Ask Congress to Protect Wild Lands in the National Landscape Conservation System


Sprawling tracts of housing, new roads, and golf courses: rural and suburban development are mercilessly advancing on the open spaces of the West, including some of the most beautiful places in the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS).

Please help protect the vulnerable wild lands of the NLCS from development and degradation while there's still time. Right now, Congress is deciding how much funding to provide in 2005 for the purchase and protection of public lands and open space via the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Since its creation, the Fund has made possible the protection of over 7 million acres of open space, and been instrumental in the development of nearly 40,000 recreation and park areas.

Take Action Now!
If you live in one of the states below, please click to take action. If you're not a resident of those states, click here. Or, read on for more information.

Arizona    Colorado    Utah    Oregon

The Problem
For the Land and Water Conservation Fund to work, each year Congress must appropriate money for it in the Interior Appropriations bill--money that funds critical projects like the purchase of red rock canyons in Utah that would become part of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Money is tight this year, and enemies of LWCF are fighting to keep its funding low. Last year, the House of Representatives did not appropriate LWCF for specific projects at all. This year, it is critical that both the House and Senate provide specific funding "earmarks" for priority LWCF projects. Congress won't fulfill the promise of LWCF, and won't save critical projects in the National Landscape Conservation System, unless constituents like you make their voices heard. If these beautiful, threatened lands are not protected this year, they may be lost forever.

How You Can Help
Contact Your Senators and Representatives Today! Please take a moment today to send a message to your Members of Congress, asking them to support full funding for LWCF at $450 million. If you live in Arizona, Utah, Oregon, or Colorado, please send an even more specific message to your Members of Congress: ask them to support full funding for priority land acquisition projects in your state that are part of the National Landscape Conservation System. (See the list below to learn about these NLCS projects, or click here to take immediate action). If you live in another state, you can still send a very valuable general message about LWCF funding, and about projects in your state (click here).

More about the NLCS projects that need your help if you live in the West
UTAH
* Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. Needs $770,000 in Congressional funding for the purchase of 26 acres in the heart of scenic redrock country, along the Escalante River. Acquisition will protect this land from tourist development--gift shops, motels, and fast food restaurants.

OREGON
* Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Needs $500,000 to buy 560 acres in the middle of a wilderness study area from a willing seller, Timber Resource Services. This purchase would helping secure the integrity of an important biological corridor for animals and plants and protect these lands from development.

* Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Area. Needs $512,000 to buy a 640 acre parcel in the Steens Mountain wilderness, located on the Donner und Blitzen Wild and Scenic River and protect it from development.

COLORADO
* Canyons of the Ancients National Monument. Needs $1 million to protect two properties within the monument's boundaries. Both face immediate threat from rural residential development and vandalism of nearly pristine archeological sites.

* Colorado Canyons National Conservation Area Needs $1.5 million in Congressional funding to acquire protect eight separate inholdings amid this area's red sandstone monoliths and sheer-walled canyons, including two sites along the Colorado River.

ARIZONA
* Agua Fria National Monument. Needs $500,000 in Congressional funding to purchase 85 acres in and on the edge of the Monument--lands facing an immediate threat from rural residential development. This expansive mosaic of semi-desert, cut by ribbons of valuable riparian forest, offers one of the most significant systems of prehistoric sites in the American Southwest.

Take Action! If you live in one of the states below, please click to take action. If you're not a resident of those states, click here.

Arizona    Colorado    Utah    Oregon

Thank you for your help!