Huge Land Closure Bill, HR 5151 may be slipped in soon, you need to act

This info is for all states, but the beginning is specific to Idaho. Read on.


The latest news is that because the bailout failed in the House, Senator
Reid is most likely going to move HR 5151 this week. So call your Senators
today!!!! Also, there is still a chance that other bills will be put in
and one might well be CIEDRA.

The message below is from Chuck Cushman and although it is rather long,
please take the time to read it and to act!

Please call our Senators and tell them to oppose HR 5151

Senator Mike Crapo:
Boise: 334.1776
Pocatello 236.6775
Idaho Falls 522.9779
Coeur d'Alene 664.5490
Lewiston 743-1492
Caldwell 455-0360
Twin Falls 734.2515

Senator Larry Craig:
Boise 342.1776
Pocatello 236.6817
Idaho Falls 523.5541
Coeur d'Alene 667.6130
Lewiston 743.0792
Twin Falls 734.6780

Or you can call one number in DC and leave a message for both Senators:
202.224.3121

Tell them politely that this is no way to pass legislation; each bill
should stand on its own. Ask them to oppose HR 5151. Again, do it now!

This is just a sample of what is in the bill.

Lewis and Clark Mt. Hood Wilderness Act (H.R. 6290)






Beaver Basin Wilderness Act (S. 3017)
California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act of 2008 (H.R. 3682)
Copper Salmon Wilderness Act (S. 2034)
Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area and Dominguez Canyon Wilderness Area Act (H.R.
6162, S. 3065)
National Landscape Conservation System Act (S. 1139)
Oregon Badlands Wilderness Act of 2008 (S. 3088)
Owyhee Public Land Management Act of 2008 (S. 2833)
Rocky Mountain National Park Wilderness and Indian Peaks Wilderness Expansion Act (S.1380)
Sabinoso Wilderness Act (H.R. 2632)
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Wilderness Act (H.R. 3022)
Spring Basin Wilderness Act of 2008 (S. 3089)
Virginia Ridge and Valley Act (S. 570)





-----This is an all out call to action.

-----1. Please forward this e-mail as widely and quickly as possible.

-----2. You must call it the Senate Omnibus Federal Lands Bill going under
the House number HR 5151. It includes the NLCS. It is urgent that you
call
both your Senators immediately. Tell them you will hold them responsible
in
the election if the Senate Omnibus Federal Lands Bill and the NLCS passes.

-----3. Tell him about the investigation by the Interior Department
Inspector General into what appears to be illegal activities by BLM NLCS
staff. Ask that the NLCS be removed from the Senate Omnibus Federal Lands
Bill at least until the Interior Department Inspector General's report is
completed.

-----4. Any Senator can put a "hold" on a bill and stop it or at least
delay it for a few days.

More Action Items below.


Dear Ally:

You need to act fast. Congress is rushing to pass bills without carefully
reading them or analyzing their threat to you. Your calls, faxes and
E-mails to your Congressman and both Senators are critical to pressure your
legislator to look carefully at these dangerous bills.

They are the Senate Omnibus Federal Lands Bill (HR 5151.

-----Your next week must be devoted to calling, faxing and e-mailing both
Senators and your Congressman at least once a day or more about the Senate
Omnibus Federal Land Bill and HR 2421.

All Senators may be called at (202) 224-3121. Any Congressman may be
called
at (202) 225-3121. Call your neighbors, friends and business associates
also. This is an all out call to action.

When you call, get their e-mail and fax number of the staff person who
handles the Omnibus Federal Lands Bill in the Senate and HR 2421 in the
House.

Congress is in a rush to pass legislation and they're very short of time.
You can be sure they will not have time to read carefully the many bills
they will have to vote on.


-----This is the time when bad legislation that hurts you passes Congress.



-----The Senate vote on the Senate Omnibus Federal Lands Bill will come in
the next few days. It could happen later if Congress does not go home
right away. That's the new Omnibus Federal Lands Bill (HR 5151). It is
also called the giant Public Land Management Act of 2008, which includes
the
BLM National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS).

-----It also includes numerous new Wilderness areas and has been increased
in size to 190 other Federal lands and parks bills put together as one
giant
omnibus bill. Think of it as the Omnibus Federal Lands NLCS bill.

Imagine Congress passing 190 bills at one time in a huge Federal Lands
Omnibus bill. That is what is going to happen if you fail to act.

Call Now! Congressional staff will be there and they must hear from you
quickly.

-----I cannot overstate how critical the NLCS is to you. The NLCS was
created in 2000 by Bruce Babbitt. The NLCS has sat quietly for eight years
as the Democrats waited under the radar for an opportunity to pass it
through Congress and make it permanent.

-----The NLCS will impose a preservationist National Park type regulatory
overlay over 26,000,000 acres of BLM land including all BLM National
Monuments, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Wilderness Study Areas and much more.

-----Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA) plans to add 6,000,000 acres of the
California Desert to the bill taking it up to 32,000,0000 acres.

It threatens access and use by property owners, ranchers, miners, forestry
advocates, recreationists and many other Federal land users.

With fall here, the Democrat promoters of these land grab bills hope you
will be distracted by the election and other things and not paying
attention.

There will be so many bills rushed to a vote that many Senators and
Congressmen will not have time to read them. That means your friends in
Congress could easily allow bills to pass that would threaten you. They
would not be aware of it.

-----Your Senator may not notice a threat to you in the 190 different bills
included in the Omnibus Federal Lands Bill.

-----Tell your Senator to oppose any Omnibus Bill (HR 5151) that puts a
bunch of bills together (190 separate bills). You get locked out if they
package the bills in an Omnibus bill. Oppose any omnibus bill.

