Dear HCN,
I’m fed up with members
of Congress who claim that the government doesn’t have the money to
do right by our national lands. Steve Stuebner’s story on the
threatened subdivision inside Idaho’s Sawtooth National Recreation
Area is a prime example of how our elected leaders are letting us
down (HCN, 12/9/96).
Each year $900 million of
offshore oil and gas royalties goes into the Land and Water
Conservation Fund. Congress created the fund in 1964 specifically
to buy lands for recreation use and wildlife protection. That money
has saved thousands of special places from cement trucks and Gucci
developments. But last year Congress agreed to spend only 16
percent of that money to buy threatened areas. The rest went toward
other programs. Maybe some of it went to subsidize mining
companies, grazing interests, and logging operations on our
lands.
We need that money. Under federal law, it
is supposed to be invested in lands so that we, and those who
follow us, will have a full complement of natural areas. With one
of the fastest population growth rates among industrialized
nations, we should be saving these lands before they are gone.
Right now, funding is needed to acquire tracts from willing sellers
in the Gallatin, Roosevelt and Wenatchee national forests, to name
just three. Appropriations also are vital for the protection of
Anasazi sites at Aztec Ruins National Monument. The list is
long.
Conservation groups are organizing a
campaign aimed at convincing Congress to put the fund’s revenues to
their intended purpose. The longer these investments in our natural
legacy are put off, in the Sawtooths and elsewhere, the more
difficult it will be to do our duty for future
generations.
Pamela Pride
Eaton
Denver,
Colorado
The writer is The
Wilderness Society director for the Four Corners
region.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline We should be making public lands whole.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
