A Letter To Congress

OUR WILD

Public Lands: A Great American Experiment

It's All Yours - National Forests

Remember when we could take our public lands for granted? No longer.

Outdoor Alliance December Newsletter

The Incredible Shrinking Monuments The myths, the maps, and the legal aftermath in the wake of last week's announcement that Utah's protected land will be drastically scaled back. See more ... What the National Monument Rollbacks Mean for Recreation How will your outdoor activities be affected by the recent rollbacks of protected land? Outdoor Alliance's GIS Lab crunches the data. Read more... What We've Been Reading All the answers to frequently asked questions from climbers on the lawsuit to protect Bears Ears National Monument The changing politics of woods work on National Forests Here are all the lawsuits fighting the national monument reductions How attacks on public lands got personal Advocacy 101: How to Get a Meeting With Your Lawmaker You elected them, now here's how to get into their offices to talk with them. Read more... Protect Your National Monuments Decision makers need to know their actions have consequences. If you haven't already, speak up about last week's attacks on public lands. Take action now...

Header photo credit: Hunter Day

Facebook Twitter Website Email Outdoor Alliance 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 275 Washington, DC 20037 United States

Ryan Zinke Can't Stop Lying About National Monuments

Westwise breaks down the alternative facts Zinke is using to justify the largest land grab in our nation's history. Read it HERE.

The President Stole Your Land

Thanks to our friend over at Fly Fishing in Yellowstone National Park for calling our attention to Patagonia's call to action in response to the butchering of National Monuments in Utah.

Read it HERE, and be sure to click on over to the Patagonia site.

Or click on over to Patagonia HERE.

We have fallen heirs to the most glorious heritage a people ever received, and each one must do his part if we wish to show that the nation is worthy of its good fortune.

— Teddy Roosevelt

Public Lands: What Exactly Are We Talking About?

From Outside Magazine.

In Their Own Words:National Park Service Explains Impacts of Crippling Cuts in President Trump's Proposed Budget

Swiftcurrent Lake | Glacier National Park | National Park Service

Thanks goes to Fly Fishing in Yellowstone Park for this link. This article focuses on the NPS, but rightly points out that it is only one part of the current administration's FU priorities.

From the article:
It’s often said that a budget is a statement of an administration’s priorities. This budget makes clear that the Trump administration’s priority is driving the crown jewel of our public lands, the National Park Service, into the ground while freeing up funds for oil, gas and coal development.

Click on over to Westwise for the full article, and stay informed.

Link of the Year

A must read.

Forty Montana Writers Take a Stand for Public Lands

Patagonia Writes to Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the Interior

Voices of sanity: Yvon Chouinard, Founder of Patagonia, Inc., and Rose Marcario, President and CEO of Patagonia, Inc., have written to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke who is currently "reviewing the status" of all National Monuments that encompass more than 100,000 acres.

We hope rational arguments in favor of public lands will win the day, but in the meantime rich and greedy sons of bitches are lining up to get their piece of the pie.

Read the letter HERE.

Public Lands Enemies

From the Center for Biological Diversity. Learn more HERE.

Behind the Emerald Curtain

Behind the Emerald Curtain from Pacific Rivers on Vimeo.
Behind the Emerald Curtain exposes the harmful practices occurring on Oregon's private timberlands under the Oregon Forest Practices Act: streams logged right through with no buffers; landslides from logging on steep slopes; pesticides sprayed from helicopters, drifting into homes and clinics and poisoning forest workers. Come take a peek Behind the Emerald Curtain.

Oregon on Verge of Public Land Sell-off

A view of the Elliott State Forest. (Tony Andersen/Oregon Dept. of Foresty)

This is what it looks like when things move from "what if" to "get used to it."

From the Oregonian: Oregon Takes Big Step Toward Privatizing Elliott State Forest.

Twenty Seconds for the Tongass 77

Kudos to Chi Wulff for being one of the leading fly fishing blogs in the effort to spread the word about conservation and environmental issues affecting our sport and outdoor lifestyle.

Please go on over there to see how you can sign on in the fight to "support continued management of the Tongass National Forest (Alaska) as public land on a rational, multi-use basis."

Just click HERE.

Put Down the Economic Report and Pick Up a Pitchfork

Seen this yet? A call to arms from the boys at Moldy Chum, for all sportsmen and sportswomen who love our land and waters, regardless of political stripe.

Get fired up HERE.

Public Lands Deserve a Public Process

Congress is preparing to vote on a bill that would have major implications for recreation on 245 million acres of public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The vote would throw out an essential BLM planning process and prevent important modernizations in the future.   You can read more about this bill (H.J. Res. 44 in the House, and S.J. Res. 15 in the Senate) on our blog, but the short story is that over the last two years, the BLM has worked collaboratively with groups like Outdoor Alliance and local organizations to develop its Planning 2.0 initiative. Planning 2.0 better recognizes the importance of recreation on public lands and improves how the BLM handles data and public input.    Congress is planning to completely overturn this regulation, which would roll back the public process, undercut outdoor recreation, and block needed reforms into the future. These bills are very likely to pass unless there is a lot of public outcry about them. We've made it easy to reach out.   Tell Congress to protect Planning 2.0 and your outdoor experiences.      This bill sounds wonky (and it kind of is) but we can't overemphasize how important this is. If you have 2 minutes today, please send a letter. And if you have 5 minutes, send a letter and make a call to your member of Congress.   This tool makes it easy. Write your members of Congress right now.   Thanks so much for standing up for public lands,   Tania Outdoor Alliance   P.S. Your lawmakers work for you. Make sure they hear from you. Photo credit: Hunter Day

Outdoor Alliance 1255 23rd Street NW Suite 275 Washington, DC 20037 United States

Stay Alert

A significant victory in the fight to keep public lands public. At the same time, Congress has repealed the Stream Protection Rule regulating the dumping of mining waste into streams and rivers. And Scott Pruitt, the presumptive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency, is a disaster waiting to happen. And the onslaught on public lands and waters is just beginning.

From Outside Magazine: Three Million Acres of Public Lands Are Off the Market -- For Now

From the National Resources Defense Council website: Good News For Public Lands! (No, Really!)

Keep the victories coming.

Keep in touch with your state and national representatives.

Tell them what you think by phone, email and letter.

It's how democracies work.

Your Land

This film by outdoor journalist Kris Millgate is posted on the Hatch Magazine site. Click on the link for the accompanying story. Money quote:

The National Wildlife Federation, national membership 6 million, sent me around the country to ask members what public lands mean to them. The film Your Land was the result. Trout Unlimited, national membership 154,500, launched 30 Days of Public Lands in September. Stories of public lands and the people who use them. And Backcountry Hunters and Anglers sold t-shirts. A plain black t-shirt with three words in block letters across the chest: Public Land Owner. They’ve sold 1,000. On a national scale, that’s barely a bleep, but the ball just started rolling. BHA is small and young compared to NWF and TU, but its national membership doubled to 7,500 in 2016. And it reaches 1 million people weekly on Facebook. They’re on to something and now the rest of the nation is too. Power to the public.

On a personal note, tell me why you would want to give up your hunting and fishing lands--and a whole way of life, and the legacy of your children and grandchildren--so a few rich bastards can get even richer and grind you down even further.

This Land Is Our Land

Take a stand HERE.