Land Rights Network

From: LandRights Network [mailto:alra@pacifier.com]
Sent: Monday, June 18, 2007 4:26 PM
Subject: Corrected BLM NLCS Land Grab Testimony Deadline Thursday, June 21st

Land Rights Network

American Land Rights Association

PO Box 400 – Battle Ground , WA 98604

Phone: 360-687-3087 – Fax: 360-687-2973

E-mail: alra@pacifier.com

Web Address: http://www.landrights.org

Legislative Office: 507 Seward Square SE – Washington , DC 20003
BLM Land Grab Testimony Deadline Thursday, June 21st.

>>All Out Call To Action<<

Congress trying to pass into law The Babbitt National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) (HR 2016) (S 1139).



A one-page letter from you will help stop HR 2016. Please act fast.


Please forward this message quickly and as widely as possible.

The NLCS Essentially Places A National Park Type Overlay Over Millions Of Acres Of BLM Land . Multiple-Use and private property will be eliminated or threatened.

The Babbitt National Landscape Conservation System (HR 2016) threatens:



-----Multiple-Use in BLM areas;

-----Convert Wilderness Study Areas into Wilderness;

-----Access to BLM area;

-----Oil and Gas exploration;

-----Miners and mineral exploration;

-----Off-Highway Vehicle Use;

-----Private Property inside and adjacent to BLM area;

-----All kinds of recreation like shooting, hunting and rock collecting;

-----Hunting for some is essential to their survival;

-----Sightseeing;

-----River rafting;

-----Grazing;

-----Forestry and logging;

-----Many more types of recreation.



The list could go on and on.



You still have time to e-mail or fax in a one page or more letter as testimony against HR 2016. This will be a disaster for BLM multiple-use lands.



The House National Parks , Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee held a hearing on June 7th. You have until Thursday, June 21st to send your testimony by fax or e-mail.



Below are listed all the Members of the Natural Resources Committee including their fax and e-mail addresses. Be sure to say at the top of your letter:





-----3. Send a copy of your testimony to your Congressman by e-mail or fax and tell him or her to oppose the NLCS Land Grab (HR 2016). Write: Honorable___________ US House of Representatives, Washington , DC 20515 . Send it by fax or e-mail. Mark it Testimony on HR 2016. It is too late to use the US Mail. Call any Congressman at (202) 225-3121 to ask for his best e-mail address.



-----4. Send a copy of your testimony or letter to both your Senators. Write: Honorable _________, US Senate, Washington , DC 20510 . You should call immediately. Any Senator can be called at (202) 224-3121. Ask for their fax and e-mail. The Senate bill, S 1139, has already passed out of Committee. It could be voted on any time. Ask your Senator to commit to block the bill. He or she can do that if they want.



-----5. Send copies of your testimony to other members of the House National Parks , Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee. A complete list is at the end of the e-mail.

***Congress Seeks To Codify New NLCS Land Grab -- (Portions from Federal Parks and Recreation Newsletter) -- Seventeen House members from both parties teamed up in April to introduce legislation (HR 2016) that would give the National Landscape Conservation System official Congressional certification.

The system, administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), was created administratively by former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt during the Clinton years.

In June 2000 the Interior Department under the guidance of former Secretary Bruce Babbitt established the 26 million acre NLCS in BLM to protect special areas.

The NLCS consists of major conservation areas in 12 western states, including 15 national monuments, 13 national conservation areas, Steens Mountain area in Oregon , Headwaters Forest Reserve in northern California , 36 wild and scenic rivers, 148 wilderness areas, 4,264 miles of national trails, and more than 600 wilderness study areas.

Making the NLCS permanent threatens recreation, access, grazing, mining, oil and gas and many other uses. Gradually these areas will be turned into parks with traditional uses strangled and roads cut off. Private property owners and inholders in the areas can say so long to their property rights. You will see new areas nominated for NLCS status gradually eroding BLM multiple-use.

Four Democratic senators introduced counterpart legislation (S 1139) April 18. Said chief sponsor of the Senate bill, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), "Given the broad public support for these areas, I expect this bill to be non-controversial and it is my hope that it will be able to move quickly through the Congress and enactment into law." Bingaman chairs the Senate Energy Committee. Non-Controversial?

Take a look at the Republicans sponsoring HR 2016. You need to bury them with calls.

The four lead House sponsors of HR 2016, all co-chairs of an NLCS caucus, are Reps. Mary Bono (R-CA), Rick Renzi (R-AZ), Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) and Jim Moran (D-VA). Reps. Bono and Renzi need to receive lots of contacts. The others are not likely to change their position.

Creating this massive new conservation area program (read land grab) will take money especially from the National Park Service that is way behind in deferred maintenance and other uses. The NLCS will eventually become a huge new agency with thousands of additional bureaucrats added over time. A new National Park Service.

Any promises made when these areas like Steens Mountain and the Missouri Breaks National Monument as well as the Grand Staircase National Monument and many others were created will be conveniently forgotten as more and more regulations are added. The NLCS will become park-like and each area will be gradually managed like a park. Gradually existing uses will be strangled out of existence.

Supporters of the NLCS insist they are not competing with other conservation programs for fiscal 2008 appropriations. One said, "We do want to see a shift in the funding priorities of the BLM itself. Specifically, the oil and gas program of the BLM has become the dominant program of the BLM at the expense of some the best lands and waters of the American West."

[ Editor: This is absolutely incorrect. In the bill report for the Department of Interior Appropriations Bill 2008 the Appropriations Committee included a $10 million increase for the NLCS in addition to other funding already provided.]



