Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Saving the oceans on land

More good oceans news from Congress and the President. Ocean health will be protected by actions on land, creating new Wilderness Areas and new Wild & Scenic Rivers.

How does this help the oceans? By keeping natural processes intact on land we help some ocean creatures directly (e.g. salmon) and others indirectly (e.g. because they eat salmon).

The river news comes from that fantastic group American Rivers:

The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 designates 86 new Wild and Scenic Rivers, totaling over 1,100 miles in Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Wyoming, Utah, California, and Massachusetts. The legislation includes important protections for 350,000 acres of land along the rivers and also contains new Wilderness designations for over two million acres of public land.

And the Wilderness news comes from The Wilderness Society:

Congress just passed the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act, the largest addition to the National Wilderness Preservation System in over a decade and one of the biggest public land conservation measures ever. It now goes to the president’s desk for signature. The Omnibus package rivals some of the greatest pieces of land protection legislation passed during the past fifty years.

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