Help Protect the Hidden Treasures of the American West

Please ask your Senators to sign on to letter in support of the National Landscape Conservation System

This month marks the 5th anniversary of the National Landscape Conservation System, 26 million acres of lands rich in archaeological sites, dramatic vistas and resplendent with canyons, mountains, and deserts. But to ensure that these areas remain wild and wonderful, we need your help today.

A bi-partisan group of Senators is preparing a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton urging that her agency do more to protect these special places. You may already have sent Secretary Norton a letter yourself. Now we’re asking you to urge your Senators to sign on to a letter of support and concern. A large show of Congressional support for the National Landscape Conservation System is essential to bring Secretary Norton’s attention to the off-road vehicle abuses, losses of cultural resources, and lack of management funding on these public lands.

Please ask your Senators to sign on to the letter to Gale Norton.

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Please sign on to NLCS letter to Sec. Norton

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

Please help protect the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) -- 26 million acres of spectacular lands and waters under the stewardship of the Bureau of Land Management. These are places that all Americans treasure: wild areas for outdoor recreation, scenic rivers, and important parts of our national heritage like Native American cultural sites and historic trails traversed by the pioneers.

I hope you'll take a simple step to ensure that the National Landscape Conservation System -- five years old in 2005 -- exists for the enjoyment of future generations of Americans. Please encourage the System's long-term protection by signing a letter to Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton, co-sponsored by Senators Jeff Bingaman and John McCain.

This bipartisan "dear colleague" letter both celebrates the System and appropriately encourages Secretary Norton to address the System's challenges, including shortages of rangers to cope with growing numbers of visitors, problems with vandalism and threatened historic and cultural resources, and a lack of accountability for the System's management.

Thank you for your attention to the National Landscape Conservation System. With your leadership, the NLCS will protect some of America's great western landscapes, wilderness, and diverse ecosystems for generations of hikers, backpackers, hunters, birders, photographers, scientists, historians--and all Americans who enjoy the outdoors.

To sign the "dear colleague" in support of the NLCS, please contact Heather Wicke in Sen. McCain's office (224-2235) or Mike Carr in Sen. Bingaman's office (224-5521).

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
June 27, 2005

Background Information

The National Landscape Conservation System was established in June 2000 to protect the best of the lands and waters managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Utah’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the Oregon Trail, the Upper Missouri River, Arizona’s Sonoran Desert National Monument, and Colorado’s Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area are just some of the extraordinary places that are part of this 26 million-acre public lands system

The NLCS is plagued by small staff, bare-bones funding, illegal off-road vehicle use, and vandalism. Most worrisome is the lack of leadership from the Department of the Interior and the BLM to provide real protection for the System’s diverse and spectacular resources which include deserts, mountains, rivers, endangered wildlife, and thousands of archaeological and American historic sites.

That’s why a bi-partisan group of Senators -- John McCain (R-AZ) and Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) -- are asking their colleagues to sign on to a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton urging her to take a stronger stance in favor of conservation of these lands.

Take Action
You can help, by asking your Senators to sign on to the NLCS letter telling Secretary Norton to make conservation a priority in the National Landscape Conservation System.

For More Information
Learn more about the NLCS at http://www.discoverNLCS.org