Stop congress from selling 15 National Parks [View All]

[Lorien]

(My note: Rep Pombo is the same pro-corporate/ anti-environment extremist who authored the recently passed "extinction bill" which guts the 1973 endangered species act and makes it easy for corporations to grab both public and private land):


What I'm about to tell you is so outrageous, it's hard to believe it's true. But unfortunately, it is: Representative Richard Pombo (R-CA) has outlined a plan for the House draft budget reconciliation bill to sell off 15 national parks for energy and commercial development.

That's right - our natural heritage could soon be up for sale. Please sign this petition today to stop Congress' national park give-away.

One of the parks on the chopping block is Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in Alaska. Lake Clark protects the largest known Athapaskan archeological site in Alaska; an incredibly rugged wilderness containing two active volcanoes; and a wide variety of wildlife, including caribou, Dall sheep, brown bears, bald eagles, and peregrine falcons. The protected Lake Clark watershed is a significant part of the greater Bristol Bay watershed, which contains the world's largest Sockeye salmon fishery. This national treasure is irreplaceable.

Incredibly, there's more to the bill than just selling off 23% of the National Park System's acreage. Rep. Pombo's bill would require the Park Service to sell commercial advertising on the exterior and interior of all buses, shuttles, vans, trams, and passenger ferries operated within the National Park System. This bill would also require the Park Service to solicit and sell commercial sponsorship of park visitor centers, education centers, information centers, museums, trails, auditoriums, amphitheaters, and theatres throughout the National Park System.

And a painfully ironic provision of this bill would require the immediate sale of Theodore Roosevelt Island in the District of Columbia, which was established as a memorial for our nation's greatest conservation president.

Congress and the administration have a responsibility to protect our national heritage. Instead, Representative Pombo seems prepared to put our American heritage on the auction block, insulting the American people and tarnishing the birthright of current and future generations.

Sign this petition today to urge your Representative to oppose Rep. Pombo's National Park give-away! http://go.care2.com/e/Gg./BN/lUNW

Thank you so much for helping to protect our national parks,

Rebecca Young,
Care2 and ThePetitionSite team