New Poll: Westerners Want to Protect Our Public Lands

   Saguaro National Park (Photo: Matt Urban)

Anyone who has ever rafted down the magnificent Rio Grande in New Mexico, toured the petroglyphs of Nine Mile Canyon in Utah, or hiked the Grand Canyon would tell you that beautiful and stunning landscapes define the American West. 

The western states are home to some of the most treasured landmarks and outdoor areas in the country. So, it should be no surprise that those who live closest to them want to ensure they are protected. The latest evidence is a survey of voters in six western states: Arizona, Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The numbers don’t lie: Westerners love their public lands, know they help the economy, and want to see them protected.

A whopping 73% of Westerners plan to visit a national park this year. And they know that there are others like them who want to spend their time and resources doing the same. That’s why a full 91% say that public lands like national parks, forests, monuments and wildlife areas are an essential part of their state’s economy - and why 74% say public lands bring high quality employers to their states.

Like anyone else, Western voters also don’t want to see their treasured lands trashed. As the ancient rock art at Nine Mile Canyon is threatened by dangerous mining and increased traffic from off-road vehicles, 62% of Utah voters say environmentally-sensitive places on public lands should be protected from drilling while 60% identify as conservationists.

The story is the same in New Mexico, where residents turned out in droves to support permanently protecting the Rio Grande del Norte as a national monument. 76% of voters there say pollution in lakes rivers and streams is a serious problem.

Voters throughout the West know that they want careful oversight, and they want to see these lands protected. More than four-in-five (81%) think that environmentally sensitive places should be permanently protected.

The message from voters in the west to their elected officials is clear: don't mess with our public lands. By an almost 10-to-1 margin, voters said they were more likely to support politicians who spoke out in favor of protecting these areas. Preserving the wild West not only provides a tremendous economic and recreational benefit to communities, it is unquestionably a political winner, as well.

--Devin Castles, Sierra Club Media Team

Stand Up For Our Lands, Stand Up to Fix the Climate Crisis

(Photo: Jennifer Rudolph)

The threat of climate change has become a dangerous new reality. The evidence is everywhere – once-in-a-lifetime weather events are occurring even more rapidly than once-a-year, fuelled by the burning of fossil fuels that drives a changing climate. Whether it is record droughts in the American Midwest, devastating wildfires in Colorado and Oregon, or unprecedented storms like Sandy, over the last year extreme weather has become the new normal.

The cost of dirty energy usage and climate disruption on our lands isn’t limited to what is dried out, flooded, or burned – it’s much worse and much longer lasting than that. Many of the public lands that Americans use to recreate and relax are being targeted by dirty energy companies for drilling and mining that would forever alter some of our most beautiful landscapes. There is a rush for dirty fuels in the West, and places like the Greater Canyonlands in Utah, Otero Mesa in New Mexico, and even the Grand Canyon in Arizona are being eyed for exploitation that would guarantee the places Americans love to visit would be never be the same.

Dirty energy exploitation of our public lands throws a one-two punch at places like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There, destructive drilling would not only ruin the pristine landscape – it would dredge up more dirty fuel that will only further melt the Arctic when burned into our climate.

Of course, threats to our lands from the climate crisis also pose great threats to all the diverse species that inhabit them – humans and wildlife. A new study from the National Wildlife Federation indicates that as our planet warms, some wildlife can no longer handle the stress. Migration patterns are being dramatically disrupted and species like polar bears and walrus are struggling to survive as their habitat disappears.

There’s a solution that can protect our lands and wildlife from dirty energy exploitation and climate disruption: action. With the stroke of a pen, President Obama can protect our cherished landscapes, preserve the Arctic, and keep the dirty fuels that have caused our climate crisis in the ground. But we have to do everything we can to make sure our elected leaders know we support them in making the right decision by putting our American wild legacy before dirty energy profits.

