Congress Thinks You Don’t Care About Public Lands and Rivers

Last week, the US House Natural Resources Committee passed a budget-related bill that–if it becomes law–will sell off significant public lands and weaken our collective ability to have a say in public land management in unprecedented ways. This legislation will go through one more committee and merge with other bills to become one huge bill that can pass with a simple majority vote in the Senate through a process called reconciliation. Boaters are encouraged to speak up (and can do so easily right now using our action form) in support of public lands and waters, and our ability to participate in their management. The bill would do the following: 

• Sell Off Public Lands: A last-minute amendment orders the sale of thousands of acres of public land in Utah and Nevada that opens the door for sale of public land to generate one-time revenue to offset tax cuts.

• Silence Public Input: Speeds up federal project approvals, undermining environmental review and limiting the public’s ability to comment or challenge decisions that affect outdoor recreation and whitewater boating.

• Gut Land Protections: Rolls back land management plans, that have identified and set management guidance for outdoor recreation, to favor extractive industries over conservation, recreation, and community interests.

• Mandate Arctic Drilling: Forces oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, threatening one of the world’s most sensitive ecosystems and a spectacular wilderness packrafting destination.

• Defund Environmental Safeguards: Strips funding from key environmental programs and agencies responsible for conservation, climate, streamflow and hydrology data, and public lands, including the USGS and NOAA.

• Increases Logging: Requires expanding logging in national forests, risking habitat loss, degradation of water quality, and impacts to recreational experiences.

Rivers At Stake

This legislation would put rivers at risk of impacts across the country, especially rivers on public lands that many Americans assume are protected. American Whitewater and our members need the laws weakened by this bill to negotiate restored flows on rivers impacted by hydropower, ensure outdoor recreation is robustly considered in management actions, and other benefits for rivers nationwide. The bill would make our job harder, and good outcomes less likely by diminishing the public’s voice, especially on top of reduced agency staffing and budgets that have resulted in the loss of many agency employees we have worked with over the years who understand the interests of our community. Many rivers are in danger with this bill, but a few incredibly popular and economically important reaches specifically at risk with this bill include State Bridge to Gypsum, Shoshone, and the Ruby and Horsethief canyons of the Colorado River, and the Lower Dolores River.

Congress needs to hear that public lands and rivers are not to be messed with like this. Americans expect Congress to support our public lands and rivers–not to sell them off, not to open them to extractive industries, and not lock the public out of management decisions. We can’t let these bad ideas make it into federal law. Use our easy-action form to tell Congress how much you care about public lands and rivers today!