You must raise the devil over this kind of back room, dark of night double
dealing. It is undemocratic and you must make sure your Senator gets
credit
for voting for the Omnibus Federal Lands Bill if he or she does. They must
know and be told by you that you are watching this vote before the
election.



Action Items (Part 2)

-----1. Call, fax or e-mail both your Senators at least once a day or more
to ask them to oppose the Senate Omnibus Federal Lands Bill. Get the
e-mail
and fax number for the staff person who handles Federal lands. All
Senators
may be called at (202) 224-3121.

-----2. Get a commitment from your Senator that he or she will oppose the
new Omnibus Federal Lands Bill including the 26,000,000 acre BLM NLCS and
all the new Wilderness areas. Senator Feinstein (D-CA) will add 6,000,000
acres of the California Desert to the NLCS.

-----3. Ask for the e-mail and fax of the staff person. Be sure to fax or
e-mail a letter weekly to both your Senators opposing the Senate Omnibus
Federal Lands Bill.

-----4.; Everyone should oppose this new way the Senate is passing bills
by
packaging them into huge omnibus bills where so many Senators have a bill
included that nobody looks closely at the other parts of the overall bill.
Tell them you want votes on each individual bill and they must read each
bill.

This should make people angry. Here's a copy of the BS letter I got from my Senator. He better hope he doesn't come up for election, when I'm voting.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Wade:

Thank you for contacting me to express your opposition to S. Amdt. 5662
to H.R. 5151, the Wild Monongahela Act: A National Legacy for West
Virginia's Special Places. I appreciate hearing from you and welcome
the opportunity to respond.

As you may know, H.R. 5151 was introduced by Representative Nick Rahall
(D-West Virginia) on January 29, 2008. The original purpose of this
bill was to designate certain federal lands in the Monongahela National
Forest, which is located in West Virginia, as wilderness. Recently,
Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico) introduced S. 3213, the Omnibus
Public Land Management Act, which was intended to serve as a legislative
vehicle for a number of crucial land management bills, including S.
2833, the Owyhee Public Land Management Act. Last month, the Senate
Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved an additional, separate
package of lands bills. Then, on September 26, 2008, Senator Bingaman
introduced S. Amdt. 5662 , which amended H.R. 5151 to include both the
bills encompassed within S. 3213, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act
and the group of lands bills that passed out of the Senate Energy and
Natural Resources Committee last month. This final measure is now
waiting for consideration by the full Senate.

While I understand your apprehension about decreased recreational
access, please rest assured that I support recreational access to public
lands. Moreover, S. 2833, Owyhee Public Land Management Act has the
support of local riding groups such as the South Idaho Desert Riding
Association and the Idaho 4X4 Association. S. 2833 thus secures by
federal law the collaboration of local input and interested parties, who
are better informed and directly affected by such area-specific
decisions.

Improving public access to public lands was raised as an issue of
critical importance. After more than five years of negotiations by
hunters, motorized recreation interests, ranchers and conservationists,
over 500 miles of roads will remain open to all by the request of
hunters, with only 30 miles being closed. Ninety percent of the 517,000
acre wilderness will be within one to two miles of a road. The Owyhee
Initiative work group also negotiated for an additional eight
rights-of-way across lands that will be purchased or traded to become
public lands. In addition, any public land exchanged with landowners
will require continued public access. Without the Owyhee Initiative,
these lands and right-of-ways could be sold to private landowners who
may not grant access. Additionally, you may also be pleased to know
that S. 2833 would open 200,000 acres of Wilderness Study Areas (WSA)
that are currently closed to motorized access.

With over 10,000 miles of roads and routes criss-crossing Owyhee County,
only a very small percentage were closed for motorized use. Of these
roads, only 200 miles were proposed for closure - 60 miles of which were
illegal roads to begin with. S. 2833 will ensure public access
continues on over 9,800 miles of road, indicating the strong
consideration for sportsmen and recreational users' interests.

I also understand your concerns about the size of the lands package.
While there is no doubt that the lands package is large, at 149 bills,
individual legislation included within it has been given the appropriate
discussion and debate by Congress. Like the Owyhee Public Lands
Management Act, the other bills have been discussed in Congressional
hearings and given the time and attention necessary for inclusion within
a lands package of this size. As you can imagine, debating each of
these bills on the floor would be time-consuming, and it is standard
practice in Congress to consider multiple bills at one time after they
have been properly vetted through Committee.

Again, thank you for contacting me regarding S. Amdt. 5662 to H.R. 5151,
and while we may not agree completely on this particular issue, I am
sure there are many issues upon which we do agree. Please do not
hesitate to contact me in the future on this or other matters of
interest to you. For more information about the issues before the U.S.
Senate as well as news releases, photos, and other items of interest,
please visit my Senate website, <a
href="http://crapo.senate.gov/">http://crapo.senate.gov</a>.

Sincerely,

Mike Crapo
United States Senator

Bently said:

Wade, You should call/write back Mr. Crap-On you and remind him that taking a long time on each issue of this bill is EXACTLY what he should do. He (and other congressmen) should quit trying to do their jobs hastily. The rest of us working Americanshave to do our jobs judiciously and it is about time he consider the same. I bet he sh*ts forest green. Late

Click to expand...

Done

Well, just got word, this bill is getting worse. There's a good chance it will be pushed through in this lame duck session of congress.

Seems they are now adding Wilderness Areas to it. The word is that CEIDRA will be added. That would be the Boulder White Cloud Mountains around Stanely Idaho.

Let these guys know how you feel.