Call Feinstein to stop Bush's road rage!
Folks, your phone calls are needed *immediately* to Senator Dianne
Feinstein to ask her to protect National Parks, Monuments, Refuges, and
Wilderness from the Bush Administration's new road rule.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Please phone Senator Feinstein at 202- 224-3841 right away -- and ask her
to "keep the Taylor Amendment language barring RS 2477 disclaimers in the
Interior Appropriations bill." The bill will be finalized next week, so
please call today!
Without this Taylor language, Interior Secretary Gale Norton could give
away national park and wilderness lands to industry or to counties such as
San Bernardino County, which has proposed 5,000 miles of "highways"
crisscrossing the Mojave National Preserve, Death Valley National Park, and
at least 20 designated Wilderness areas. Similar bogus highway proposals
threaten California's Redwood National Park, Sequoia National Park,
Siskiyou Wilderness, and other parks and wilderness throughout the West.
Background
This year the Interior Department passed a new rule that revives an
obsolete, repealed 1866 mining law provision called Revised Statute
2477. This new "disclaimer" rule would allow the mining industry, off-road
vehicle groups, and local governments to take ownership of jeep, horse, and
foot trails across national parks, wilderness, and other public lands by
claiming that these trails are actually "highways" granted under the old RS
2477 law. If Interior disclaims federal ownership, then these trails could
be opened to motor vehicles and development, and even paved into modern
highways. It's an outrageous giveaway of our public lands to those who
would exploit wilderness.
The House version of the Interior Appropriations bill prohibits the
Interior Department from issuing any RS 2477 disclaimers in National Parks,
Monuments, Refuges, Wilderness or Wilderness study areas -- and while this
still leaves 2/3 of public lands vulnerable, it is a good
start. Unfortunately, the Senate bill lacks any such prohibitions at all.
Senator Feinstein has opposed the RS 2477 disclaimer rule, and now she is
in a position to act. She sits on the conference committee that is right
now crafting the House-Senate compromise version of the Interior
Appropriations bill -- so her help is absolutely critical. The conference
will end next week.
THANK YOU for your speedy phone calls on this fast-moving matter!
for more on RS 2477 in California, see www.calwild.org/campaigns/rs2477.php
California Wilderness Coalition
2655 Portage Bay East, Suite 5
Davis, CA 95616
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Just three miles off of Interstate 80, 
