our cities and industries growing and our open lands and watersheds disappearing, that President Teddy Roosevelt expanded our national parks and set aside the world’s largest system of lands dedicated to wildlife conservation, the national wildlife refuge system.

"And it was in the darkest days of the Great Depression that President Franklin Roosevelt put three million young Americans to work in the Civilian Conservation Corps. They built the trails, campgrounds, parks, and conservation projects we enjoy today.

"In these moments when our national character is most tested we rightly seek to protect that which fuels our spirit.

"For America’s national character - our optimism, our dreams, our shared stories – are rooted in our landscapes. "

The bill represents a collection of 170 specific and different bills that

can easily be considered a milestone in environmental legislation.

As Jean Williams, the Seattle Environmental Policy Examiner notes: "Now, President Obama is signing a law that will expand protection to over 160 other wilderness components, including the following:

"Oregon Badlands Wilderness Act to protect 30,000 acres of desert wilderness in Central
Oregon.

"Spring Basin Wilderness Act to protect 8,600 acres of scenic wilderness long the John
Day River in Central Oregon.

"Copper Salmon Wilderness Act of Oregon to protect 13,000 acres of old growth forest
along the head of the Elk River; one of the most prolific salmon fisheries in the west.

"Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument Voluntary and Equitable Grazing Conflict Resolution Act of Oregon to protect 23,000 acres of pristine flowering meadows and old growth forests and insure voluntary relinquishment of grazing permits.

"Owyhee Public Lands Management Act 2007 of Idaho to protect over a half million acres of wilderness and 315 miles of streams and rivers in the scenic high desert country along the Owyhee River.

"National landscape Conservation System Act that has designated 26 million acres of “crown jewels” administered by the Bureau of Land Management from Alaska to the southern tip of Florida."

When President Obama spoke he said:

"As Americans, we possess few blessings greater than the vast and varied landscapes that stretch the breadth of our continent. Our lands have always provided great bounty -- food and shelter for the first Americans, for settlers and pioneers; the raw materials that grew our industry; the energy that powers our economy.

"What these gifts require in return is our wise and responsible stewardship. As our greatest conservationist President, Teddy Roosevelt, put it almost a century ago, "I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us."

"That's the spirit behind the bipartisan legislation I'm signing today -- legislation among the most important in decades to protect, preserve, and pass down our nation’s most treasured landscapes to future generations."P

President Obama noted, that "another hopeful element to the legislation, namely the Christopher and Dana Reeve's Paralysis Act, which boosts research and rehabilitation for paralysis:"

"That's the mission of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. In the lobby of their facility in New Jersey sits Christopher’s empty wheelchair. And his son, Matthew Reeve, was once asked if the sight of it ever saddened him, and he replied no. He said, "Empty chairs -- that was Dad's goal," he said. "We hope there will be many more of them."

"Matthew is here with us today. And the legislation I'm about to sign makes solid progress toward the realization of that hope and the promise of a brighter future."