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Support Rep. Udall's RS2477 Amendment
In January 2003, the Bush Administration revived a 137-year-old loophole - known as R.S. 2477 - to allow special interests to convert old livestock trails, footpaths, even streambeds on our public lands into paved highways. Private interests could use this loophole to plow a spider web of roads through National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, National Forests, Wilderness Areas and potential wildlands. This amounts to a massive giveaway of the special places Americans cherish. (Learn more about RS 2477 and the Administration’s efforts to revive the loophole.)
But Congress will soon debate a proposal to stop the giveaway of our public lands - and your Representative needs to here from you NOW. Write or call today and ask him or her to support the Udall Amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill. Your action is needed by July 16.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Support the Udall Amendment - Stop the Public Lands Giveaway
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I write today to urge you to support the Udall Amendment to the Interior Appropriations bill to stop the giveaway of our public lands.
Earlier this year, the Interior Department issued a rule to make it easier for special interests and local governments to make bogus rights-of-way claims across our public lands under a Civil War-era law known as R.S. 2477. By reviving the R.S. 2477 loophole, which was repealed in 1976, the Interior Department could permit special interests to convert old, abandoned routes, livestock trails, and streambeds into paved highways across National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges and other special places- all without environmental review or meaningful public input. This will damage streams and rivers, wildlife habitat, and wilderness values.
Natural treasures at risk from this loophole include Utah's Canyonlands National Park, the Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monument, migratory waterfowl habitat in Colorado's Browns Park National Wildlife Refuge, Dinosaur National Monument, and California's Mojave National Preserve.
Please support Representative Udall's common-sense amendment to help safeguard America's special places by stopping the administration from using the obsolete R.S.2477 loophole. Help stop the giveaway of our public lands by voting FOR the Udall amendment.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
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Campaign Launched:
July 11, 2003
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Across the American West, state and local governments are exploiting a loophole in an obscure, long-repealed law to lay claim to thousands of miles of routes throughout some of this country's most precious National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges, Monuments, Wilderness Areas, and other public lands. Mining and logging companies, oil & gas developers and other special interests are hoping to use this arcane statute - which has the technical title of R.S. 2477 - to turn cattle tracks and hiking trails into paved roads through our National Parks and Wildlife Refuges and to prevent wilderness designations by asserting that old trails should be considered "highways."
New "Disclaimer Rule" Revives and Increases Threat
Earlier this year, Interior Secretary Gale Norton issued new "disclaimer regulations" that could be used to give away public lands in our National Parks, Wildlife Refuges, and other special places. The new rule is an incentive for states, counties, and special interests to file thousands of unsubstantiated road claims using the R.S. 2477 loophole, as the federal government has just declared its willingness to "disclaim" interest in the land and hand it over to these outside entities. Compounding the offense is that the Department of the Interior still does not have standards to assess the validity of these claims.
America's Parks, Refuges and Wildlands at Stake
Denali National Park, Zion National Park, Utah's Red Rock Canyon Country, Mojave National Preserve, protected Wilderness Areas, and many more revered places could be threatened by this reckless road-building scheme. As with other public lands, these special lands are our nation's birthright. They belong to all Americans, not just individuals, private corporations, or rural governments with a special interest to exploit them at our expense and for their own profit.
For more information, visit Highway-Robbery.org.
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