Wilderness in the Northern Rockies: An Analysis of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act

Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act

On Tuesday, April 7, 2009, at 7 p.m., Brett Haverstick will present Wilderness in the Northern Rockies: An Analysis of the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act. Mr. Haverstick is a recent University of Idaho (UI) Master of Natural Resources graduate who has extensively researched this proposed congressional bill. For decades, thousands of Northern Rockies residents have worked toward passage of this visionary, national-interest legislation informed by current conservation biology principles, natural ecosystem processes, and regional economic trends.

The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) was re-introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, February 11, 2009, thanks to the stalwart support of music legend Carole King and Representatives Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ). If passed, NREPA (HR 980) would protect some of America’s most beautiful and ecologically important water bodies and roadless public lands in the bioregion, while creating jobs and saving taxpayers money. The bill aims to safeguard relatively intact strongholds of native biodiversity and the accompanying high quality of life that continues to draw concerned citizens to the region.

Initially crafted in the early 1990s by several conservation organizations, NREPA differs from traditional state-by-state wilderness bills by offering a variety of public land designations created to collectively achieve one goal: protection of an entire, functioning ecosystem. These designations are not based on arbitrary political boundaries but on the best scientific research of regional ecological and watershed features. NREPA provisions establishing Wilderness, Wild and Scenic Rivers, Biological Linkage Corridors, and a Wildland Recovery System grant the groundbreaking antidotes to ongoing land degradation, water and air pollution, global climate change, species extinctions, and economic decline.

Sponsored by Friends of the Clearwater, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Palouse Group of the Sierra Club, and the UI Environmental Club, this community event will take place at the UI College of Law, Room 105. A question and answer period will follow the 45-minute PowerPoint presentation. More information about NREPA is available at: http://www.wildrockiesalliance.org or http://www.friendsoftheclearwater.org.