Protect Wild Lands

Act Now to Protect Wild Lands

Under President Bush, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) had ceased inventory and protection work for wilderness quality lands. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has acted to resume that work by establishing a new "BLM Wild Lands Policy". The BLM manages the largest tracts of unprotected wilderness quality lands in the lower 48 states so this is an important policy for land conservation and habitat resiliency. Unfortunately, anti-conservation forces in Congress have gained ground by successfully attaching a rider to the recent federal budget Continuing Resolution which "defunds" the Wild Lands Policy. We need to make sure that provision does not carryover into the 2012 budget bill to be voted on in the coming months. The opponents of the BLM Wild Lands Policy are promoting oil and gas wells for America’s dwindling wild lands. Currently, much more BLM land is allocated to oil and gas development than to wilderness protection. And, the amount of public land that is pristine enough to qualify as having wilderness characteristics is ever shrinking. Please tell your elected officials to protect America's wild lands by making sure the BLM Wild Lands Policy de-funding rider is NOT carried over into the 2012 budget bill. CLICK HERE TO HELP! Please act to support the Bureau of Land Management "Wild Lands" Policy by opposing the carryover of the "de-funding rider" included in the recently passed Continuing Resolution. Forty-four members of the House recently wrote President Obama asking him to keep such a rider out of the 2012 federal budget and to retain the provisions of the BLM Wild Lands Policy. Much of America's natural heritage remains unprotected and most of that is on lands managed by the BLM. These are remarkably special places. From Utah's red rock canyonlands, to New Mexico's Otero Mesa grasslands, and Oregon's Owyhee desert these lands are vital to the natural world and provide an enduring wilderness resource for the nation  enduring only if protected. Please support revocation of the Simpson-Bishop de-funding the BLM Wild Lands Policy, encourage the Interior Department to reinstate Secretarial Order 3310, and work to keep any de-funding riders out of the 2012 budget.