Rob Bishop: “Let me just say very quickly here that what Representative Cook has done is taking an important issue and doing it the…”

“Let me just say very quickly here that what Representative Cook has done is taking an important issue and doing it the right way, by collaboration and outreach with local people who live in those areas on what they want to do with the public land. Public land does not necessarily only mean Federal land. Public land can also be State, it can be county, and it can be all sorts of entities' land, but the value of that land, whether it is Federal or State or county or municipality, is does it help the people of that particular area. What Mr. Cook has done in this particular piece of legislation is talk to them and find a way in which the land can actually be used to help people. So, yes, he released some wilderness study areas that were designated as unsuitable for a wilderness designation but then created three times that number of acreage in new wilderness designations as well as new wild and scenic river designations. Most importantly, because land is needed for recreational purposes, he puts protections for people who are using this land--OHV users, especially--that ensure these areas will not be closed administratively and that that kind of recreation opportunity will not be taken away on a whim.…”