Wednesday, March 26, 2014

National Report Pushes Obama, Congress To Act On Boulder-White Clouds & Organ Mtns.

Hoping to prod Congress into action, a Washington, D.C., think tank has released a report on 10 stalled land conservation bills, including one to designate the Boulder-White Clouds area as wilderness. U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, introduced legislation six times to set aside 332,775 acres of the land as wilderness. His bill is among those in “Languishing Lands,” the report published by the Center for American Progress (CAP), an independent non-partisan educational institute. The report does not mention conservationists’ recent efforts to sidestep Simpson’s work and have the land designated as a national monument. But it does point out Simpson’s longstanding effort to “permanently protect the impressive beauty and abundant wildlife” there. The report comes on the heels of President Obama’s signing last week of legislation that designated 32,557 acres of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Michigan as wilderness. That was the first congressional designation under the Wilderness Act since 2009. Also last week, the president ordered expansion of the California Coastal National Monument to include 1,665 acres of Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands. Where he can, Obama has pledged to protect “this incredible gift of American lands” with or without Congress. His administration is looking closely at the 571,276-acre Boulder-White Clouds and the nearly 500,000-acre Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks region near Las Cruces, N.M., the Washington Post has reported. Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks also is mentioned in the new report. The report calls Congress’ inattention to land bills such as Simpson’s the “longest conservation drought since World War II.” It says legislation to protect the 10 locations has been introduced “a combined 52 times over the past 30 years.“...more

The report is here, and mentions both  Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and Valles Caldera National Preserve.

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