Preserving the Wilderness

EARTHKEEPING NEWS
A NEWSLETTER OF THE NORTH AMERICAN COALITION FOR CHRISTIANITY AND ECOLOGY

Volume Five, Number Five
May/June 1996

Call to Action:

Preserving the Wilderness Needs Your Help

It is time to thank President Clinton and our environment-friendly Congresspersons for pushing back the most concerted attack ever directed at our nation's environmental safeguards. We are sincerely grateful. However, the assaults upon our precious wilderness continue in full force.

The state of Alaska and the National Park Service, under pressure from the commercial tourism industry, are proposing construction of a large visitor center, with a paved road 41 miles into the Denali wilderness. New roads and increased access are the number one enemy of wilderness and wild life. The Alaska Wildlife Alliance is requesting letters be sent by June 5th, to the Superintendent, Denali National Park, PO Box 9, Denali Park AK 99755.

A similar effort is being made to allow motorboats and motorized portages in parts of the pristine wilderness of Voyageurs National Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in northern Minnesota — a unique protected wildlife area held as a sacred refuge by millions of canoeists, backpackers and ordinary people who love the earth. US Representative James Oberstar (D-MN), whose constituents include property owners and commercial tourism interests in northern Minnesota, has introduced three bills to liberalize the management and use of these two wilderness areas.

HR 1310 and HR 1207 of the Voyageurs Revitalization Act, would create a management council of local residents to help make park decisions, and remove almost all restrictions on snowmobiles, motorboats and floatplanes.

"Our ministers of the Word and Sacrament should be reminded that the trashing of these ecosystems is a sacrilege in which they participate, unless they are willing, in person and in the pulpit, to advocate environmental sanity as part of religious commitment and Christian witness."

Charles Little, author of The Dying of the Trees; from Crosswinds, April '96

HR 3297 would open four lakes in the BWCA to motorboats, and reopen three portages that use trucks to haul boats. There would also be a management council of local people to help make policy.

Both Representative Oberstar, and Representative Bruce Vento (also D-MN), who is opposing Oberstar by introducing legislation to increase the amount of the federally protected wilderness, need to hear from people in other parts of the country. These bodies of water are international treasures, and their management should not be viewed as a local Minnesota issue.

Those of you who saw 60 Minutes on May 5 will realize that saving old growth forests from the depredations of indiscriminate logging allowed under the Sa(l)vage Logging Rider is now a major national concern. All Congresspersons, whether they support the repeal of the rider or not, need to hear a wide public outcry to save our wilderness. HR 2745, Restoration of Natural Resource Laws on Public Lands Act, needs momentum now to prevent further irreparable damage to our streams and forests.