Senate Passes Most Expansive Public Lands Legislation of the Last Decade
Yesterday, the Senate passed the most expansive public lands protection legislation package of the last decade.
Yesterday, the Senate passed the most expansive public lands legislation package of the past decade: the Natural Resources Management Act (S. 47).
Although this is a great accomplishment, the package still needs to be passed by the House of Representatives and signed by President Trump and we need your help.
The good news is that it’s a bi-partisan package that swept the Senate 92 to 8 with a wide variety Senators holding many different political ideas and beliefs voting in its favor. The measure is not perfect, but includes over a dozen bills, many of which are great land and/or water protections. If passed, the package creates more than 1.3 million acres of wilderness in the West, adds three national park units, expands eight others and would add over 600 miles of Wild and Scenic river designations. Bills included in the package are:
- Permanent re-authorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund
- The Land and Water Conservation Fund supported the purchase and creation of the public BZ Corner White Salmon River put-in in 2001 that we use for our spring high water half-day White Salmon River rafting trips.
BZ Corners White Salmon River Access Launch (photo from American Whitewater)
BZ Corners White Salmon River Access Launch Raft Slide (photo from American Whitewater)
- The Emery County Public Lands Management Act
- Methow Headwaters Mineral Withdrawal
- The Yellowstone Gateway Protection Act
- The Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Area Act
- Oregon Wildlands (would protect 30,000 acres of the Devil’s Staircase area as Wilderness, designate 250+ river miles as Wild and Scenic Rivers, including the Molalla River (less than an hour from Portland, Oregon), the Elk River and tributaries of the lower Rogue River, and protect the Chetco River from mining activity.)
Molalla River Kayaking (photo from American Whitewater)
- Cerros del Norte Wilderness
- Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks
- Every Kid Outdoors – will help 4th grade children and their families to explore and discover our parks, public lands and waters.
Wet Planet Getting Kids on the River During Annual Kids Kayak Camp
A special thanks goes out to our American Whitewater PNW Stewardship Director Thomas O’Keefe and Outdoor Alliance
A special thanks goes out to our American Whitewater PNW Stewardship Director Thomas O’Keefe and Outdoor Alliance for championing efforts on this public lands legislation package. According to Outdoor Alliance, there are two key things for us to do now.
- Write your Senators to thank them for passing the package.
- Start hounding your House members to move and vote on it quickly.
And Outdoor Alliance has enabled us to do both with one click of the mouse RIGHT HERE.
More information and references:
