|
The Petition to Protect America's Wild Lands
Help us celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act and urge Congress to protect our wild lands. Places like Utah’s Redrocks wilderness, the Arctic Coastal Plain, and beloved areas in many states including Washington, West Virginia, Vermont, Virginia and Montana are all at risk unless Congress takes action.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: URGENT - Protect More Wilderness Today!
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
One of America's proudest accomplishments is her resolve to protect special wild places just as they are. Since the Wilderness Act was passed in 1964, more than 100 million acres of Wilderness have been designated by Congress. That may sound like a large number, but it is less than 5 percent of the total U.S. land base!
And in fact, many cherished places still need the protection of the Wilderness Act, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Coastal Plain and Utah's Redrocks wilderness.
I urge you to support the permanent protection of more Wilderness within our national forests, parks and other public lands.
Signed by:
|
Campaign Launched:
August 25, 2004
|
BACKGROUND
Many areas desperately need permanent protection as Wilderness-- places like Utah's Redrocks wilderness, the Arctic Coastal Plain, and beloved areas in Washington, West Virginia, Vermont, Virginia and Montana.
Some of these places, always at risk of the encroachment of development, are especially threatened now, because of radical policy changes by the Department of Interior. In the last two years, DOI has:
- Issued directives prohibiting the Bureau of Land Management from inventorying public land for wilderness character and recommending suitable lands for wilderness;
- Released rules that make it easier for wilderness opponents to claim rights-of-way across our most sensitive public lands;
- Made oil and gas development the dominant use of western public lands at the expense of wildlife, recreationists and the preservation of wilderness character.
You may be familiar with the many other assaults on public lands that undermine the protection of wild places, from the removal of protections for roadless areas on national forests to the capitulation to snowmobilers in Yellowstone. These actions have resulted in the opening of wilderness-quality lands to mining, oil and gas drilling, logging and road building, which could despoil these wild places forever.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Take action now at: www.40WildYears.org
Every day that goes by without Wilderness protection leaves these lands at risk. Just one example: The stunning, wild Colorado landscape known as South Shale Ridge. While this area is still awaiting congressional action, the Bush administration's Bureau of Land Management is moving swiftly to open the area for oil and gas drilling, which would make the area ineligible for Wilderness designation.
Please sign our petition urging Congress to support the protection of America's wild places: www.40WildYears.org
And once you've done that, please be sure to spread the word to your friends and family. America's Wild Lands can't afford to wait!
|
