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Stop the Giveaway of California’s Wilderness!
Do you want more than 400 wild places in California to lose their protections from mining, logging and drilling?
That’s what could happen if radical anti-conservation legislators in the U.S. Congress succeed in passing legislation to open up our nation’s great outdoors, including the Golden State’s wild lands, for industrial development.
The Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act, introduced by California Rep. Kevin McCarthy in the House of Representatives, would give big corporations the ability to pollute in untouched wilderness that has been protected for decades. Industrial activities like mining, logging and drilling are already allowed on more than half of our national forests and other public lands. H.R. 1581 proposes to open up most of the rest.
More than half of America’s forests and deserts would be open to industrial development and to off-road vehicle use. You can help protect California’s wild places from development and pollution. Please ask your Members of Congress to oppose H.R. 1581.
Stop the giveaway of California’s wild lands!
More on H.R. 1581:
Stats on forests and BLM land in CA that would be impacted by H.R. 1581
Picture your favorite unspoiled wild area. Now picture what it would look like if it was opened up to development by big industry and off-road vehicles. California roadless and Wilderness Study Areas that would open to industry thanks to H.R. 1581 include:
- Iconic stretches of the Sierra Nevada including the Eldorado National Forest
- Delicate desert habitat like Soda Mountains Wilderness Study Area
- Portions of the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and other northern California alpine regions
H.R. 1581 would end protection for more than 60 million acres of public lands — including more than 4 million acres in California.
To put it another way, in California, lands totaling the size of five Yosemite National Parks would lose protection!
These wild areas provide critical habitat and recreational areas. Proponents of H.R. 1581 claim that the bill with provide access to these wild and roadless areas for fishing, mountain biking, horseback riding, hunting, and camping. The truth is that those activities are already allowed on these lands. H.R. 1581 isn't about openning access so that the average Californian can enjoy the outdoors -- it's about providing an inway for industrial activities onto some of the last of our wild lands.
Years of bipartisan efforts to involve local residents in crafting balanced land use proposals would be lost if this proposal succeeds, and millions of acres of lands would become ineligible for wilderness consideration. Please act today to protect your state’s natural legacy and beauty, and stop the giveaway of the Golden State’s pristine wilderness.