"This Land Ain't Your Land ..."

From The Wilderness Society:

Stop the Public Lands Giveaway!

A little-known 19th Century statute is threatening to crisscross your public lands with a spider web of roads and development. The bill attempts to use an antiquated mining law loophole to allow the bulldozing and paving of thousands of miles of new roads through federal lands, and to open pristine areas to development and off-road vehicle use all across the West.

H.R. 6298 would re-interpret an obscure rights-of way law known as Revised Stature 2477, part of the 1866 Mining Law, to turn over a huge number of old rights-of-way claims on federal lands to state and local governments. Removing federal protections from these lands, which include national parks, wildlife refuges, national monuments, wilderness areas, and other sensitive federal lands, would have major consequences and serious environmental impacts throughout the West.

Even worse, the bill would hand over many lands that have little connection to legitimate transportation needs, and many that were never truly used as highways at all. Every place where there has ever been a cow trail, old mining track, dirt footpath, carriage way, off-road vehicle route, or even a river could be at risk. This bill has established such a low bar for proving a claim that essentially any line that has ever appeared on any map at some point in the last two centuries could be considered to be a "highway."

In addition, the bill would also waive the environmental review and public involvement requirements** of the federal National Environmental Policy Act, taking away the public's right to have a voice in the decisions affecting our public lands.

Lands at Risk

The bill jeopardizes millions of acres of public lands, including:

o Alaska: Thousands of miles of claims have been made, including areas within Denali National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and Katmai National Park, some of the world's most pristine wild lands;

o California: San Bernardino County has alleged more than 2,500 miles of routes in the Mojave National Preserve;

o Utah: There are an estimated 15,000 claims in the state, including jeep trails, cow paths, streambeds, and long-abandoned mining tracks, many within the proposed "America's Redrock Wilderness Act;"

o Colorado: Moffat County, Colorado has claimed 240 miles of trails through Dinosaur National Monument, including part of the Yampa River itself.



From The Revolution :
Get off your ass and do something! Write your congresspuppet http://action.wilderness.org/campaign/stop_RS2477



** Sound familiar?! Bush and his Republican Band of Eco-Butchers are at it again