contact Michael Garrity, Executive Director, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, (406) 459-5936
Measure would preserve 23 million roadless acres as wilderness
“While most of Congress works hard on giving away national resources to the powerful lobbies for select commercial interests, yesterday an alternative was introduced. The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act, HR 3334, is a sensible, cost-effective, science-based, alternative to the continued degradation of public lands in the Northern Rockies,” said Mike Garrity, Executive Director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and fifth generation Montanan. “Despite all the politically-motivated chatter about local collaborators preserving their specific economic advantages on public lands, NREPA restores meaning to the importance that our local wildlands and roadless areas play on a national scale.”
“The measure would protect all remaining roadless lands in the Northern Rockies with full wilderness status,” explained Garrity. “NREPA protects entire ecosystems, critical wildlife migration corridors and provides connectivity to segmented lands inhabited by threatened and endangered species. This is science, not politics.”
Garrity pointed to comments from the bill’s lead sponsor, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), as well as the Congressional co-sponsors of the measure to illustrate the value these lands, their resources and the plants and animals they contain hold at the national level.
“These lands remain in much the same condition as when Lewis & Clark explored them more than 200 years ago,” said Rep. Maloney. “And they still contain a wealth of native species and wildlife. We must do everything possible to preserve natural habitats in the Northern Rockies so these wilderness areas can be enjoyed by future generations of Americans.”
“We need to preserve our wild lands not just today and tomorrow, but for the future of the West and the entire country,” added Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on National Parks. “There’s no reason to keep debating or delaying—setting aside some of the most valuable and sensitive land in the country makes good sense both economically and environmentally. When it comes to our treasured public spaces, Congress can’t just step back and hope for the best. We owe it to ourselves and our children to keep this land in trust, and I’m proud to co-sponsor a bill that does that.”
“Wilderness is an invaluable natural resource and it is dwindling rapidly,” said Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Committee on Natural Resources. “I am pleased to work with Congresswoman Maloney on efforts to preserve wilderness for future generations.”
Nor is there a lack of support from local conservationists, Garrity noted. “As important as it is for Congress to ensure that our grandchildren don’t inherit a massive national debt, it’s equally important to protect their natural heritage,” explained singer, songwriter and activist Carole King, who lived in Idaho for decades and has been an advocate for NREPA since the measure was first introduced in 1992. “Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney’s Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act will protect land owned by each and every American and put an end to year after year of wasteful destruction and taxpayer-subsidized, money-losing timber sales.”
“There is always cheap talk about saving this or that small piece of wild land,” added Paul Edwards, conservationist and Rocky Mountain Front landowner. “Inevitably it means making compromised deals with public land exploiters. NREPA would eliminate that and preserve all the remaining wild land in the Northern Rockies. It is truly the Mother of all Wilderness Bills.”
“Threats to our treasured public lands and the habitat they provide for native fish and wildlife increase every day,” said Arlene Montgomery, Program Director of Friends of the Wild Swan. “NREPA will protect our precious wildlands and wildlife heritage.”
“We know we have an uphill battle in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives,” concluded Garrity. “We’ve been fighting for this bill since 1992 and will continue to do so. The development pressures are not going away — and neither are we. Some day, people may well look back and say NREPA saved what is best in the Northern Rockies.”
