In Bear Ears National Monument, Utah                                                                                                            (Mike Painter)

 
March 6, 2023

Dear CalUWild friends & supporters—

It’s a pretty short Update this month as the new Congress, the 118th, begins to get underway. The main news is that we expect our priority bill, America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, to be reintroduced at the end of March or beginning of April. See ITEM 1 for details.

As we mentioned last month, the Molok Luyuk Coalition, of which CalUWild is a member, is asking its partners’ members to sign a petition in support of the expansion of Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument. If you haven’t already done so, please add your name. The Coalition also has a website with information about the expansion proposal.

Also mentioned last month: The congressional district boundaries changed after the last census, so we would like to update our records here to reflect our members’ districts, in (the rare) case that we need to send out information targeted to a specific district. Please click here to send a quick email to us with just your name and congressional representative. Our online California Congressional Information Sheet contains a full listing of representatives’ names and district numbers (as well as party affiliation and DC office phone number). Thank you for your assistance.

 
As always, many thanks for your support of CalUWild and our shared wilderness and public lands.

Mike Painter
Coordinator

 
IN UTAH
1.   Red Rock Bill Reintroduction
          (ACTION ITEM)

IN UTAH
1.   Red Rock Bill Reintroduction
          (ACTION ITEM)

First a bit of background: CalUWild was founded in 1997 after the designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument the previous year. Involving citizens in efforts to protect Utah’s wild places has been the top priority of the organization. And with your help, working with the Utah Wilderness Coalition (UWC—and of which CalUWild is a member), we have managed to permanently protect some areas and prevented harmful development in others. As a result, there remain many wild areas in the state, protecting important wildlife corridors, providing opportunities for quiet recreation, and preserving landscapes.

A critical part of the effort has been America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act. First introduced in 1989 by Utah’s then-Rep. Wayne Owens (D), the bill has been reintroduced in every Congress since, with other representatives taking the lead in the House after he left. Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-47) of California, the latest, retired at the end of the last Congress and Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) has agreed to be the lead sponsor going forward. (She was elected to replace Deb Haaland, who had become Secretary of the Interior.) In the Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has been the lead sponsor since 1997.

Although the bill has not passed Congress in its entirety, parts of it have been enacted, and just as importantly, it sets a “gold standard” against which other legislation and administrative actions, both good and bad, can be evaluated. One component of the process is cosponsorship, where other representatives and senators add their names to the bill, indicating their strong support for it. Even stronger is original cosponsorship, meaning that they signed on when the bill is first introduced.

We are now kicking off the cosponsorship drive in this Congress. Our friends at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, one of the lead organizations in the UWC, just sent out this action alert (slightly edited):

If your representative is a past cosponsor, please thank them first and then ask them to renew their cosponsorship before the bill is reintroduced by Rep. Stansbury and Sen. Durbin. Contact information may be found on our online California Congressional Information Sheet.

Contact information for offices outside of California may be found at https://www.house.gov/representatives and https://www.senate.gov/senators/index.htm.

 
IN CALIFORNIA
2.   Great Old Broads at Joshua Tree
          March 16-19

The Southern California Broadband of Great Old Broads for Wilderness is organizing a campout at Joshua Tree National Park: The Joy of Joshua Tree. The focus of the weekend, March 16-19, will be learning about the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument, which lies just south of the park.

Broads and Bros are welcome!

Details and registration may be found here.

Contact Margaret Meyncke with any questions:

 
IN THE PRESS & ELSEWHERE
3.   Links to Articles and Other Items of Interest

If a link is broken or otherwise inaccessible, please send me an email, and I’ll fix it or send you a PDF copy. Gift links are temporary links from some websites, allowing non-subscribers to view articles for free. As always, inclusion of an item in this section does not imply agreement with the viewpoint expressed.

In Utah

In Nevada

In General

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