BY BILL HEDDEN
In the so-called Public Lands Initiative, Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz have grudgingly offered to protect as "wilderness" somewhat more acreage than the existing congressionally protected Wilderness Study Areas.
Unwilling to straightforwardly offer this extremely modest concession to protection, they insist that, in return, huge swaths of wild land be barred from future consideration for wilderness protection. They've even left a blank in the bill to insert a provision forbidding or greatly limiting any U.S. president's authority to use the Antiquities Act to designate a national monument in the affected counties...