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“The Senate just passed the biggest Public Lands package that we have seen in the past decade… with overwhelming bipartisan support.

At a time where we are seemingly so divided, nothing could make me happier than seeing our country come together for public lands. I have said this before, and I will say it again…

Our public lands are the one place where we can come as we are and where we can also come together.

The measure S.47 is 662 pages long, and it passed the Senate 92-8. It is in short being called the Natural Resources Management Act and here is a breakdown of some of what is in it:

• it permanently authorizes LWCF, the Land & Water Conservation Fund
• it protects areas near Yellowstone and the North Cascades National Parks from mining
• it expands the boundaries of more than a half a dozen NPS lands including Death Valley and Joshua Tree
• it reauthorizes and funds the Neotropical Migratory Bird Act which protects millions of acres of habitat for 368 different bird species
• it protects nearly 620 miles of rivers across seven states from damming and development
• it establishes the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps which will create programs for kids and veterans to work and help to restore national parks and other public lands
• it makes all federal lands open to hunting, fishing and recreational shooting unless otherwise specified
• it designates 1.3 million acres of wilderness, our nation’s most stringent protection of public lands, which notably protects mineral rich areas in both Utah and New Mexico

These are just a few of the provisions (there are 170 of them total) that make up S.47, and there is still a little more work to be done to get it through. ”

Summary by Nicole Brown

Also read the following and please help:

The Senate Passed the Decade’s Biggest Public Lands Package. Here’s What’s in it.

Here’s what you can do to help (and why you should care)

Write your representatives via this easy call to action tool from Outdoor Alliance

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