Message to Congress

“In celebration of the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the national Wild and Scenic Rivers System in 2018 we urge you to support new Wild and Scenic River designations included in bills currently pending in Congress that would protect over 1,100 miles of rivers and roughly 300,000 acres of riverside land. October 2, 2018 will mark the 50th Anniversary of the passage of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. The Act spawned the idea that we should balance the development of our rivers protecting our nation’s best. Today over 600,000 miles, or about 17%, of American rivers have been modified by dams while only about 13,000 miles or one-quarter of one percent of rivers have been protected as Wild and Scenic. Please support the Wild Olympics in Washington State, the Oregon Wildlands in Oregon, East Rosebud Creek in Montana, the California Desert, Central Coast and San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers in California, and the Farmington River in Connecticut. These bills enjoy robust business and local support and deserve to be protected. Passage of these bills would be a first step in reaching our goal of protecting 5,000 miles of wild rivers. New local, community-led grassroots Wild and Scenic River campaigns to protect our nation’s best are also emerging across the country including for the Northwest California’s Mountains and Rivers, Green River in Wyoming, Deep Creek in Colorado, the Savage River in Maryland, the Gila and San Francisco Rivers in New Mexico, and the San Joaquin River Gorge and Mokelumne River in California. Please join me in celebrating 50 years of river conservation and this powerful and uniquely American idea they represent by supporting protection of new Wild and Scenic Rivers.”