As part of Sierra Club’s 100 Days of Action on Climate and Clean Energy, we are joining 350.org, the Hip-Hop Caucus, and over 130 partner organizations are holding the largest climate rally in history on Sunday, February 17 in Washington, D.C. The “Forward on Climate” rally will give us the chance to speak up for the wildlife and special places that don’t have a voice in this fight. Together, we will call on President Obama to say no to drilling in the Arctic and yes to protecting our public lands – but we can’t do it without your help. That’s why we need you to RSVP today at forwardonclimate.org to join concerned citizens from all across the country urging climate action now.

Stand up this President’s Day weekend and demand that President Obama and policy makers do the right thing: reject dirty energy, take action on climate, and save our wild places for generations to come.

--Kristen Elmore, Sierra Club Media Team

New Mexico Legislators Step Up to Protect Rio Grande del Norte/Legisladores de Nuevo México Intensifican Esfuerzos de Protección del Río Grande del Norte

(Photo: Taylor Streit)

On Thursday, New Mexican lawmakers took a huge step forward in the ongoing effort to preserve the jewel of New Mexico: Rio Grande del Norte.  Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, along with Representative Ben Ray Luján, have reintroduced legislation to protect more than 240,000 acres around the Rio Grande River and the rich wilderness that surrounds it in Northern New Mexico as a National Conservation Area (NCA).

New Mexicans and visitors alike have long been mesmerized by the sites along the Rio Grande, like the 800-foot deep gorge surrounding the river for miles, providing plentiful hideouts for nesting eagles and peregrine falcons.

Apart from being a top destination for adventurers and hikers, Rio Grande del Norte is home to challenging rapids for river rafters and prime locations for fishing and big game hunting - outdoor recreation that contributes $3.8 billion annually to New Mexico's economy and employs 47,000 New Mexicans statewide.  It’s estimated that protecting this land would provide even greater economic benefits and create even more jobs for New Mexicans.

Congressman Ben Ray Lujan talks to New Mexicans at a meeting on the status of Rio Grande Del Norte (Photo: Eliza Kretzmann)

As we mentioned here in September, protecting the Rio Grande del Norte is an important priority for local communities in Taos and Rio Arriba Counties, who cherish the land, its wild waters, and the diverse wildlife that rely on the Rio Grande for survival. The overwhelming local backing for designating the Rio Grande del Norte as  a national monument was on full display at a packed town hall meeting hosted by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar in December, where dozens of community supporters, elected officials and business leaders gathered to show their support. 

These communities recognize the cultural significance of the area, as well as its importance to local business and employment.

For all of these reasons, Rio Grande del Norte deserves permanent protection. This legislation is a great step toward that goal – a goal that can be reached by President Obama designating this beautiful landscape as a national monument. 

Time and weather have carved some remarkable drawings into the Rio Grande del Norte, and many of the piñon and juniper trees that pepper the surrounding landscape are hundreds of years old. These majestic wilds took ages to build, but could quickly be ruined by overdevelopment. It is good to see elected officials listening to the people of New Mexico, who hope this pristine landscape will be around for ages to come, so future generations can enjoy it as well.

--Devin Castles, Sierra Club Media Team

Legisladores de Nuevo México Intensifican Esfuerzos de Protección del Río Grande del Norte

(Photo: Brian O'Donnell)

Tres legisladores de Nuevo México dieron hoy, jueves, un enorme paso en sus esfuerzos por preservar la joya de Nuevo México: el Río Grande del Norte. Los senadores Tom Udall y Martin Heinrich, junto con el Representante Ben Ray Luján, han presentado de nuevo un proyecto de ley para proteger el Río Grande y designar más de 240,000 acres en el norte de Nuevo México como Area Nacional de Conservación.

Los nativos de Nuevo México al igual que los visitantes quedan maravillados por los asombrosos parajes a lo largo del Río Grande, incluyendo una garganta de más de 800 pies de profundidad que se extiende a lo largo de muchas millas junto al río y ofrece abundantes lugares de anidaje a águilas y halcones peregrinos.