It is the nature of the Congressional appropriations process that money for all programs in the Interior appropriations bill comes out of the same pot and the programs compete with each other.

One of the sponsors of the bill to codify the NLCS, Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO), said the measure would not affect management of lands or existing rights or public access. Added Salazar, "The bill does, however, recognize that these landscapes are of great interest to the American people and should

be managed to protect their values."



*****[Editor: Don’t believe the used car salesman’s assurances. HR 2337, Chairman Rahall’s domestic energy bill contains language creating a buffer zone around all NLCS lands]. HR 3968, the Federal Mineral and Land Protection Equity Act of 2005contained language that prohibited mineral exploration and development within 10 miles of NLCS lands]. There is no question that this wonderful sounding program will have adverse consequences for anyone using BLM land.



Does anyone believe setting up the NLCS would not change the management of these areas? If that were true, why would Congress want to do it?



American Land Rights will be sending out thousands of faxes, letters and e-mails to alert landowners, rural communities and allies about the danger and work to build more allies in the new Congress to stop the NLCS from passing. Please support the grassroots group of your choice. We all need your help.



It is critical that private property owners and Federal land users make a big push now to head off this attack on private property and access to Federal lands. It is so much cheaper to fight it now. If it becomes law, you lose. Hit it hard now. Call, write and fax your Senators and Congressman. You may call any Congressman and Senator at (202) 225-3121.





Here is the House National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee. All can be called at the Capital Switchboard at (202) 225-3121. You can fax the committee office at (202) 226-7736



Minority Members (Republicans)



Ranking Minority Member: Rob Bishop (R-UT) Fax: (202) 225-5857

e-mail: casey.hammond@mail.house.gov



John Duncan (R-TN) – FAX (202) 225-6440 -- e-mail: scott.fischer@mail.house.gov



Chris Cannon (R-UT) – FAX (202) 225-5629 – e-mail: matthew.landoli@mail.house.gov



Tom Tancredo (R-CO) – FAX (202) 226-4623 – e-mail: Macarthur.Zimmerman@mail.house.gov



Jeff Flake (R-AZ) – FAX -- (202) 226-4386 – e-mail: chandler.morse@mail.house.gov



Rick Renzi (R-AZ) – FAX – (202) 226-9739 – e-mail: jim.lester@mail.house.gov



Steve Pearce (R-NM) – FAX – (202) 225-9599 – e-mail: tim.charters@mail.house.gov



Henry Brown (R-SC) – FAX – (202) 225-3407 – e-mail: chris.berardini@mail.house.gov.



Louie Gohmert (R-TX) – FAX – (202) 226-5866 – e-mail: Ashley.callen@mail.house.gov



Tom Cole (R-OK) – FAX -- (202) 225-3512 – e-mail: scott.parman@mail.house.gov



Dean Heller (R-NV) – FAX – (202) 225-5697 – e-mail: leeann.walker@mail.house.gov



William Sali (R-ND) – FAX – (202) 225-3029 – e-mail: matthew.hite@mail.house.gov



Douglas Lamborn (R-CO) – (202) 226-2638 – e-mail: melissa.carlson@mail.house.gov



Don Young (R-AK) -- FAX (202) 225-0425 – e-mail: Pamela.day@mail.house.gov







Majority Members (Democrats):



Chairman -- Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) (202) 226-2301 – e-mail: david.watkins@mail.house.gov



Dale Kildee (D-MI) – FAX – (202) 225-6393 – e-mail: travis.talvitie@mail.house.gov



Neil Abercrombie (D-HI)—FAX – (202) 225-4580—e-mail: wendy.clerinx@mail.hoouse.gov



Donna Christensen (D-VI) – FAX – (202) 225-5517 – e-mail: brian.modeste@mail.house.gov



Rush Holt (D-NJ) – FAX &shy;&shy;&shy;&shy;– (202) 225-6025 – e-mail: christopher.hartmann@mail.house.gov



David Daniel Boren (D-OK) – FAX – (202) 225-3038 – e-mail: Jason.buckner@mail.house.gov



John Sarbanes (D-MD) – FAX – (202) 225-9219 – e-mail: Jason.Gleason@mail.house.gov



Peter DeFazio (D-OR) – FAX – (202) 225-0032 – e-mail: susan.brown@mail.house.gov



Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) &shy;&shy;-- FAX – (202) 226-0774 – e-mail: moira.campion@mail.house.gov



Ron Kind (D-WI) – FAX – (202) 225-5739 – e-mail: david.degennaro@mail.house.gov



Lois Capps (D-CA)&shy; -- FAX – (202) 225-5632 – e-mail: jonathan.levenshus@mail.house.gov



Jay Inslee (D-WA) &shy;&shy;– FAX – (202) 226-1606 – e-mail: garth.vanmeter@mail.house.gov



Mark Udall (D-CO -- FAX – (202) 226-7840 – e-mail: stan.sloss@mail.house.gov



Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-SD) – FAX – (202) 225-5823 – e-mail: josh.albert@mail.house.gov



Heath Shuler (D-NC) -- FAX&shy;&shy; – (202) 226-6422 – e-mail: sean.obrien@mail.house.gov



Nick Rahall (D-WV) – FAX – (202) 225-9061 – e-mail: jim.zoia@mail.house.gov



With the new Congress now largely controlled by the greens, we’ve all got our work cut out for us. Your support will allow us to compete effectively.



Let’s protect private property and access to Federal lands. Don’t let them turn BLM into a new National Park Service.



Sincerely,



Chuck Cushman

Executive Director

American Land Rights Association

ccushman@pacifier.com



It is urgent that you forward this message as widely as possible.