The Wilderness Society Newsletter

The Wilderness Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to conserving American wilderness. Our mission is to ensure that future generations will enjoy the clean air and water, wildlife, beauty, and opportunity for recreation and renewal provided by pristine forests, rivers, deserts, and mountains. As a subscriber to WildAlert, you join more than 310,000 Wilderness Society members and supporters in our efforts to protect and restore America's wild places.
1615 M St, NW Washington, DC 20036 1.800.THE.WILD action@tws.org

April Update

We asked and you answered, resoundingly! With your help, we sent nearly 100,000 letters to the Fish and Wildlife Service opposing the proposed land swap at Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge. You also helped us raise almost $50,000 for wilderness protection. Whether you sent emails or a check, or both, we are very grateful for your support. We'll keep you up to date as this campaign progresses.
Next week, the House will vote on a bill that could lead to permanent protection for the National Landscape Conservation System. The System includes places as diverse as the King Range National Conservation Area in California, Canyons of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado and the Black Rock Desert National Conservation Area in Nevada.
Please click on the "Take Action" link below to support this historic legislation!
Best wishes,Kathy Kilmer

Take Action
Full House to Vote on Permanent Protection for National Landscape Conservation System Act on Wednesday, April 9
With your help, Congress could take the next major step toward permanently protecting many of our West's wildest lands. Next Wednesday (April 9) the National Landscape Conservation Act moves to the House floor. With little time left to act, we urgently need each of you to send an email to your member of Congress advocating passage of this bill.
The legislation will provide permanent protection for the NLCS, a collection of wilderness areas, wild and scenic rivers, and archeological treasure troves widely recognized as the "crown jewels" of the Bureau of Land Management.
Not since the establishment of the National Park and Wildlife Refuge Systems has there been a greater opportunity for the conservation of western landscapes. But we need your help to ensure passage of this bill.
Click here to take immediate action.
Thanks to WildAlert subscribers whose phone calls urged representatives to pass this legislation out of committee.

Inside Story
Former Interior Official Calls for "Bold, Immediate Action" to Fund Public Lands
Warning of "the slow, steady collapse of America's public land conservation systems," Don Barry, Executive Vice President of The Wilderness Society and a former Assistant Secretary of the Interior challenged Congress to take "bold, immediate action" and make the additional investments needed to protect the country's national wildlife refuges, parks, forests and other public lands.
Barry pointed out that the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is on a "bread-and-water starvation diet," having been cut from $413 million under President Clinton to just $43 million today. The fund provides monies for federal and state land acquisition for new parks, wildlife refuges, and open space. "LWCF is the heart and soul of our conservation systems today," Barry said. "It is the single most effective land conservation tool in the history of this country... By starving LWCF, we risk losing the very places that our families need to seek relaxation and solitude in an increasingly chaotic and urbanized world."
Learn more.

News
Senators and Environmental Leaders Press for Action on Climate Change
In March, Wilderness Society president William Meadows joined other environmental leaders and Senator Boxer (D-CA) in pressing for global warming legislation. "Climate change poses an unprecedented threat to the ecological integrity of our nation's national parks, forests, wilderness areas and wildlife refuges and to the plants, animals and people who rely on them," Meadows said.
Learn more.

Words to Inspire
"The battle to restore a proper relationship between man and his environment... will require a long, sustained, political, moral, ethical and financial commitment."- Senator Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day.