Además de ser un atractivo destino para los visitantes, el Río Grande del Norte también ofrece imponentes rápidos para los piragüistas, y excelentes lugares para la caza y la pesca. Las ganancias procedentes de las actividades de recreo al aire libre contribuyen anualmente con $3,800 millones a la economía nuevomexicana, y emplea a 47,000 trabajadores en todo el estado. Se estima que proteger estos terrenos producirá más beneficios económicos y creará más empleos para los nuevomexicanos.

Proteger el Río Grande del Norte es una importante prioridad para las comunidades de los condados de Taos y Río Arriba, las cuales atesoran los terrenos, las aguas blancas y la diversa fauna que depende del Río Grande para su supervivencia. El abrumador apoyo de los residentes locales a la designación del Río Grande del Norte como monumento nacional quedó claro durante una reunión cívica patrocinada por el Secretario del Interior, Ken Salazar en diciembre, cuando decenas de miembros de la comunidad, funcionarios electos y líderes empresariales asistieron para demostrar su apoyo.

Estas comunidades aprecian el significado cultural del área, además de su importancia para la economía local.

Por todas estas razonas, el Río Grande del Norte merece protección permanente. Esta legislación es un gran paso hacia esa meta, una meta que el Presidente Obama puede alcanzar designando estos hermosos parajes como Monumento Nacional.

El tiempo y la intemperie han labrado hermosos lienzos en el Río Grande del Norte, y muchos de los árboles piñón y junípero que pueblan los parajes que lo rodean tienen cientos de años de antigüedad. Estos majestuosos paisajes tardaron eras en labrarse, pero pueden arruinarse rápidamente si se abusan. Nos complace ver a funcionarios electos escuchar al pueblo de Nuevo México, el cual espera que estos prístinos parajes seguirán asombrando a muchas generaciones futuras.

--Devin Castles, Sierra Club Media Team

Climate Disruption and Alaskan Natives

It was my privilege last week to meet and speak with Ed Alexander, the Second Chief of Fort Yukon, Alaska, a member of the Gwich’in Indian Nation. He spoke eloquently on the current situation of the Gwich’in, who live in towns so remote they are only accessible by plane, who go months at a time without receiving supplies from the outside world, and who literally depend on hunting caribou to survive.

  Caribou. Source: Alaska Fish and Game

He, along with other Gwich’in, were in town to speak to Congressional staff on the importance of protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and the 170,000-strong Porcupine caribou herd on which their communities depend. Proposals to drill on the 1002 area, the calving grounds for the Porcupine herd, are pervasive. “If the caribou are gone, our way of life will be over,” I heard him repeat honestly to each staff member.

The Gwich’in have lived in northern Alaska and Canada since time immemorial. Carbon-dated sites near their present-day home shows evidence of human habitation going back 28,000 years.

Unfortunately, the threat to Native communities does not stop with the Gwich’in and caribou. According to a recent report by the Brookings Institute, climate change has disproportionately affected Alaska and its inhabitants. Since 1950, winter temperatures in Alaska have risen 3.5 degrees Celsius; warming over twice as fast as the rest of the globe.

For wildlife, climactic disruption can mean changing migration routes, loss of native species and an increase in foreign species, increased ocean acidification, and loss of habitat.

 

 Source: Earth Observatory - NASA

 The effects for Alaskan people are similarly devastating. The land itself is changing; permafrost, or permanently frozen subsoil, is melting. Infrastructure built on permafrost is literally sinking into the ground; water and sewage systems, as well as the structural integrity of buildings, are all at risk.

Sea ice, at historically low levels in recent years, is not only utilized by Arctic animals like polar bears and pinnipeds (seals and walruses), but also provides important protection to coastal communities. Coastal pack ice serves as a barrier to storm surges from hurricane-force storms off of the Bering and Chukchi seas. As pack ice disappears, storm surges cause damaging flooding and erosion and compound the effects of melting permafrost.

 

 

Source: EPA, Alaska Conservation Foundation

These uncontrollable changes have led many Alaskan communities to seek relocation. One of the most pressing issues, according to the Brookings report, is the unprecedented nature of the problem. The Government Accountability Office found “that no government agency has the authority to relocate communities, no governmental organization exists that can address the strategic planning needs of relocation, and no funding is specifically designated for relocation.”

