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Coalition for Public Accesse-ALERT (November 21, 2008) |
Dear CPA Friend,
The U.S. Senate is going to take action soon on the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2008 (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-3213). The massive, 1076-page measure includes more than 150 bills that would: create or expand a number of wilderness areas; establish new conservation areas; create or add to wild and scenic designations; designate new national scenic trails; add new national and historic park units and nearly a dozen new national heritage areas. Of greatest concern is the inclusion within the package of language that would statutorily establish the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) within the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
In northwestern Nevada there are approximately 277,000 acres of designated Wilderness Study Areas (WSA) which will be (by this act) placed into the NLCS. The BLM has previously determined that not one of these WSAs is “suitable for wilderness designation”. The Coalition for Public Access opposes Omnibus bills where the merits of individual actions are not evaluated, opposes this specific Omnibus bill because of the inclusion of the NLCS, and further opposes the specific inclusion of WSAs that are not suitable as wilderness.
The Western Business Roundtable organization has an automated letter-writer (http://www.westernroundtable.com/oppose+federal+land+grab.aspx) where people can send letters opposing the Omnibus bill to their U.S Congressional Delegation and their local State Legislative Representatives. CPA encourages everyone who opposes this Omnibus bill to go to the above WBRT website link and send a letter – this should take less than a couple minutes. Please help stop this very bad legislation.
Board of Directors, Coalition for Public Access