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Contact Jim: jdipeso@rep.org (253) 740-2066 / 2009 Archive / 2008 Archive / 2007 Archive / 2006 Archive / 2005 Archive
A Gold Star for a Conservation Job Well Done
March 26, 2009
Every once in awhile, the conservation stars align and good legislation makes it through the sausage factory by the Potomac.
Such was the case this past week when the Senate and House, by sizable bipartisan majorities, passed omnibus land and water protection legislation. The bill now goes to the president for his likely signature.
Republican representatives and senators from all regions of the U.S., moderates and conservatives alike, gave their assent to the bill, a clear demonstration that GOP lawmakers can accomplish great things for the nation when they give voice once more to the party’s conservation tradition.
The legislation was worth the wait through the tortuous parliamentary path that was necessary for passage. It designates 2 million acres of wilderness in nine states, gives statutory permanence to remote Western wild lands in the National Landscape Conservation System, and establishes a host of national parks, conservation areas, heritage areas, a national monument, wild and scenic rivers, and historic trails.
Plus, it authorizes ocean exploration and research programs that will improve our understanding of weather, climate, and deep-sea resources.
While the legislation is imperfect, it remains the most significant conservation bill to have passed Congress in this new 21st century. No matter what type of landscape or body of water that you’re drawn to, there is something in the bill for you.
Like to fish or hunt in deep green forests? You can soon add the Copper Salmon Wilderness in Oregon or the Wild Monongahela Wilderness in West Virginia to your list of places to see.
Deserts more your thing? Wilderness in Utah’s Zion National Park or the new Owyhee wilderness areas in southern Idaho will give you an expansive dose of high and dry solitude.
Are you up for winter camping? On the shores of Lake Superior on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and its 140 inches of annual average snowfall will soon have wilderness protection.
History buff? March down the soon-to-be-designated Washington-Rochambeau Revolutionary Route National Historic Trail and get a sense of the places where the Revolutionary War’s climactic battles were fought. Or, plan a summer tramp down the Ice Age Floods National Geologic Trail and imagine what it was like when cataclysmic torrents of glacial melt water scraped the interior Pacific Northwest down to scablands a dozen or so millennia ago.
It’s all there, for everyone, now and long after today’s little ones are grandparents.
Give Congress a gold star for this one. And please, take a moment to thank the 38 House Republicans and 21 GOP senators who voted for the omnibus lands bill and put a smile on the face of Theodore Roosevelt, wherever he is in the great beyond.
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