US Person urged his US Senator at a town hall meeting this summer to support Senate Bill 3022, the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) that would preserve twenty-three million acres of roadless landscape in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. This bill, which is precendential in scope for it proposes to keep in-tact for perpetuity an entire forest and mountain ecosystem that is the last wild refuge for many large mammals in the contiguous United States, was introduced into the Senate for the first time. S. 3022 has seven co-sponsor including the Minority Leader, Harry Reid. More importantly the bill intends to connect areas of wild land with wild corridors through which animals can travel unmolested in search of food and mates. The problem of too little space for migrating animals and visiting humans is especially acute in Yellowstone National Park. NREPA will essentially expand the Park's protected boundaries, thus allowing the growing bison heard to forage and expand with being slaughtered in an inhumane annual cull.
[map] There are some logging road in the proposed reserves that would need to be deconstructed and remediated, but this activity will provide jobs.
Tanzania and Kenya have the Serengeti which attracts thousands of international tourists every year. America will have the Northern Rockies, a region of incredible iconic beauty and natural bounty. The headwaters of several major river systems begin here. Protecting them from development and pollution will insure millions of Americans have clean drinking water as well as water for agriculture and industry. But preservation does not only mean tourism and wildlife conservation, it also means economic opportunity. Statistics show that counties with protected wild lands have more economic activity and higher incomes than counties without. Humans put a premium on living near natural landscapes that provide need recreation and relaxation.
The bill has already been introduced in the House and many co-sponsors. Add your voice to the chorus that supports the first major effort at conservation in the United States on its proper biological scale. Contact your Senator today and ask for support of Senate Bill 3022, NREPA. Now is the time!
