White House plans to purchase more lands

According to a News Tribune article on Feb. 2, 1998, the Clinton Administration has issued a list of areas for funding which will increase wilderness areas, and continue to buy out and remove private property owners.
"In one of the biggest splurges in public lands acquisition in years, the Clinton administration has decided to fund a $328 million wish list of improvements for national parks and wildernesses, including $86 million to purchase land and demolish one of two dams along the Olympic Peninsula's Elwha River," the article states.

The Elwha River dams have, for many years, provided power to parts of Port Angeles and other areas, and presently serves as a backup power supply in the event of a power grid problem. The dams, according to the article, however, are "no longer deemed critical sources of power."

Not content with already owning 40% of America's land, the White House intends to use special funds appropriated in last year's budget agreement, and will include 100 high-priority purchases. They include:

• $15.1 million to purchase the last privately owned sections of the Appalachian Trail;
• $13 million to buy a 'safety zone' for Yellowstone National Park's buffalo;
• $20 million to purchase part of New Mexico's scenic Baca Ranch wilderness (the administration hopes to incorporate the entire 95,000 acre ranch into the adjacent Santa Fe national forest eventually);
• $11.1 million to dispossess private landowners in six Civil War battlefields;
• $6.4 million to purchase private holdings in the Cumberland Island National Seashore.
  

Last year, Congress earmarked $700 million for special "high priority acquisitions". About half of that will be used to conclude the buyout of the proposed New World Gold Mine near the border of Yellowstone National Park, and the purchase of a private grove of redwood trees in California's Headwaters forest.