(image source Outdoor Alliance)

BREAKING: Senate Puts a “For Sale” Sign on up to 300,000 acres of Olympic National Forest deemed eligible according to new analysis of draft Budget Bill. 5.4 million acres in WA overall deemed eligible.

The Senate draft budget provision mandating the sale of over 3 million acres of public lands across the West now directly targets Washington National Forests and puts any public lands outside of National Parks, designated Wilderness or Wild & Scenic Rivers at risk of being sold-off. And new analysis of the bill shows up to 300,000 acres of Olympic National Forest would be eligible for such sales.

This is EXACTLY what we’ve warned about from day 1 and is exactly  why we have been working so hard to pass Senator Murray’s and Representative Randall’s #WildOlympics Wilderness & Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. Because only those statutory safeguards will truly & permanently protect our ancient forests & salmon streams against Travesties like this in the future. That’s why we’ve earned the endorsements of over 800 Olympic Peninsula & Hood Canal Region Businesses, Tribes, local elected officials, faith leaders, sportsmen, conservation & outdoor recreation organizations and other community leaders.

But remember that with your help, we helped beat a smaller version of this exact same provision in the House version of the budget. And through a combination of grassroots organizing, advocacy in the halls of Congress and mobilizing key constituencies such as our thousands of sportsmen supporters, we can beat this one too. However it’s going take all of us, working together in the next two weeks to win.

That’s why we have been fighting back so hard against these unprecedented attacks on our public lands, because we can’t let up and we only have two weeks to stop it.

We know we’ve been pushy. We know we’ve been posting everywhere all the time and that you might be getting tired of seeing our alerts. But this is why we keep urging folks to call their senators, sign our petition and donate to our campaign. It’s because we are incredibly effective and with only a small operation we have been successfully punching way above our weight for years. Our vast network of sportsmen supporters is unrivaled compared to similar campaigns, our aggressive digital & social media campaigns have reached nearly 1 million Americans and generated over 20,000 calls, emails & petition signatures to decision makers in just the last 5 months alone. But our success is entirely dependent on our grassroots supporters rising to the challenge. We quite literally can’t win without you.

So forgive us for asking again, but none if us can afford to sit on the sidelines right now. Thank You all.

TAKE ACTION:

.1) Contact Senators www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm & demand they oppose every threat to public lands in the Budget

2) Sign The WildOlympics.org/wild-olympics-petition/ to tell Congress the Wild Olympics aren’t for sale.

3) WildOlympics.org/DONATE to fuel our fight & permanently protect Olympic Peninsula salmon streams for our future.

More info at SportsmenForWildOlympics.org/threats/

Sincerely,

Jon Owen, Campaign Director, Wild Olympics Campaign, Quilcene WA