{"id":170400,"date":"2015-01-29T13:21:05","date_gmt":"2015-01-29T13:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/01\/29\/senate-amendment-166-would-remove-protections\/"},"modified":"2015-01-29T13:21:05","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T13:21:05","slug":"senate-amendment-166-would-remove-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/01\/29\/senate-amendment-166-would-remove-protections\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>Senate amendment 166, would remove protections from all wilderness study areas which the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has recommended be designated as Wilderness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf enacted, this amendment would be the largest rollback on land conservation that we\u2019ve seen in decades,\u201d said Brian O\u2019Donnell, Executive Director, Conservation Lands Foundation. \u201cNinety percent of the lands managed by the BLM are already available to oil and gas drillers. Efforts to undermine the protection of places that provide us with clean water, places to hunt, and preserve sacred places are a slap in the face to Americans who strongly support the protection of our public lands.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wilderness study areas are an invaluable set of lands throughout the West that have been identified for protection because they have a unique character, provide critical wildlife habitat and outstanding recreational opportunities and preserve our cultural and historic resources. If enacted into law, the amendment would eliminate protections for more than five million acres of wilderness study areas making them vulnerable to mining, oil and gas drilling and overdevelopment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRemoving protections for millions of acres of public lands is an affront to the huge number of Americans who cherish these lands for recreation. It would have a major negative impact on the outdoor recreation industry, which is a $646 billion-dollar part of our nation\u2019s economy,\u201d said John Sterling, Executive Director, Conservation Alliance, a group of outdoor businesses that support conservation initiatives. \u201cOutdoor businesses rely on protected public lands and intact outdoor places. This approach is a huge step backwards for conservation in America and one that our businesses strongly oppose.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class='attribution'>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/conservationlands.org\/media-page\/press-release-senate-rollback-on-land-conservation-in-decades\" target=\"_blank\">Press Release \u2013 Senate poised to vote on largest rollback on land conservation in decades<\/a><\/div>\n<p>(via <a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/diegueno.tumblr.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">diegueno<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senate amendment 166, would remove protections from all wilderness study areas which the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has recommended be designated as Wilderness. \u201cIf enacted, this amendment would be the largest rollback on land conservation that we\u2019ve seen in decades,\u201d said Brian O\u2019Donnell, Executive Director, Conservation Lands Foundation. \u201cNinety percent of the lands managed &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/01\/29\/senate-amendment-166-would-remove-protections\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[60,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170400"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}