[Pollinator] Ex-Interior Chief Calls For Land-Use Plan

[ladadams at aol.com]

(From the Environmental News Network)

Ex-Interior Chief Calls For Land-Use Plan

September 29, 2005 ? By Staci Matlock, Santa Fe New Mexican
A 25-story, privately owned steel tower peering over the Gettysburg 
Battlefield in 1997 struck then Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt as a 
glaring example of how private property rights can negatively impact 
public land. He and other conservationists fought to have the tower 
demolished. Years later, he revisited the battlefield to the sounds of 
a congressionally approved explosion that signaled the tower's 
destruction.

The tower and all Civil War battlefields are symbols of the continuing 
problems between growing cities, shrinking open space, developers and 
land conservationists, Babbitt says.

"Should the national interests of all Americans in preserving this 
sacred site be left exclusively to the discretion of a local planning 
commission?" Babbitt writes in his new book, "Cities in the Wilderness: 
A New Vision of Land Use in America," published by Island Press.

"Sprawl is erasing the distinction between the built environment and 
the natural environment," Babbitt said in a news release. "And both the 
quality of urban life and the integrity of our natural ecosystems are 
declining."

What's needed, he writes, is a comprehensive national land-use plan 
that protects local control and still preserves the beauty of America's 
undeveloped country.

He's treading the ultrasensitive ground of property rights, growth and 
land conservation. Babbitt brings to the debate his more than three 
decades as a conservationist and public servant. He uses his experience 
in hammering out land protection legislation from the Florida 
Everglades to Tucson, Ariz., as success stories.

Babbitt also writes about issues that New Mexico wrestles with: scarce 
water, rapidly growing urban populations and shrinking open space. He 
will be in Santa Fe on Thursday for a KSFR radio interview and a book 
signing at Garcia Street Books.

Babbitt served as interior secretary from 1993 to 2001 under President 
Clinton. He was governor of Arizona from 1978 to 1987. He's now an 
attorney in Washington, D.C.

To see more of The Santa Fe New Mexican, or to subscribe to the 
newspaper, go to http://ww.santafenewmexican.com.

Source: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News