The Brookings report ends with a suggestion:

 

“To overcome these challenges, the author recommends as a first step that Congress mend disaster relief legislation to enable communities to use existing  funding mechanisms to construct infrastructure at relocation sites that are not within the disaster area. The author also recommends that Congress enact legislation to provide a relocation governance framework so that communities have the ability to relocate when the traditional erosion and flood control devices  can no longer protect residents in place. In this way, the United States can create a model adaptation strategy that facilitates an effective transition from protection in place to community relocation that governments throughout the world can implement.”

We hope the state of Alaska, along with the federal government, can find a solution to the problem and help these communities soon. The issue underscores the one of the most alarming issues with global warming: its effects are unknown, devastating, and universal.

--Claire Price, Sierra Club Lands Team

Greater Canyonlands: Stories Worth Hearing, a Future Worth Protecting

Editor’s note: Today’s blog post is a guest column from Aron Ralston, a speaker, writer, adventurer and wilderness advocate. The film 127 Hours is based on Ralston’s self-amputation to escape a six-day entrapment during a solo canyoneering excursion.

Red-rock hoodoos thrust skyward over a labyrinth of serpentine mini-canyons.  Living desert stretches, untracked, to the escarpment of horizon thirty miles distant where a single cloud scouts for her lost sisterhood.  In a crack below, I slide down the eight-story fissure of air compressed between two sculpted walls.  My arms chicken-wing against the walls to assist my abducting thighs – spread as around an invisible horse – in braking my descent through three-hundred-million years of rock.  At the bottom of this sandstone wormhole, I rejoin my attendant friends, our unfettered yelps echoing aloft with gratitude for this adventure, this life, this slickrock country. 

photo by Jeff Clay/Clayhaus Photography

Encapsulating Canyonlands National Park, Greater Canyonlands comprises 1.8 million acres of the massive and the sublime: cosmic openness and mind-wrinkling geophysics, as well as delicate fern-lined seeps and pre-Pyramid pictographs.  Unique in the world, Greater Canyonlands is terra Americana, the defining landscape of the West that called forth our courage, ruggedness, and ingenuity, much as Valley Forge, Gettysburg, or Kitty Hawk back East.   

Decades ago, the desert began shaping me, too.  Its surging brown rapids, corrugated slots, and severe human history became a searing, dusty yang to Colorado’s cool high-mountain yin.  Today, not least for my experience in Blue John Canyon, red sand is forever embedded in my spirit, as well as in my tread-bare trail-runners, re-stitched backpack, and duct-taped sleeping bag. 

My story is but one of this wildly pristine place.  However, of late, the tales have hardly been uplifting.  In the last ten years, policies that unleashed the extractive energy industries upon southern Utah have inverted the narrative.  These days, the plot is more about humans shaping the wilderness rather than the other way ’round. 

Greater Canyonlands is under attack.  Gas, oil, tar sands, and uranium companies are already on the march, bulldozing and blasting apart the sandstone, spewing pollutants into the air and water, and displacing wildlife from their habitats.  As they proceed, they not only threaten to destroy one of our nation’s most special wild places, they also undermine the Greater Canyonlands’ attractive industries of tourism and recreation that create long-term jobs and drive local economic growth that outlasts a busted commodities cycle.

To make matters worse, Congress is deadlocked in the longest drought of Wilderness legislation in 50 years. 

But there’s still hope.  Using executive powers granted by the Antiquities Act, President Obama can permanently protect Greater Canyonlands by proclaiming it a national monument.  He’s already issued similar declarations for public lands in Colorado and California, extending the practice of 16 earlier presidents.   

photo by Jeff Clay/Clayhaus Photography

I urge the President to cement his conservation legacy, recognize Greater Canyonlands’ significance for our national heritage, and take swift action to steward this landscape into the future. 

