BOISE -- Gov. Butch Otter and the Idaho Farm Bureau are calling for the immediate withdrawal of a new federal land management policy.
The policy in question is an Interior Department rule that would designate some Bureau of Land Management land now available for multiple uses as "wild land."
On Dec. 22, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar issued an order that he said would eliminate debate between protecting pristine backcountry and multiple-use activities.
Otter says the order imposes special protections in non-wilderness areas without consent of Congress, the state or the people.
About 33 million acres of Idaho land is managed by the federal government, and of those, seven-million acres are designated as wilderness or wilderness study areas.
