Breaking: Conservation Act Passes House
Bill picks up strong bipartisan support
[UPDATE: The Senate version of the Conservation Act passed overwhelmingly today, by a vote of 91-4]. The House of Representatives has voted to pass H.R. 2016, the National Landscape Conservation Act, by a tally of 278-140. The bill will give legal recognition to the National Landscape Conservation System, a Clinton-era program that oversees some 27 million acres of federal land mainly in 11 Western states and Alaska. Joining the 238 Democrats in support of the legislation were 50 Republican members of the House [follow this link to see how your Representative voted].
“These lands play an increasingly important role in protecting our natural and historic resources,” said William H. Meadows the president of The Wilderness Society in a statement released Wednesday. The Wilderness Society is one of 75 conservation, historic preservation, faith-based, recreation, business and place-based friends groups supporting the bill.
Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt created the system in 2000 as a means to conserve, protect and restore nationally significant landscapes.
Bipartisan Environmental Policy…Really.
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Thanks for the link to the Representatives’ votes… very helpful! (Mine DIDN’T vote for it…)
Yeah, neither did mine.
Yes, the National Landscape Conservation System Act is a great step forward, but it has one big hole in it. Although it has been a part of the NLCS since its inception in 2000, the California Desert Conservation Area was left out of this act. This means that millions of acres of Mojave, Sonoran and Great Basin deserts will lose the protections they’ve had for eight years now.
At Desert Protective Council, we’re hoping that the Senate will add these lands back in to its version of the act. Learn more at
http://www.dpcinc.org/blog and look for the post dated April 9, or just go to this tiny URL:
http://tinyurl.com/42sjoj
Thanks for that, Larry.
I didn’t know that there were any exclusions in the program. Good luck with your work on it. I’ll follow your links as soon as I’m done typing this…