Protect our National Monuments and Parks
- Subject: Protect our National Monuments and Parks
- From: D*
- Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 06:24:35 -0400
I thought everyone might be interested in this:
----- Original Message -----
From: Steve Perez, State PIRGs organizer <sperez@pirg.org>
To: <sperez@pirg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 12:38 PM
Subject: State PIRGs update - Stop the Rollback
> Hi,
>
> I want to ask you to help protect our national monuments. We've made it
> easy for you to help, follow the link below to go to a web page where you
> can e-mail Interior Secretary Norton and ask her to act as a steward for
our
> public lands by ensuring that the Bureau of Land Management receives the
> funding and leadership needed to protect our national monuments.
>
> http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=206&id4=ES
>
>
> BACKGROUND
>
> Recently designated national monuments protect some of our country's crown
> jewels - places of historical, scenic, and scientific value. The
> Antiquities Act of 1906 gives the president the authority to designate
> national monuments, and many presidents have used the act as a critical
tool
> for protecting important public lands. The Grand Canyon, Denali, and
Joshua
> Tree are national treasures that were protected as national monuments
until
> Congress designated them as national parks. Recently designated monuments
> that are now threatened include Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, Upper
> Missouri River Breaks in Montana, and Cascade-Siskiyou in Oregon.
>
> Unfortunately, on March 28, Interior Secretary Gale Norton sent a letter
to
> western governors, state and local elected officials, and tribal
> representatives asking for their ideas on how to unravel the protections
> afforded 19 new national monuments designated by President Clinton.
> Although the press release issued by the Department quoted Norton as
saying
> that she wanted "to hear local voices and ideas on how best to protect,
use
> and care for these precious national treasures for generations to come,"
the
> letter she sent actually asked governors and local officials for
> recommendations on boundary adjustments, what sort of existing uses within
> the monuments should be accommodated, and ideas on vehicle use,
> rights-of-way, livestock grazing, and "the wide spectrum of other
> traditional multiple uses that might appropriately be applied to these
> lands." In our advocacy experience, multiple uses is a code word for
mining
> and drilling. Additionally, she opened the possibility of shrinking the
> size of various monuments. Contrary to the Department's press release,
> nowhere in the letter does Secretary Norton ask "how to best protect, use
> and care" for the monuments.
>
> Although Secretary Norton has not requested input from the general public
on
> how to best protect the new monuments, your views are needed to counter
both
> the anti-monument ideas she will likely receive from various local elected
> officials who are often hostile to these monuments. She will also most
> likely hear from anti-monument lobbying campaigns organized by off-road
> vehicle organizations, the oil and gas industry, and others.
>
> We've made it easy for you to help, follow the link below to go to a web
> page where you can e-mail Interior Secretary Norton and ask her to act as
a
> steward for our public lands by ensuring that the Bureau of Land
Management
> receives the funding and leadership needed to protect our national
> monuments.
>
> http://pirg.org/alerts/route.asp?id=206&id4=ES
>
>
> Thanks again for your support, please feel free to share this e-mail with
> your family and friends.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Tiernan Sittenfeld
> State PIRGs Preservation Advocate
> http://www.stoptherollback.com
>
> ----------
>
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>
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