Land Conservation Bill Passes

Senate passes bill to designate 2 million acres of public land as wilderness areas.

This means the land in the act can only be used for non-mechanized recreation. Many will argue that this is a tremendous waste of land that could otherwise be used for logging or gas/oil exploration.

First, public land is rarely logged. Most logging now takes place on tree farms and on private land. Also, there is no scarcity of timber so preserving some natural treasures that actually benefit humans economically, culturally, and physically is not going to hurt us. Second, most of the oil/gas deposits left to drill are out in the ocean. After a few years of Bush selling off public land, it is nice to see some land being preserved for the good of society.