In doing so, he will save the region from imminent degradation and allow others the chance to hoot, yell, and holler – feeling most alive – as they create stories among the sensual orange canyons, frog-lined pools, and split-crack spires of the red-rock.  That’s my wish: that Greater Canyonlands National Monument will be there, long after I’m gone, for forthcoming generations to enjoy.  And until I’m gone, that I’ll always have another canyon trip on the books.

Protecting our Most Endangered Places

Stretching along a back country byway in eastern Utah lies one of the more impressive monuments to American history anywhere in the country. It’s an internationally-known rock art goldmine called Nine Mile Canyon.  This prehistoric canyon extends over 40 miles in Duchesne and Carbon counties, Utah.  There are more ancient petroglyphs here than anywhere else in the country.  And in 2004, the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) added this Nine Mile Canyon to its list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. 

photo courtesy of Wayne Hoskisson

Indeed, Nine Mile Canyon is under threat from development and dirty energy.  Already, fossil fuel companies are eyeing the site - and their stewardship hasn’t been impressive. In November 2012, a natural gas compression station in the canyon owned by Bill Barrett Corporation exploded and injured two people.  Other oil and gas operations also threaten the delicate petroglyphs with their erosive dust and dangerous drilling activity.

The Sierra Club worked alongside the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) to maintain Nine Mile Canyon as a historical site for future generations. Lists like America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places help shed light on and ultimately protect places like Nine Mile Canyon.  In January 2009, both groups filed a formal complaint with the Bureau of Land Management, asking for more protections for Nine Mile Canyon against industrial damage.  Shortly afterwards, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar withdrew the oil and gas lease that contained 77 parcels of land in and around Nine Mile.

But the threats don’t stop there. More natural gas companies are hoping to get their drills into this precious historic habitat. Gasco - a natural gas company - has a plan to drill 1,300 new wells in the region that could cause real damage to an irreplacable site. The Sierra Club is fighting to stop the exploitation of this one-of-a-kind piece of American history, so that its generations-old art can be enjoyed by generations to come.

Together, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Sierra Club are defending our nation’s history through this cultural landmark. Its critical to speak up now to continue to protect places like Nine Mile Canyon and other locations throughout the country that are under attack.  Nominate your historic endangered place today!  Once these special places are gone, we can never get them back.

Written by Sierra Club Media Team intern, Kristen Elmore

NWF Report: Wildlife Losing the Race Against Climate Disruption

                                                       (Photo: Larry Allen)

I find myself quite terrified when I'm comfortable wearing a t-shirt outside in Washington, D.C. in January, but I'm even more scared for those who lack the tools, like a simple wardrobe change, to adapt quickly to climate disruption. 

A new report released today by the National Wildlife Federation says animals are struggling to adapt to the climate chaos caused by the burning of fossil fuels and heating of our planet.

As the climate changes rapidly, habitats are being destroyed and many animals are left to die. In the past, animals have been able to adapt to changes in climate patterns, but now, the climate is changing at a much more rapid pace—faster than animals are able to respond.

Animals in the Arctic, like polar bears and walrus, are struggling to survive as sea ice melts and their required habitat disappears. Birds and butterflies have had to make significant changes to their breeding season and seasonal migrations. The same droughts and heat waves that burn our crops and limit our access to clean drinking water also wipe out fish by the thousands. Large-scale migrations to colder locations by many plant and wildlife species are happening faster than scientists ever anticipated—and climate disruption is to blame.

In many cases, plants and animals, the flora and fauna that make up America's beloved wild legacy, are unable to defend themselves from climate disruption. They surely won't be able to reduce the pollution that humans have created and that contribute to the warming of Earth's atmosphere, so that leaves it up to us to address this global threat.

We have the solutions right in front of us – all we need to do is muster up the courage to act. America can and should be a leader in the effort to wean the planet off of the dirty and outdated fossil fuels that are driving climate disruption. And all across the country, American innovation and ingenuity are helping continue our critical transition to clean energy.

