Some good news from a "locked down" Senate midst the constitutional crisis created by MacOrange. It passed a significant conservation bill a week ago last Tuesday, and by a large, bipartisan majority (92-8) which indicates the depth of support in both camps for protecting wild lands. The rare show of unanimity comes at a time when the Trumpilini regime is doing its best to dismantle protections for Nature. The measure designates more than a million acres of wilderness, and establishes permanent appropriation for the Land & Water Conservation Fund, freeing it from dependence on annual congressional renewal. Congressional funding for the program has “fluctuated widely” since its inception in 1965, according to a 2018 Congressional Research Service
report. Spending fund money is not mandatory, however. Senators and staff from western states that worked on the measure for two years expressed their pleasure at passage in the halls of Congress.
The bill creates 1.3 million acres of new wilderness, the most stringent federal protection that prohibits all human development in Utah, New Mexico, Oregon and California. Some of the Utah wilderness is withing the boundaries of two national monuments Hair Further threatened to shrink. A new monument was also created: the Mississippi home of civil rights activists Medgar and Myrlie Evers, reminding us that national monuments also protect our cultural heritage. Two hundred and eighty miles of river in Oregon and two hundred twenty five miles of river in Massachusetts and Connecticut are designated wild, scenic or recreational, including the once heavily polluted Nashua River that is now popular with boaters. The bill goes to the House for passage where it also enjoys bipartisan support.
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| credit: Washington Post |
