Signing Ceremony for Omnibus Lands bill

Below is my first blog post - at least on this blog - entirely about work. I wrote it today for Sierra Club's Treehugger blog (it's not just a slur, it's a blog!) regarding yesterday's signing ceremony for the Omnibus Lands bill.

March 31, 2009

Flanked by environmental champions, and in front of an audience of environmentalists, hunters and anglers, and outdoor industry groups, President Obama signed the Omnibus Lands Bill into law yesterday. The bill signing was a big win for America’s wild places, and for the Sierra Club.

The bill, which protects more than 2 million acres of public land, has been a priority for the Sierra Club for the last two years. But some parts of the bill, such as the Owyhee wilderness, had been a chapter priority for more than a decade. Any way you look at it, the Omnibus Lands bill is the largest public lands bill to pass Congress in almost 20 years.

The best way for me to describe the bill signing ceremony is fun, about as much fun a Sierra Club lobbyist or activist can have in DC. Everyone there – and there was quite a bit of mingling prior to the ceremony - was in a fantastic mood. Members of Congress, hard-working Congressional staff, and enviros were back-slapping and were grinning gorp-eating grins.

The actual ceremony took place in the East Room. The last time I was in that room was in early January 2001, when then-President Clinton gave us some good news – that he was establishing the Missouri Breaks National Monument in Montana - but mainly bad news: that he was NOT going to name the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a monument. While happy about the Missouri Breaks, almost all of us left that ceremony disappointed and worried about the looming anti-environmental presidency of George Bush.

We survived the Bush years, and for instance won votes to keep the Arctic Refuge off limits. But those were votes to stop something bad. How great to revisit that room 8 years later – I practically was sitting in the same seat - to watch a president like Barack Obama sign a bill that we loved, a bill that protects more than 2 million acres of wilderness? Words can’t describe how good it felt to be on hand to see a great bill signed into law, a bill that makes things better as opposed to stopping a bill to make things worse.

It was proof that with Obama as president, we can be aspirational again, that we have a chance to make our country and planet better.

That was the other thing that struck me about yesterday’s ceremony. President Obama was introduced by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who gave a great speech reminding everyone that in moments of national peril, American presidents and people have often looked at the land to bring us together and “fuel our spirit.” The Secretary’s speech touched on Lincoln protecting Yosemite during the Civil War, on Teddy Roosevelt expanding the national park system at the dawn of the 20th century, and how Franklin Roosevelt, as the nation struggled during the Depression, gave millions of Americans jobs through Civilian Conservation Corps. The speech concluded with Secretary Salazar saying “for America’s national character - our optimism, our dreams, our shared stories – are rooted in our landscapes.”

President Obama and Secretary Salazar were flanked by Congressional leaders like Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Harry Reid, and environmental champs like Reps. Nick Rahall, Raul Grijalva, Dina Titus, and Senator Jeff Bingaman. It was unbelievable to be reminded that those are the people in charge of the country. That environmental policy is being made my leaders such as Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, folks who think like we do when it comes to America’s special places. Unbelievable.

As I left the ceremony - but after I got to personally thank Speaker Pelosi - I turned to my friend Tiernan Sittenfeld from the League of Conservation Voters, and wondered if our kids will look back at this era as the golden age of environmentalism. Hopefully, yesterday’s bill signing is just the start of that era, one that starts with leaders like Obama, Salazar, Pelosi and Reid but ends long after my kids and Tiernan’s kids have had kids - and grandkids - of their own.