This report serves as a reminder that the need for climate action is more dire now than ever before. We’ve seen the human impact after a year of severe weather, droughts, wildfires, and Superstorms.  And this report is further evidence the impact goes well beyond just humans.

Take a deeper dive into the report, and take action to address these challenges now.

--Dan Byrnes, Sierra Club Media Team

Grand Visions for Grand Canyon

We have become great because of the lavish use of our resources. But the time has come to inquire seriously what will happen when our forests are gone, when the coal, the iron, the oil, and the gas are exhausted, when the soils have still further impoverished and washed into the streams, polluting the rivers, denuding the fields and obstructing navigation.                                                                                                                                                       -Theodore Roosevelt

We often speak of Theodore Roosevelt as one of the greatest stewards of our public lands.  He was determined to see them protected for generations to come, and did so quite effectively.  Over the course of his presidency, Roosevelt created 5 national parks, 18 national monuments, and 150 National Forests. His fearless efforts protected approximately 230 million acres for all American’s to enjoy in perpetuity.  Roosevelt was also one of the nation’s greatest and most famous allies of the Grand Canyon.  It is he who protected the area first as a national monument in 1908. 

photo courtesy of Kim Crumbo

As we noted last week in our blog, President Obama hinted at a desire to establish his own conservation legacy in his recent inaugural address, and set forth a bold agenda and call to the nation to address climate change.

We, the people, still believe that our obligations as Americans are not just to ourselves, but to all posterity.  We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations. 

One of the Obama Administration’s great successes in the first term was the moratorium established on uranium mining around the Grand Canyon, helping to protect one of our nation’s most storied and recognizable landscapes.  Unfortunately, this moratorium is only temporary, and in order to protect this region permanently, we need bolder action.  Luckily, when it comes to restoring a comprehensive approach to protecting America’s public lands, President Obama has the power to act, an opportunity to lead, and four more years to establish a conservation legacy. 

In the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a natural wonder which is in kind absolutely unparalleled throughout the rest of the world. I want to ask you to keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. I hope you will not have a building of any kind, not a summer cottage, a hotel or anything else, to mar the wonderful grandeur, the sublimity, the great loneliness and beauty of the canyon. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.                                                                                                                                                                                    -Theodore Roosevelt

It was President Roosevelt who signed the Antiquities Act into law in 1906, granting the President of the United States the authority to protect public lands for the public good.  President Obama exercised his authority under the Antiquities Act four times in his first term, acting wisely to protect land all across America– and we urge him to use it again to protect one of our nation’s most treasured icons, the Grand Canyon. 

Like so many of our special places, the lands and waters of the Grand Canyon Watershed proposal define America’s history and provide unique cultural, archeological and environmental value, offering clean water, clean air, and access to the outdoors for hunting, hiking and other recreational activities.  In fact, active outdoor recreation – much of it tied to the Grand Canyon – supports about 82,000 jobs and produces almost $5 billion annually in retail sales and services across Arizona.  Americans wishing to experience the natural beauty of the Grand Canyon visit from across the country, bringing with them more than$685 million for the economy in northern Arizona each year—and supporting 12,000 jobs. 

We all know and love the Grand Canyon as an icon of America's majestic wild places. The surrounding area is equally stunning, home to arid deserts and old-growth pine forests, as well as animals that aren’t found anywhere else in the world.  Protecting this entire region is crucial to keeping the Grand Canyon healthy, thriving and a place to enjoy for generations to come.  That’s why we are urging President Obama to build a conservation legacy during his second term. Now is the time to protect the lands, waters, and wildlife dear to not just the generation of Theodore Roosevelt, but to our generation and generations to come.

Making Sage Grouse Part of Our Wildlife Restoration Success Stories

(Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

The United States is home to an abundance of wildlife.  However, this was not necessarily our destiny.  Market hunting for wildlife in the 1800s to feed logging and mining camps as well as city dwellers nearly drove many now common species to extinction.  It was very possible that we could be living in a country without Whitetail deer, without mallard ducks, without wild turkeys. But we do, and we are lucky to benefit from what is without a doubt, one of the greatest wildlife restoration success stories in the world.

