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> Home > All Issues > Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA)What is NREPA? NREPA (Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act) is the gold standard for Wilderness bills. It is a science-based bill that protects and restores a major portion of the Northern Rockies ecosystem. NREPA takes an ecosystem approach to wildland protection and management. It would designate as Wilderness (the strongest protection the federal government can confer on public lands) nearly 7 million acres of wilderness in Montana, 9.5 million acres of wilderness in Idaho, 5 million acres of wilderness in Wyoming, 750,000 acres in eastern Oregon, and 500,000 acres in eastern Washington. Included in this total are over 3 million acres in Yellowstone, Glacier, and Grand Teton National Parks. NREPA is derived from sound science, protecting not only wildlands, but also restoring endangered wildlife habitat to countless species of plants, animals, fish, and birds. NREPA recognizes that wildlife don't know, or care, whether they're in Idaho, Washington, Montana, Oregon or Wyoming. Connecting biological corridors of wildlands for animal, plant, and fish migration is critical for biodiversity and vital to the long-term health and viability of the ecosystem. To survive, wildlife must have habitat NOT fragmented by political and/or management boundaries that fail to recognize interrelationships that are crucial to ecosystem survival. NREPA creates intact biological corridors that connect the core wildlands of a region into a functioning ecological whole. This would prevent wildlife habitats from being carved up into units that are too small and too isolated to sustain the level of genetic diversity that is necessary for health and longevity. These same areas provide important watersheds for cities and towns in the region as well. NREPA makes good economic sense. This bill is expected to create 2,300 new good wage jobs restoring damaged lands and watersheds and provide taxpayers a savings of more than $ 245 million dollars in the first ten years by prohibiting below-cost road building and timber sale programs within sensitive roadless areas. Roads are a major detriment to water quality, wildlife, and fish. They fragment habitat for terrestrial species and degrade water quality and spawning beds by depositing sediment into streams. NREPA will restore to roadless condition over 6,000 miles of damaging or unused roads. How Can I Help Get NREPA Passed? On October 18, 2007, the Congressional Subcommittee on Parks, Forests, and Public Lands held a hearing on HR 1975 (NREPA) with Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) as the leading sponsors. There are currently 137 co-sponsors. NREPA is moving forward in Congress but your help is still needed. Please write or call your Congressional representative and ask them to vote in favor of and co-sponsor NREPA. Let them know that support for this bill is a gift to future generations so there will always be clean water and healthy habitat for wildlife in the Northern Rockies. Legislative progress and co-sponsors can be checked at: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:HR01975:@@@P For further information: |
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| Copyright Sierra Club Sawtooth Group, Northern Rockies Chapter. |