Welcome to the latest installment of the Wednesday Wake-Up Call, a roundup of the most pressing conservation issues important to anglers. Working with our friends at Trout Unlimited, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, The Everglades Foundation, Captains for Clean Water, VoteWater.org, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, and Conservation Hawks (among others), we’ll make sure you’ve got the information you need to understand the issues and form solid opinions.
1. ACTION ALERT: Make Your Voice Heard by Friday to Save Alaska’s Brooks Range Wilderness
Last month, we offered a primer on the proposed Ambler Road Project, in Alaska’s Brooks Range. The road would have significant impacts on fish, wildlife, subsistence and Native inhabitants, and recreation users. The anticipated mines would also have associated impacts. The Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comments until Friday, December 22.
We can influence the outcome of this important decision by urging the BLM to maintain the wild and remote character of the Brooks Range by denying the permit for the Ambler Industrial Road. You can read more about this issue in a great article by Chris Hunt in Hatch Magagazine.
Click here to submit comments on BLM.gov
(Hit the “Participate Now” button)
Click here to sign the petition from
from Hunters & Anglers for the Brooks Range
2. A Step Toward Comprehensive Solution for Columbia Basin Salmon and Energy Infrastructure
Last week, the Biden Administration announced a 10-year partnership with tribes and states to restore wild salmon, expand clean energy production, increase resilience, and provide energy stability in the Columbia River Basin. Trout Unlimited applauds the decades-long, unfaltering commitment from the four sovereign tribal nations, the states, and other litigants to recover salmon across the Columbia Basin and Snake River Basin.
Lindsay Slater, Vice President of Government Affairs at Trout Unlimited, said:
“For almost 100 years, the federal energy system has thrived at the expense of the Northwest Tribes whose ancestorial lands were submerged and traditional food source decimated. Further, billions of dollars of failed mitigation costs have been passed onto working- and middle-class ratepayers throughout the region. The federal government cannot continue prioritizing the competitive position of the Bonneville Power Administration at the expense of tribes, ratepayers, and salmon. This agreement is a step towards a brighter future that includes a comprehensive solution to restore the Snake River basin.”
Click here to read more at TU.org
3. Support the Montana Headwaters Legacy Act
On Nov. 16, Montana’s senior Senator Jon Tester announced the reintroduction of the Montana Headwaters Legacy Act, which would protect—through Wild & Scenic designations—384 miles of cool, free-flowing rivers that support world-class fisheries and thriving wildlife populations.
The Montana Headwaters Legacy Act is the largest river protection effort in the state in more than four decades, and according to a 2023 study by Breakthrough Campaigns, 85 percent of Montanans support it. Anyone who has floated the Smith, fished the Madison, camped along the Taylor Fork or hunted within earshot of Hyalite Creek can understand the need and the desire to protect these undammed waterways.
Click here to read more and see maps of the projects.
Click here to send a letter of support on backcountryhunters.org
Credit: Source link
