Secretary Sally Jewell Makes Commitment to Conservation

Environment California

Washington – Today, Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell gave a speech on conservation at the National Press Club. The following is a statement from Nathan Weaver, Environment California’s Preservation Advocate.

“Environment California thanks Secretary Jewell for publicly committing to ensure that our parks have the resource they need to stay open to the public and to stand up for and protect our pristine public landscapes that deserve protection. 

“Our national parks and public lands are more popular than ever, with millions of Americans planning family vacations to Yosemite, the Los Padres National Forest, and beautiful places across California. I look forward to working hand in hand with Secretary Jewell to keep these popular places protected by restoring our national parks funding and fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund, our nations’ premier conservation program. I look forward to ensuring that special places here in California like the Stornetta Public lands on our north coast, which deserve similar protections to what our national parks and monuments enjoy today, receive the protection they need.

“As advocates for our national parks and public lands, I’d love to see a Congress that’s more supportive of what the writer Wallace Stegner called ‘America’s best idea.’ However, with logging, mining, drilling and development threatening to spoil some of our natural treasures, I can’t afford to wait. I look forward to Secretary Jewell visiting some of our nation’s public lands ready for protection and hope she’ll start with California’s north coast and Stornetta.

“Since World War II, every single Congress has added to our natural heritage by protecting more of our scenic, historic and cultural treasures. The 112th Congress failed to protect a single new acre of public land as a national park, monument, or wilderness area despite more than two dozen bills introduced in Congress which together would protect 4 million acres of public lands. As the Secretary said today, I hope that President Obama will take action if Congress doesn’t act to protect these landscapes.

“In addition, as some of our most vital public lands are at risk from fracking, the Obama administration is considering a weak pending rule at the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management. I was encouraged to hear the Secretary say today that ‘some places are too special to develop.’ I hope that President Obama and Secretary Jewell will heed the call from Californians, including those that contributed to more than 1 million public comments this summer, to strengthen their rule and keep dirty and dangerous oil and gas drilling out of our national forests and away from our national parks and special places.”

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Environment California is a citizen funded environmental advocacy organizations working toward a cleaner, greener, healthier future.