TUCSON CITIZEN:  Mon., Feb. 5, 2007

Greens giddy over Grijalva's clout with land

Blake Morlock            

 

            U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva has a gavel. We'll see how ready he is to use it as he presides over more than 25% of the U.S. surface area.  The Arizona Democrat starts his third term representing southern and western Arizona as the newly named chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.

            He's in charge, he jokes, of "pretty much everything west of the Mississippi."

            Seriously. Grijalva is the gatekeeper of policy affecting 600 million acres of federal land.  Environmentalists are giddy because Grijalva has made a career of seeing the world through green-colored glasses.

            He and fellow southern Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, also a Democrat, already have in the hopper a plan to add acres to Saguaro. It might be the size of Botswana, which is about the size of Texas, by the time Grijalva leaves his post.

            On other fronts, he's talking about using his authority to block plans for a copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains and is discussing the protection of Tumamoc Hill.  And he hopes to impose sterner oversight of the Bush administration's environmental policy.

            Jonathan DuHamel, a Tucson writer and geologist leading the local movement to balance economic use of public lands with protection, wonders about Grijalva's credentials.

            "He doesn't seem to have any scientific background to be making decisions," DuHamel said. As to protecting public lands, DuHamel makes a distinction between lands meant to be protected and lands traditionally used for economic purposes.

            "If he's talking about protecting parks, that's one thing," DuHamel said. "But if he wants to stop mining and logging on national forests, then he's against jobs."

FULL STORY:   http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/40882.php