U.S. Buys Big Sur Parcel to Expand National Forest

President Clinton will announce today that the U.S. Forest Service has purchased 784 prime acres at the southern gateway to Big Sur, expanding a national forest that contains some of the most scenic and rugged landscapes in California.

The $4.5-million acquisition, though relatively small in acreage, is large in symbolism: It highlights the president’s waning quest to establish permanent funding for national conservation projects and to define his own environmental legacy.

The announcement comes during Clinton’s long fund-raising weekend in California and New Mexico.

Before leaving Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Clinton took time to defend his decision to sell 30 million barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve as “the right thing to do” in the face of the global oil shortage. He then bolstered his decision by ordering $400 million in emergency funds to help the nation’s poor pay for heating oil this winter.

The Big Sur land acquisition is the largest of several made in recent years in the region, which is considered a priority by the Forest Service because of the area’s scenic desirability and endangered species. It also is the southernmost home to the state’s coastal redwoods.

The parcel, which stretches north from the Pacific Ocean shores along the San Carpoforo Creek, now forms the southernmost tip of the adjoining 1.75-million-acre Los Padres National Forest, and on its land live the endangered steelhead trout and Smith’s blue butterflies. It was purchased Friday from the national nonprofit Trust for Public Land, which had just acquired it from a cattle ranching family.

Hikers probably will be the first to benefit from the public land, accessible from Highway 1, because there is no parking or established trails, said Bruce Emmens, forest lands staff officer for the Forest Service.

“This purchase will provide public enjoyment of the land and protection of incredible scenic and natural resource values,” Emmens said.

Today’s announcement will be teamed with a renewed call by Clinton to urge Congress to approve a new category of federal funding--a conservation endowment.

Clinton has asked Congress for permanent funding “to protect open spaces, farmland, forests, ocean and coastal resources, and urban and suburban parks,” according to a White House fact sheet.

“Every community should have the resources to protect” desirable property such as a “spectacular stretch of coastline like this,” White House spokesman Elliot Diringer said Saturday, referring to the Big Sur purchase.

Currently, conservation projects are funded each year by congressional appropriations. If the Clinton plan becomes law, the money would be a permanent and restricted part of the federal budget. Any unused funds would roll over to the next year.

The president’s proposal, calling for at least $1.4 billion a year, with half the money reserved for state and local conservation programs, is proceeding on a two-track schedule in Congress. It needs authorizing legislation as well as the funding appropriation.

The authorizing bill passed the House, cleared a Senate committee and is awaiting Senate floor action.

The appropriation bill is being considered in a House-Senate conference. The administration says the conferees are hung up on various legislative additions tacked onto the bill by Republicans.

The proposed additions, called riders, have been criticized by Clinton as “anti-environmental” because, he said, they would undermine efforts to improve air quality and reform mining procedures, among other issues.

The president will announce the Big Sur acquisition today when he receives an environmental leadership award from the California League of Conservation Voters. The event will be at the home of singer-songwriter Carole King.

“The president has shown farsighted leadership on land conservation, and this is the latest example,” said Robert Perez, communication director for the environment group.

The 25,000-member organization hopes to raise $1,000 from each of the 400 guests expected to attend today’s event. The money will be funneled to various congressional races, in which the league is backing many Democratic candidates.

Following his decision Friday to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, Clinton on Saturday ordered federal agencies to begin buying heating oil now to prevent sharp price increases when winter comes. He also said he will ask state public utility regulators to encourage factories and businesses that use heating oil to build and hold adequate reserves.

The moves, combined with his release of $400 million to help Americans pay heating bills this winter, are aimed at avoiding any further price surges that could come from short supplies or panicky consumers.

Clinton’s itinerary Saturday included an address at a Democratic National Committee lunch in San Jose, a barbecue for California Assemblyman Mike Honda of San Jose, who is running for Congress, and a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee dinner in Brentwood.

In addition to the conservation event, Clinton is scheduled today to address a fund-raising lunch for Rep. Lois Capps of Santa Barbara and a Democratic National Committee dinner in Los Angeles.