Conservation


SENATE MOVEMENT ON DESERT BILL EXPECTED SOON

You could spend the rest of your life discovering, exploring and enjoying what you spend five minutes saving today...

Political prophets predict that 1988 will be the year of the California Desert. Three years ago, when Senator Alan Cranston first introduced his 11.5 million acre park and wilderness protection plan for the California Desert, the end looked a long way off. After three years of organizing, letter writing and intensive Congressional lobbying by California conservationists, victory, if not in sight is at least around the bend.

There has been tremendous progress over the last three years --

* Representative Mel Levine introduced a House companion bill, HR 371, and enlisted 18 fellow California Representatives to cosponsor the Desert Protection Act.

* Proponents of the Cranston/Levine bill built a strong record of support during the hearings conducted by the Senate Energy Committee's Public Lands Subcommittee.

* Over 70 organizations joined the California Desert Protection League, and more than 200 scientists and university professors have endorsed the Cranston/Levine bill.

* More than a dozen California newspapers have published favorable editorials about the Cranston/Levine bill.

During hearings on the bill last July, Subcommittee Chairman, Senator Dale Bumpers, warned opponents, that he planned to move this legislation in the near future, because he believed that real harm could come to the lands if Congress delayed too long. These words brought fear into the hearts of wilderness opponents and hope and joy to Sierra Club activists.

Senator Bumpers is, unfortunately, all too correct. The California Desert is fragile, vulnerable and exposed to continual, incremental damage every day from careless mining, use of motorcycles and dune buggies in inappropriate areas, cattle grazing and other expanding development activities. Comprehensive, protection legislation must be enacted soon to ensure that a portion of this irreplaceable piece of America will remain forever wild and pristine.

Senator Cranston will ask the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to take up the bill very soon. This makes gaining Senator Pete Wilson's support critically important. Senator Wilson has still not taken a position on the bill. Now is the time for conservationists all over California to write, call or visit


Senator Wilson and urge him to support S.7. Senator Wilson needs to hear from his constituents that they support the California Desert Protection Act, that they consider this bill one of the most important conservation issues in California and that they are disappointed he has not come out in support of the bill.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SAVE THE DESERT
 
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