The trends toward extinction were reversed with many tools, including the Wildlife and Sportfish Restoration Fund (WSFR). Dating back to 1937, the fund is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and utilizes money raised through an excise tax on firearms, ammunition, fishing tackle, boating fuel and other outdoor equipment to fund work to increase our scientific understanding of fish and wildlife and improve the habitat on which many species depend.

To date, over $45 billion has been raised, funding fish and wildlife conservation efforts in all 50 states. States agencies receive funds through a formula based on habitat and the number of paid hunting and fishing license holders, and then determine which conservation projects will be funded.

Among the species benefitting from WSFR is Greater sage grouse.  A candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act, sage grouse have declined by over 90% across their historic western range.  Due to their habitat needs, sage grouse are a good indicator of the sustainability of development and human activity, so their decline has become a cause of much concern across the West.

In Nevada, the state Division of Wildlife receives between $400,000 and $600,000 each year from WSFR, money that supports research, monitoring and habitat improvement projects for sage grouse.  Through 11 fire restoration projects, 14 brood rearing or nesting habitat improvements and 2 habitat protection projects, the Nevada Division of Wildlife has improved or secured 71,348 acres of habitat for sage grouse in that state with the help of WSFR funds.

In Idaho, WSFR money is supporting Idaho Fish and Game’s work with partners to restore nearly 32,000 acres of sage grouse habitat in the south of the state by removing invasive Utah junipers that are degrading grouse habitat.

Multiply these kinds of projects across the 11 Western States where sage grouse are found and multiply that again by additional conservation efforts by federal agencies, NGO’s and private landowners and there is a real chance that we might be able to save the sage grouse without listing it under the Endangered Species Act.  When we do, it will add another chapter to one of the greatest wildlife restoration stories in the world.

--Catherine Semcer, Senior Washington, D.C. Representative

A Bipartisan Effort to Preserve Washington's Wilderness

Proposed additions to the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Along the Pratt River (Photo: Don Parks)

When the doors closed at the Capitol at the end of December, the 112^th Congress officially earned the inauspicious designation as the first Congress in nearly 50 years to fail to protect a single new acre of wilderness. For the first time in decades, our Representatives and Senators left our nation’s wild legacy behind. But, hopefully, new legislation and new efforts by members from both parties will ensure that is a mistake that is not repeated again.

This week, members of Washington State’s Congressional delegation reintroduced legislation that would help protect some of their state’s most prized wilderness and rivers. This bipartisan, bicameral effort was launched jointy by Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and Representatives Dave Reichert and Suzan DelBene. Their Alpine Lakes Wilderness Additions and Pratt and Middle Fork Snoqualmie Rivers Protection Actwould add more than 22,000 acres of wilderness to the existing Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area, and protect Washington’s Pratt and Middle Fork Snoqualmie rivers under the federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. 

Beargrass grows in the Bandera Area, to be protected under new legislation (Photo: Harry Romberg)

These 22,000 acres of wilderness provide prime opportunities for Washingtonians and tourists alike to hike, camp, hunt and raft, while at the same time supporting a wide variety of wildlife, including deer, elk, trout, bobcats and bears. And all that recreational activity means new economic activity for surrounding communities, creating new jobs and new revenue.

First introduced in 2007 and almost passed in 2010, this bill is evidence that protecting our wild places is not a Democratic priority and not a Republican priority but an American priority. With bipartisan support, it offers both parties a chance to focus on their shared priorities and pass sensible legislation.

Congress can act now to ensure that this vital ecosystem of old-growth forests, snowy mountaintops, and pristine rivers is preserved for future generations to enjoy.  Turning this bill into law would prove that Congress has the ability to work together and preserve the legacy of Washington's treasured wilderness in the process. The inaction of the 112th Congress was a disappointment of historical proportions, but bipartisan, bicameral bills like these offer the 113th Congress the chance of a fresh, more productive start by restoring the longstanding traditions of cooperation and conservation.

--Devin Castles, Sierra Club Media Team