Born to be Wild: Join us on a virtual tour to save America’s great lands
Cue the classic 1968 song from Steppenwolf, the one everybody hears in their heads when they dream of hitting the open road to experience America in all its splendor...
Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
Lookin' for adventure
And whatever comes our way...
Music blaring, hit the accelerator — push it on down to the floor to get this journey started. We’re going to get out on the open road millennium style — takin’ an imaginative cross-country tour to drum up support for The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. Let’s call it The Virtual OmniBUS Tour ’09. We’re going to zip across the country from Washington state to Washington D.C. to promote a package of bills that represent one of the most important conservation measures we’ve seen in ages.
We’re talking about a package the U.S. House of Representatives will likely vote on in February or March that will do all kinds of great things. It will among other acts:
- Designate more than two million acres of wilderness in nine different states.
- Create three new units of the National Park System, a new national monument (a big ol’ chunk of nature — not cement in a city), and more than 1,000 miles of new additions to the national wild and scenic river system.
- Establish the 26-million-acre National Landscape Conservation System.
This package of 30-plus bills has already passed the Senate and needs only House approval before it can go to the left hand of our new president. You can help make this happen in a variety of ways.
OmniBus Stops:
1. Washington Wilderness
2. Idaho's Owyhee Canyonlands
3. Wyoming Range
4. Colorado Destinations
5. New Mexico Landmarks
6. Alabama's Grand Canyon
7. Michigan's Upper Peninsula
8. Pennsylvania's Valley Forge
Start by joining our Virtual OmniBus Tour. Hop off at Washington’s portion of the proposed Pacific Northwest Trail. Then come back to The Wilderness Society’s blog to read about more magical places that would be protected forever by the new legislation. We’ll go coast to coast without leaving even a trace of a carbon footprint.
There’s plenty of room on the bus so send e-mails to friends and family inviting them to hop on board.
Once we hit cruising speed, click here to take action to help the bill pass.
Get out your digital cameras and sit back and enjoy the ride across the country. It’s time to roll through some spectacular wild places. First stop — the Pasayten Wilderness in Washington. Hit it, Steppenwolf:
Like a true nature's child
We were born, born to be wild …
Born to be wild
Born to be wild
photo: Cottonwood Creek Wild and Scenic River in the White Mountains, California. Photo by John Dittli.
TWS Communications Director Christopher Lancette is not a hip guy, but he does love classic songs and wild places.
See a map of America's newest wild lands and Wilderness.
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Anne Merwin
Anne Merwin is a public lands policy advisor focusing on recreation and transportation planning issues. Prior to joining The Wilderness Society, she was the senior policy director for a regional watershed conservation group. Her past experience also includes several years in the private sector as an environmental planning consultant.
Anne holds a J.D. and Certificate in Environmental Law from the University of Maryland.
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Comments
Omnibus Public Land Management Act
AAPS cannot support Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which includes the “Paleontological Preservation Resource Act.” This bill requires that scientific data (localities) be kept secret, which is totally against scientific principles. This bill makes mislabeling fossils a felony. EVERY museum has mislabeled specimens. Are we going to put every curator in the country in jail? Are we going to have paleo Nazis out there putting students in jail who make a field error in location or identification? Professional, amateur and academic paleontologists all need to have a say in the wording of this bill. This bill penalizes scientific curiosity. Are we going to put every teacher and scout group in jail for picking up fossils from public lands? There are no provisions for sale of fossils from commercial quarries. Currently you can grind them up for gravel, but not collect them to sell. People who collect fossils do so to preserve them. They should be encouraged, not discouraged and penalized. The enemy is not the fossil collectors, but the forces of weathering that destroy millions of specimens each year. Tracie Bennitt, President www.aaps.net for complete info.
House Approval
It seems that after the stimulus is passed, this legislation might be in the pipeline. Let's hope so.
Fred Smilek is the acting president of the Society to Save Endangered Species. It was founded two years ago by Fred Smilek along with his two best friends Charles and Jonathan. http://www.fredjsmilek.com
protect the wilderness
Our generation has a moral obligation to protect the most wilderness as possible from unsustainable exploitations.
Whatever we have left must be protected.
We are the next generation and it is up to us.
Sign me up, Isabel
Wild Virtual OmniBUS Tour
Reading this brought me back to the Lincoln Memorial Ceremony, a couple of days before the inauguration of the 44th president. I was reminded of something extraordinary about our country's history: it was just over a century ago that President Theodore Roosevelt placed 230 million acres of land under public protection, making clear that "there can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country."
How incredible it would be if the House joins the Senate in continuing the legacy of Roosevelt, whereby conservation is at the heart of a strong American democracy.
What makes this country great are its people and its natural wonders. And both deserve to be respected and cherished. So sign me up! I'd like to reserve my ticket for America's wild virtual bus tour!
conservation
Teddy Roosevelt was so right. We need more land protected in America for both present and future generations. If it is not done now it will never bee done as was the cae many years ago when a proposal was put before congress to make a protected area of about 20 miles of land between Washington and Baltimore. It did not pass and today even the smallest fraction of such a project it unthinkable and impossible to implement. Let's save areas while they can still be saved. Thanks. Terence Flannery
Hey OmniBUS ... ya got your
Hey OmniBUS ... ya got your ears on ol' buddy?