Hello, tweeters.

I scanned this bill (http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.2578:), and it's enough to make your head swim and your stomach churn. The present congress is already the most anti-environment in history (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/20-2), and this is more of the same. It's difficult to understand what some of its provisions will do, as it often refers to changes in already existing laws and regulations, and you have to go to the earlier version and read it carefully as well. But it is clear that a common thread is to open up public lands for use that doesn't bode well for wildlife and habitats (more gun ranges for target practice, more border-security operations, more general access, more suppression of environmental regulations in general, etc.). There are many different provisions, couched in varied language, but the common thread is anti-environment.

Indeed, a good strategy to fight this would be to try to understand as much of it as you can, even if you pick out only one or two provisions, and have a good argument for asking your Senators not to support the bill.

I will refrain from ranting, but with great difficulty.

Dennis Paulson
Seattle

On Jun 24, 2012, at 12:00 PM, tweeters-request at mailman1.u.washington.edu wrote:

> Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2012 09:48:02 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Cindy Ashy <tunicate89 at yahoo.com>
> Subject: [Tweeters] Fw: [OBOL] National Parks in trouble!!
> To: Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> Message-ID:
> <1340556482.9175.YahooMailClassic at web39306.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
>
>
> --- On Sun, 6/24/12, Jeremy Breese <jdmjeremy at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> From: Jeremy Breese <jdmjeremy at gmail.com>
> Subject: [OBOL] !!(Off Topic) National Parks in trouble!!
> To: "Posting OBOL" <obol at oregonbirds.org>
> Date: Sunday, June 24, 2012, 8:26 AM
>
> This information comes from the source via my uncle who is the compiler of this info published by PEER and Coalition Of National Park Service Retirees.? In the last several weeks, the US House of Representatives has gone on the attack against what has been called ???America???s greatest gift to the world???, the National Park System.? On April 17, 2012, the House majority passed HR 4089, a bill that would open virtually all areas of the System to hunting, trapping, and recreational shooting.? It would also gut the 1906 Antiquities Act.? This Act provides authority to the President to declare national monuments on lands already owned by the American people.? Since 1906, all but three Presidents have used that authority to help shape the National Park System.? Some of our most iconic areas such as Grand Canyon,? Olympic, Grand Teton and Carlsbad Caverns were set aside as monuments by various Presidents before the Congress converted them to National
> Parks.
> ? Now the House Natural Resources Committee has crafted what they call a Natural Resources Jobs and Public Lands Package, HR 2578.? This package would require North Cascades National Park to rebuild the Steheken Road into the park by adjusting the boundaries of the Stephen Mather wilderness and of the park itself.? It would overturn the decisions at Cape Hatteras, arrived at after years of negotiation and study, to limit vehicular and pedestrian access to certain beaches during the nesting seasons of marine turtles and piping plovers.? It revives HR 1505, the bogus border security bill, that would open areas of the National Park System within 100 miles of the Canadian and Mexican borders to unfettered access by the Border Patrol, allowing them? to build roads, erect antennas, establish forward operating bases, all without the benefit of consultation with National Park leadership, and since it suspends our nation???s bedrock environmental laws in that
> same area, without public review as required by the National Environmental Policy Act.? The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees wonders what is behind these attacks.? National park area visits generate billions of dollars in local economies.? There is barely a week that goes by when some new area is not proposed by local or federal elected officials for inclusion in the System.? If the Smithsonian is the nation???s attic, then the National Park System is the storehouse for our most precious natural and cultural resources.? It is in our parks that we learn who we are as a people and what we hold dear.? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? This will all end if the majority in the US House of Representatives persists in considering legislation that undermines 130 years of park managementexperience and threatens everything that makes our park system different from other federal lands.? And make no mistake: our park areas are different.? They preserve the
> places where our history was made and protect the natural resources that make our country unique.? They serve as wildlife sanctuaries, free from hunting and trapping pressures.? They contain remnants of our most endangered species.? ? They are an invaluable legacy for future generations.If we are to make a difference we must join together and speak our to our senators to oppose these decisions. It is the only hope for an appeal from the senate.? The best way to prevent this is to email our senators with our thoughts and hopefully disagreement on these matters.? Jeremy Breese


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