Update: It looks like the future of the NLCS could be decided as early as next week, with the bill coming to the floor next Wednesday, April 9th. If this is of interest to you at all, I’d urge you to use the links below to contact your congressman and weigh in with your opinion.
Back in 2000, President Clinton, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbit, and Congress worked together to create the National Landscape Conversation System which designated more than 26 million acres of land in the Western United States as protected areas under the watch of the NLCS and the Bureau of Land Management. These regions include the Pacific Crest Trail, Idaho’s Craters of the Moon National Monument area, and many more national monuments and wild places.
At the time, the Act was seen as an important move to protect some of our most precious natural resources. However, there were never any provisions to make the NLCS a permanent system that would continue to insure that those wilderness area will remain protected for years to come. In order to do that, it would need an act of Congress.
On March 12 of this year, the NLCS bill passed out of the House Committee of Natural Resources and was sent to the floor of the House for full debate. If you would like to see this Act become a permanent fixture, the time to act is now. You can find out more about the subject from the NLCS Page over at The WIlderness Society webpage. From that page, you’ll be able to send a message to your U.S. Representative asking them to support House Resolution 2016. Not sure who your Representative is? You can find out right here.
You can also learn a lot more about The Conservation System by visiting it’s Official Website. There you’ll also find an alliance of more than 70 organizations that back this Act and the conservation measures that it looks to put in place permanently. One glance at the list, and you’ll see that it is quite an eclectic mix.
The video posted below also offers up a glimpse of what the NLCS is all about. A lot of us who frequent this blog have a love for the outdoors and the adventure that it provides us. This is our chance to have our voice heard and preserve some of that amazing wilderness for future generations to enjoy as well.
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Hello, this is an interesting subject that I’m very concerned about. Can you try re-linking the NLCS page? I tried to click it so I could read more and it said the page wasn’t found. Thanks!
Hmm… the changed the name of the page. Even went back to the initial e-mail I was sent to confirm that I had it right the first time.
Anyway, I’ve updated it with the new page, so the link should work now. Thanks for the heads up! 🙂
Yep, works just fine now. No problem!