American Lands Access Association
Position Statement on the (H.R. 5580)
August 1, 2010
After the close evaluation of H.R. 5580: National Monument Designation Transparency and Accountability Act of 2010, the American Lands Access Association (ALAA) is in support of this piece of legislation. The text of HR 5580 can be found on the Active Legislation page of the ALAA Website http://www.amlands.org/6652/index.html along with a link to the current status of the pending legislation.
This bill, when passed, will help in the protection of America's Public Lands from arbitrary discretional executive orders and require public input and Congressional concurrence in the creation of National Monuments from America's Public Lands, keeping special interest activists under control.
Your help is needed to accomplish the passage of this bill into public law. Your letters, emails and faxes to elected officials asking for their support of this pending legislation is urgently needed. Your elected official can be found on the ALAA website 'Links' Page http://www.amlands.org/9112/index.html, under Contact Information for Congress.
Remember: 1 Fax or Letter = 10 Phone Calls = 100 Emails
When you write to your elected official here are some talking points that can be used. Several of these may apply to other pieces of pending legislation also.
- Wilderness and monument designations are inconsistent with the principle of multiple uses. In view of the vast amount of public land already designated as wilderness and monuments, future such designations should be minimal, taking into account the increased demand for recreational opportunities, including rockhounding, created by a growing population.
- Our country was founded on a system of checks and balances between the three branches of government. This bill will help to ensure that the balance of power remains and no one branch can assume more power than either of the other two branches.
- Public input is necessary, when enacting legislation of this magnitude, in order to assure the American Taxpayer, the management of America's Public Lands, which are held in trust by the Government Agencies, is available for use by all Public Land Users and not just Special Interest Activist Groups.
- As a concerned Citizen I support sound land management that offers adequate protection for the environment while protecting public access to public lands.
- I believe that environmental protection and recreation can co-exist with proper land management and reasoned accountability.
- As a member of the American Federation of Mineralogical Societies and (Your Regional Federation) and (Local Club/Society), I enjoy the America's Great Outdoors and have been an amateur Rockhound for many years. Our collecting sites that exist on public lands and the access roads and trails leading to these collecting sites must remain open to vehicular travel so future generation of Rockhounds and Amateur Collectors can have a chance to enjoy the same freedoms that generations of Rockhounds have enjoyed in the past.
- A right to collect rocks, minerals, invertebrate fossils and plant fossils on public lands should be protected by statute.
- As members of National and Regional Federations and Local Gem and Mineral Clubs and Societies we will work with any or all government authorities to achieve a good working relationship in order to improve the "Public Image" of recreational collectors.
- The bill H.R. 5580 would put in process a limit on the amount of land that could be designated. Only after notice given on the designation of monuments, including a requirement that 30 days before proposing a designation the President would have to provide the language of the proposed proclamation to not Congress, but the Governor of each affected State, and the chief elected official of each unit of local or tribal government.
- If passed, this bill would limit the amount of land that can be designated as a National Monument by the President. In recent years the various Presidents have seen fit to create National Monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906. It was never envisioned by its authors to be used as a tool to set aside millions of acres of public lands.
Please contact your elected officials and make your voice heard!
For information on how & where to contact your elected officials, see Oregon Congressional Delegation.
Page updated: September 2, 2010.
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